Online Group Discussions

                 Online discussions can help you prepare for class, learn discussion skills, practice your writing skills, and learn from each other. However, remember that online discussions are first and foremost dialogues, not writing assignments. To be successful, you need to translate your face-to-face discussion skills to the online environment. The following tips should help highlight key features of effective online discussion strategies.

Brief History of Online Group Discussions

 Discussion group was evolved from USENET which is traced back to early 80's. Two computer scientists Jim Ellis  and Tom Truscott founded the idea of setting a system of rules to produce "articles", and then send back to their parallel news group Fundamentally, the form of discussion group was generated on the concept of USENET, which emphasized ways of communication via email and Web forums. 

Examples  for  online group discussions

•  Chat rooms

• user groups

• Social network chatting

• Internet forums

• Bulletin Board system

   

 Some Online Discussions  Groups in web

Google group

Google group has been built to be one of the major online discussion groups with a wide range of worldwide frequent users. The following subsections contain information about three popular groups used by the public today:

Facebook group

face book group simplifies processes and protects privacy of users when they interact with people. The following guidelines are some general instructions about how to operate groups on Facebook:

  App group

App group , is a mobile SMS and messaging app, it features the function of group discussion as well. Users set group chats to boost the convenience of a proper group discussion. With shared characteristics to Facebook group, the instructions are comparatively similar. Common actions for administrators include: creating group, renaming title, blocking members, deleting irrelevant information through the management

Advantages of Online Discussions  Groups

•  Online discussion forums have long been used in educational contexts as part of a broader movement towards online learning.
•  Distance education greatly extends classroom
  individualization of learning: Personal responses to forum topics are not limited in time or the length.
•  Encouragement of critical thinking: Effective forum topics are open-ended and designed to encourage students to take a position on issues.
•  Student autonomy: Students have the flexibility to reflect on their thoughts and read the responses of others.
•  Increased interaction time:
•  More democratic exchange
•  More time to formulate responses and opinions:
•  Flexibility and convenience: Students set their own schedule for the forum

Disadvantages of Online Discussions  Groups

•   Those with poor writing skills are disadvantaged.
•   Lack of facial cues can lead to misunderstanding.
•   Discussions can go off topic.
•   Some students tend to too readily agree with others or paraphrase others’ contributions.
•   Students can tend to respond to topics in an overall fashion rather than in detailed specifics.
•   Students lose motivation to participate unless they perceive ‘value’ in the discussion.
•   Requires consistent input from teacher.
•   Lag between posts can make following a discussion difficult.
•   Technical problems (server crashes, network down time, etc).
•   Lack of access to computer or network handicaps some students.
•  Reading and thinking overload.

 suggestions for problems

    

Problems	suggestions
Conflict in the discussion	Each conflict presents teachable moments where we can teach the importance of debate, healthy discussion, keeping emotions in check, the value of opposing views, and how this type of conflict can be valuable by introducing ideas and approaches that others had not previously considered
Personal attacks and bullying:	Active intervention is important, beginning with a general posting in the discussion thread (never single students out, of course, except for positive comments).
Students who do not contribute to discussion threads	For students who post minimally, be sure to pick a few of their postings as positive examples of good postings. (Always include others students
Students plagiarizing other students’ postings	Immediately contact the offending student(s)—privately—while abiding by your school’s policy on this.

Source -

http://learningandteaching.westminster.ac.uk/