Friday, July 10, 2009
Too Much Participation
I have two students in my class of 20 who probably post as many times each week as the entire class combined. I’m exaggerating a little, but they really do dominate the discussion. Their postings are substantive, and I don’t want to inhibit their learning or dampen their enthusiasm… but they drown out the rest of the class. It would be pretty odd to ask a student to post less. Any thoughts?
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I think that one possible approach would be to redirect the students replies. For example, ask the student if he/she could address some of the other students comments or to ask questions of his/her peers within the discussion. This strategy could potentially reduce the amount of teacher - student interaction with this one student while simultaneously increasing student-to-student interaction. This allows the student to continue expressing him or herself without inhibiting them.
ReplyDeleteI had the same idea of directing the two students to interact more with other students. I would send them a private email explaining how much I appreciate their thoughtful contributions to the discussion and then lead into asking them to also focus on responding to other students and using open-ended questions where appropriate. It will probably not change the amount that the two dominant students post but may bring the benefit of extending the overall discussion and encouraging classmates to respond to them, thus increasing the number of other student's posts.
ReplyDeleteI had the same idea as the two excellent previous post. I think that this is an great way to pat the other two students on the back and get them to share their skills with others.
ReplyDeleteBut to avoid being repetitive I will suggest some other ideas- although they will have the same basic concept:
1. how about delegating the task of facilitator for the week to one of them where their responsibilities would be to get the readings early and recommend the weeks discussion question to the instructor then they would post the required amount of post and then focus on engaging other students in the discussion. This speeds up the pace of the class for them, allows them to demonstrate skills to others, and gets then to interact with others more.
2. After a set number of post (7) they have access to an extension question that requires higher level thinking skills.
3. In a few post assign the two the task of defending opposite points of view on a topic and have them defend their points of view using only facts from the readings- no emotions. As with any debate set a number of points that they can make to persuade their cause and since their isn't a timer they will have a word limit.
- to take this even further this could be a class wide activity
- or the class could post supportive dialogue to each side that they can choose to use in rebuttals
- or the class could pose questions to each side where the debaters choose which questions each would answer.
( kind of elaborate ) but this would enables all the students to view the topics from multiple perspectives. and have to be deeply informed to defend a topic
I like Troy's idea of asking the over-achievers to prepare the discussion questions. Sometimes giving that kind of student more responsibility works for everyone's benefit. Great suggestions Troy!
ReplyDeleteInteresting ideas. Personally, I think I would take a different approach. If the student's posts are substantive, and they are doing a good job of showing enthusiasm, I would let them continue making posts. You certainly don't want to discourage them from posting. I think that if one or two students set the stage and demonstrate how to engage in course discussions, this could benefit the rest of the class. Perhaps it would be a good idea to suggest that this particular student should offer up some open ended questions to continue course discussion.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it may be a good idea to change around the course expectations for the next course. For example-- if this student is an over achiever, they probably also want to get a good grade and will follow course instructions. I believe that if the course instructions/expectations were explicit in explaining that students should make no less than 2 comments, but no more than 5 comments per week that the quantity of postings would be reduced, but the quality of postings would drastically increase.
I believe it would be important to keep these students involved while also encouraging an increase on the part of the rest of the participants. Perhaps the instructor could change the course so that each student is assigned a particular week to be the facilitator of the discussion (explaining that the focus is on listening to the discussion and encouraging increased participation from others). Additionally, assigning students to complete a summary each week of the discussion. This may encourage the students who participate "too much" to reflect on how their participation compares with that of their classmates.
ReplyDeleteAG
Too Much Participation...
ReplyDeletePerhaps it is possible to limit posts to two responses until Friday, to give everyone a chance to be heard, and then open up the discussion to unlimited posts. If students jumped in to the discussion early, at least their comments wouldn't get lost in the volume produced by the overachievers.
If students are posting to that degree, it sounds like the topic must be relevant to them, and even though they are dominating the discussion, their thoughts may be valuable to the group. Are the overachievers spawning a lot of discussion from their postings? If so, let them continue.
I like the ideas above too!
I like Danielle's point. You really have to think about what that student is posting, not just the number of posts. If they are good posts, then I can understand a student who is highly concerned about achieving would over post to keep secure. This would tell you that this person may be very sensitive to their grade and to work with them individually too with positive prompts and assurance that their grade is quite good. Maybe they aren't receiving enough feedback that lets them know they are on solid ground so they overcompensate. I like the idea of limiting the number of posts if you have this problem. It would relieve the vagueness of grading. Often when it just says "at least two other posts" you can find yourself paranoid and over post since you don't know what is actually acceptable. You assume that two is a C and you want an A so you may end up over-posting.
ReplyDeleteI really like how everyone has suggested to redirect the over-posting students and also to have them direct some of their posting to other students to get them more involved. I also appreciate how Danielle mentioned not wanting to take away from their substantive posts because at least SOMEONE is doing a good job! My favorite idea is Barb's of limiting the number of posts. In our course we need to respond to at least 2 classmates which would be the expectation and anything above this is obviously welcomed. On the other hand setting a limit on how much, doing the opposite (no more than 3 postings) could cause less participation from th3 WHOLE class, not just the 2 over-posters.
ReplyDelete~Darla
I really like Barb's suggestion of limiting the number of posts until Friday in order to give others a chance to share their ideas. I think just as in a f2f classroom if same students do all the talking others tune out the discussion, this too could happen online. If we don't allow an opportunity for all to be heard then some will not be willing to participate and truly take an active part in the discussions. Barb's suggestion is great because it limits them to a point. Once Friday hits everyone is free to post as much as they would like.
ReplyDelete