Flu-proof your course: Discussions and student engagement

The H1N1 flu virus has the potential to keep students out of class for up to a week.  Duke officials are preparing for any possible suspected incidents of flu outbreaks on campus.  This series of blog posts from the CIT examines ways that you and your students can be prepared.

Coursework in a university depends on a constant dialogue among students and faculty.  Your class depends on the interaction and engagement of your students.  But, if illness makes it impossible for some of your students to attend class sessions, how do you keep them engaged and in touch with you and their fellow students?

Blackboard’s discussion board feature is an easy way to take course dialogue online.  You can add a forum for discussion and students can post responses to each other.  They can even add attachments, such as a Word document or image, to discussion board posts and link to resources on the Web.

Faculty already use the discussion board feature before class sessions as a “starting point” for students to consider a topic or question and post their initial thoughts before talking face to face in class.  The discussion board can also be used as a “follow up” to continue the debate after the class session or address points that might have been unclear to the students.

You can view materials on the basics of using the discussion board, including how to use tagging to organize posts, grading discussions, or subscribing to forums via email at the Duke Blackboard support site.

If your students engage in ongoing research or a series of readings during your course, you might also investigate use of the Blog tool in Blackboard.  Students can use the tool to make posts or comment on other posts on the blog.  A blog is structured so that the most current posts are most visible and easy to access, making it a good choice for situations where topics being discussed change on a frequent basis.

Depending on your class and the situations of you and your students, you may prefer to use Adobe Connect to provide real-time discussion with voice and shared visuals. Connect requires a bit more preparation to use than the Blackboard discussion board, both because a license is needed to host Connect sessions with more than 3 people, and because the tool itself typically requires a little practice to use effectively. However, in certain circumstances, Connect can be an ideal and powerful way to continue your class discussions.

Contact the CIT for training and office visits on Blackboard tools, to learn more about Connect or to set up a consultation to talk about planning your course.  For more information, see the CIT’s website for a summary of resources to flu-proof your course.