Elearning:Discussion rubric

Student Led Discussions

The Student Led Discussions are the major learning activities in this course. I will evaluate your participation carefully. You must demonstrate knowledge of the material - not just your opinions. Each contribution you make to any of the discussion threads should add something of value to the discussion.

The questions you ask in the Student-led discussions should be thoughtfully developed and carefully worded. These questions should address issues and/or concepts from the reading that you find particularly important. I will use the following 5 criteria to evaluate your questions:

Relevance: Your question must be relevant to the material in the unit of study
Importance: Your question must address a significant issue in the chapter
Thought-provoking: Your question must require high-level thought, not a simple "look-up" in the textbook
Originality: You must not ask a question that is essentially the same as a question posed by another student
Timely: Your question must be posted early in the Module so that the other students have an opportunity to respond and you have time to facilitate a good discussion thread

Note: I will award up to 5 quality points for your question if it is posted within the first 2 days that the module is active.

Your responses to questions posed by me and by the other students will be evaluated, and quality points awarded, based in part on the following 6 criteria:

Is your Answer?

Correct
Thorough
Focused-to the point
Well Organized
Well Written
Original

Note: Only responses that demonstrate Social Presence, Cognitive Presence, and/or Teaching Presence will be awarded quality points. See below for more information.

Facilitation Recomendations

In this course, each student is responsible for leading a discussion on each chapter of the textbook. The quality of your discussion thread can be influenced by the feedback you give to the students who post to it. Three things determine the quality of a discussion thread:

The quality of the initial discussion question you ask. I have given some specific guidelines above. I will award up to 5 quality points to your question. The better your question is, the more points it will receive. Note: If you do not submit your question on time (that is, within the first 2 days that the module is active) no points will be awarded.
The quality of the response posts. Some students will make thoughtful and informative posts to your discussion, and some will give minimal responses. I grade the quality of the posts, and that grade influences your grade in the course. However, you should provide feedback to students too. If a student posts a high-quality response, you should tell them. And, if a student posts a low quality response, you should tell them.
The depth of the discussion thread. Discussion "depth" is determined by how many indents there are. If you ask a question, and a student answers, that is a "level 1" discussion. If you reply to the student - now it's a "level 2" discussion. If the student gets back to you - now it's "level 3". If another student joins in and responds to the students last post - now it's "level 4". The more indents - the "deeper" the discussion thread. Of course, if the posts are low quality, depth is meaningless.

Additional Information On Student Led Discussions

What is a low quality post? A low quality does not teach us anything, or contribute anything positive or substantial to the discussion. Examples of low quality responses: any response which is biased, prejudicial, off topic, or is unsubstantiated / any response which is carelessly typed, poorly thought-out, grammatically incorrect or confusing / any response which is disrespectful of another student or any other person, etc.

What is a high quality post? A high quality response teaches us something, or adds something positive and/or substantial to the discussion. It contains information from the textbook or another valid source, or applies a concept from the text or a legitimate website in a meaningful way, or facilitates understanding of the course material. The best posts not only introduce new ideas or knowledge, but help us relate it to what we are studying in the module.

In each of the chapter discussions, I will evaluate the quality of your responses using a 0 - 4 scale (see the grading criteria below). You will be able to see your scores, but you will not be able to see the scores awarded to other discussion participants - nor can they see your scores. Your grade on each chapter discussion will be determined by the total number of points you earn.

Discussions are the heart and soul of this course. There are areas in each module where you are supposed to lead and/or participate in discussions. For example, in the Student Led Discussions, every student is required to ask one question from each chapter of the text book, and then to lead the discussion on that question. The question you ask should require thoughtful responses, and should address important and/or controversial issues introduced in the text. No two questions should be on the same issue - so read the other questions before posting your own. The sooner you post your question the better - but you must post within the first two days that the section is open or you will not be awarded any quality points for your question. Additionally, when another student responds to your question, you should respond back to them. Your job is to facilitate the discussion in your discussion thread, so you should probe for additional information and ask additional questions in order to fully explore the topic you have asked about. See the suggestions under "Teaching Presence" below for suggestions on how to facilitate a discussion.

After you post your question, you are required to respond to no fewer than three other student questions. You may respond to as many questions as you want to - but three is the minimum. You are expected to be an active participant in at least these three discussion threads, plus your own.

