How do you encourage more meaningful student participation in Canvas discussions?

Question

Hi everyone!

As a grad student who's used Canvas discussions as a course requirement, I've noticed it's often hard to know where to contribute beyond replying to the first post. Threads get long and ideas get buried.

I'm working on a capstone project exploring whether visualizing discussion structure in real time (thematic clusters, gaps, connections) could help. Curious if instructors or IDs here have run into this same challenge, and what approaches have worked for you?

Happy to share a prototype if anyone's interested!

kmclenna · Answer

Hi Htkim,

As a faculty member that teaches completely online, [threaded] discussions are an integral part of my courses. Still, the way I conduct course site discussions is somewhat different than the way my academic unit's IDs recommend setting-up discussions. Our IDs use week-long "focused" discussions that require one post by Wednesday and two more posts by Sunday. In contrast, I use three-week long discussions (that include a selection of about ten different prompts students can select from), with full points given for a minimum of 12 threads posted on a minimum of three different days during the discussion period. Further, in addition to a selection of unit-related prompts, there is a prompt for unit-related questions, a prompt for unit-related news stories, an "open topic" prompt, and a "carry-over from the previous unit" prompt. [Note: I get a lot more meaningful course content-related questions from students when students can earn discussion points for asking questions. Also, the carry-over prompt supports my interest in NOT staying up till midnight on the last day of each discussion period. That is, every now and then, a student posts an incredibly succinct thread in the final hours of a discussion period that I like to "carry-over" to the next discussion forum.]

In response to your interest in exploring how to better visualize discussions, I "stage" my discussion prompts using visual elements (see the image below). Further, I am keenly interested in Canvas offering more hierarchy options on discussion forums (see my previous Feature Request for More Hierarchy in Discussions on this Instructure Community board). Note: Canvas discussion forums DO now allow the instructor to "lock" the "expanded" view and "lock" the "oldest first" view on discussion forums — two essential features for threaded discussions. [Thank you Instructure for including the "lock" features!]

Finally, my students regularly tell me (as well as note in my course evaluations) how much they appreciate my discussion format.

Good luck with your capstone (and I look forward to seeing your prototype).