Creating a better point of departure for in-class discussions

Mia Skytte O'Toole

The teacher prepares online written assignments in a discussion forum prior to the next lesson. The assignments are followed up by written peer feedback in the forum. The assignments always relate to the next lesson.

WHY

Hvorfor

Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences

The purpose is to support the students' preparation and raise the level of discussions in-class. The assignments must also ensure that the students have almost the same starting point when they meet. The focused reading and assignment solving prior to each lesson helps to create coherence between what happens "in-class" and what happens "out-of-class". The written assignments also help prepare the students for the written exam.

HOW

Hvordan

The teacher uses the course's LMS page to communicate with the students and create assignments in the discussion forum prior to each lesson. The assignment may be, for example, to describe two key points in the text they have to read for the next lesson. The assignment will also often include subsequent peer feedback.

Take-away

Let student work more

Although it requires more work for the students to prepare using written online assignments, most of them thought that it was worth the effort. So don't be afraid to ask the students to work more.

"Don't be afraid of asking too much of the students. Because the feedback we got from the students was that they actually enjoyed the acitivites a lot."

Associate Professor Mia Skytte O'Tools and a colleague worked together to improve the students' ability to discuss their readings at a higher level. In order to do that they needed to structure the way in which students prepared for class.