The Student Led Discussions are the major learning activities in this course. I will evaluate your participation carefully. You must demonstrate knowledge of the material - not just your opinions. Each contribution you make to any of the discussion threads should add something of value to the discussion.

There are three response categories that I consider valuable (discussed below), and when your response fits into one or more of these categories, I will award up to 4 points to your submission. At the conclusion of each module, I will grade your discussion performance based on the number of points you have earned. There are no fixed cut-offs for each grade. In one discussion, an "A" may require 40 or more points, while in another an "A" may only require 20 points. I will decide the grade requirements for each discussion separately, based on the overall quality of the questions and responses posted by all of the participants. Your best strategy is to submit your question early, and post as many high quality responses as you can in each discussion. Then, if you are not earning discussion grades that are as high as you would like, you will know that you must work harder in future modules. Please note, the number of quality points I award for your discussion questions and responses is not negotiable.

Response Categories [based on Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2002)]

Not all of your discussion posts will earn points. Only those that fall into one (or more) of the following three categories will be graded:

1. Social Presence is the ability of participants in an online course to project their personal characteristics into the online community of learning - to present themselves as "real people." There are at least three forms of social presence:

Affective: The expression of emotion, feelings, and mood
Interactive: Evidence that you are reading, attending, understanding, thinking about other's responses
Cohesive: Responses that build and sustain a sense of 'belongingness', group commitment, or common goals and objectives

It is important to establish a community of learning in an online course. One way to facilitate this is to provide social reinforcement to your fellow students. When you agree or disagree with what another student writes, you are providing such feedback. When you respond with an expression of emotion, that can also demonstrate social presence. Responses which provide this type of feedback will receive 0,1 or 2 points, depending on the quality, extent, and frequency they occur. For example, a student who says "I agree" may get a point the first time, but no points subsequently.

The 'Criteria' tables below list a few general characteristics of possible discussion submissions. It is the responsibility of the professor to evaluate each discussion response and award quality points accordingly. Remember: the number of quality points I award to each discussion post is not negotiable.

2. Cognitive Presence is the extent to which students are able to construct and confirm meaning through sustained discourse (discussion) in a community of inquiry. Cognitive presence can be demonstrated by introducing factual, conceptual, and theoretical knowledge into the discussion. The value of such a response will depend upon the source, clarity, accuracy and comprehensiveness of the knowledge.

Cognitive Presence - Points/Criteria

0 or ungraded - Unrated response. The post adds no academic value to the discussion. No new information is presented.
1 - The post contains at least one usable fact or piece of information. However, the fact or information is available from the textbook.
2 - The post contains at least one usable fact or piece of information. However, the fact or information is not available from the textbook.
3 - The post makes a substantial academic contribution. Material is included that is not available just by reading the textbook, and some issue or concept is clarified.
4 - The post contains documented information that contributes greatly to the understanding of some issue under discussion. The new information is explained and applied such that the reader gains new insight into the material being studied.

3. Teaching Presence is the facilitation and direction of cognitive and social process for the realization of personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes. There are two major ways students can add teaching presence to a discussion:

A) By facilitating the discussion:

Identifying areas of agreement and disagreement
Seeking to reach consensus / understanding
Encouraging, acknowledging and reinforcing student contributions
Setting a climate for learning
Drawing in participants / prompting discussion
Assessing the efficacy of the process

B) By direct instruction:

Presenting content and questions
Focusing the discussion
Summarizing the discussion
Confirming understanding
Diagnosing misperceptions
Injecting knowledge from diverse sources
Responding to technical concerns

Teaching Presence - Points/Criteria:

0 or ungraded - Unrated response. The post adds no teaching presence or other to the discussion.
1 - The post contains one instance of teaching presence (from the list above).
2 - The post contains two instances of teaching presence (from the list above).
3 - The post contains three instances of teaching presence (from the list above).
4 - The post contains four or more instances of teaching presence (from the list above).

One final note (very important!!) about your discussion posts... USE A DESCRIPTIVE 'SUBJECT' - create a subject which describes the issue or point you are trying to make. Examples of unacceptable subjects: "Re" / "Response to Alice" / "Alice" / "I Agree" / "Another idea" / etc. I should be able to tell what you are writing about just by reading the Subject of your post.