Interesting. This confirms some of my own feelings and experiences.
Suggestions:
- Do not specify a required number of posts. If you are going to grade, then grade for the quality of the discussion, not the quantity.
- Allow anonymous posting.
- Have students introduce themselves at the start of the class.
“yet another place for students to grind for grades”:
Professors may want to think carefully before giving formal grades for participation in online discussions, the data suggest. When professors required a set number of discussion posts, the number of submissions was higher than in courses where professors left participation up to students. But instructors reported the highest gains in student understanding when discussion was less strictly marked.
…
One of the clearest trends was that students at highly selective universities are far more likely to ask questions anonymously than are students at other institutions.
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In another finding, the practice of asking students to post a comment to introduce themselves correlated with more-robust discussions.
