Engaged Online Learning Starts With Quality Discussion Questions
How this will help
There’s much more to crafting a question than simply prompting a call-and-response – the goal should be deeper engagement. Online courses, synchronous or asynchronous, require sustained interaction and can use discussions to directly shape engagement while also assessing students’ learning. Well-designed questions enhance a learner’s experience, connect them to key concepts, and encourage critical and creative thinking.
Online instructors can encourage learner engagement by writing compelling, interesting, and relevant discussion questions. Research shows that questioning is an important tool for building critical thinking skills and deepening knowledge in online learners (Wang, 2005), and an effective way to encourage higher-order thinking in online discussions (Richardson & Ice, 2010).
As you design your course content, frontloading time to develop questions can save you time down the line. Preparing varied, insightful, and compelling questions improves the quality of discussion boards and enhances your learners’ online education experience.
Choose Your Questions Wisely
Forming effective prompts for a compelling discussion starts with choosing the best question format. If you’re seeking to generate ideas around a topic, then a brainstorm query might work best. If the goal is for learners to analyze course materials and develop a clear path to a correct response, then a convergent question is appropriate. Select questions that best guide your learners toward your course objectives, and use a diverse array of question types to keep the discussion interesting.
Types of Questions
Analytic Convergent – Learners analyze material toward a single correct answer. What was the biggest factor leading to Napoleon’s loss at Waterloo?
Brainstorm – Learners generate any ideas, viewpoints, or solutions on a topic. How could the American Revolution have been avoided?
Focal Question – Requires learners to make a decision or support a position. Who was happier, the city mouse or the country mouse?
General Invitation – Questions welcoming a wide range of responses. What is a person?
Lower-Level Divergent – Questions asking for reasons or conclusions on a specified topic. Were northern tribes more prosperous or less successful than southern tribes during the 18th century?
Multiple Consistent – A series of questions from varying perspectives on the same topic. Was Faulkner prejudiced toward African Americans? Did Faulkner’s writings help or hurt the early civil rights movement?
Playground – Learners interpret or discuss any aspect of a given topic. After watching ‘Citizen Kane,’ what are your impressions?
Quiz Show – Learners recite facts in brief responses. What were the previous capital seats of the United States prior to Washington D.C.?
Shotgun Questions – Multiple queries that can vary in topic and difficulty, prompting learners to select one or approach individually. In ‘Hamlet,’ why did Ophelia go mad? What might have happened to Ophelia if Hamlet had not been so obsessed with avenging his father’s death? Which of the men in her life was most to blame for Ophelia’s death?
Asking the appropriate type of question can stimulate an online discussion, prompt learners to engage in critical thinking, foster peer interaction, and encourage personal connection to the course. Standard or predictable questions can lead to disengagement for online learners.
Steering Learners With Questioning
By using a variety of question types, learners are more likely to remain engaged with their online course. Instructors can maintain interest by strategically using questions to propel the learner toward key course objectives.
When planning your questions, use your learning objectives as the foundation. Learners are more likely to participate in activities and discussions if they see a connection to the course materials.
Scaffold your questions to ensure learners can follow the path. First, engage them with a good starting prompt, then steadily increase and vary the question complexity so learners are stimulated by the challenge while feeling supported to respond.
In addition to choosing the right type of questions, you should also consider other query designs that can enhance effectiveness and lead your learners toward valuable interactions and reflections.
Encourage peer interaction – Craft questions that point learners back to the discussion board. By directing learners to comment on or challenge a classmate’s statement, the interest level of learners increases, and they feel a connection to their online peers.
Use real-world examples – Tying questions to real life engages learners and personalizes their response to reduce reliance on GenAI, while also promoting their authentic student voice. Asking learners to reflect on their own lives or the world around them sparks creativity and amplifies the content’s relevance. A similar approach is to ask learners a reflective question, which ties their experiences to the course content, making discussions more meaningful.
Try hypothetical scenarios – Proposing a “what-if” query pushes learners to consider the broader implications and how it can impact them and the world around them.
Encourage debate – Another way to guide introspection includes debate-style queries that ask learners to support their arguments, or explore different perspectives, such as being asked to approach a situation from the point of view of someone from a different culture or professional background.
Use multimedia – Consider using elements such as videos, images, or immersive activities to enhance discussions. You can also invite learners to respond with their own recordings or illustrations, inviting creative approaches that can connect with more students.
Iteration – Keep in mind, discussions can be iterated upon and refined based on how the prompt worked in past courses, allowing you to bring in new information and time-relevant issues to the discussion.
Facilitating Community
Questioning is an important tool for instructors looking to create a sense of community in their online classes.
By participating in live discussions and interacting with learners, faculty can establish presence in the course. Using curated questions helps encourage this engagement, connecting students with their instructor. When instructors are actively guiding through questioning, it also models the interaction they wish to see in their students.
Carefully selected questions are a tool faculty can use to encourage disengaged learners who aren’t participating. The right prompts can motivate students to join the discussion, and compelling follow-up questions can maintain the group’s participation.
Peer interaction is another important benefit of effective questioning. Learners responding to each other in online discussions creates community, offers different perspectives and experiences, and replicates a classroom experience online.
Create Questions You Care About
Your own interest will shine through your discussion and activity prompts, so take time to think about what questions spark your curiosity or invite alternate perspectives, rather than writing questions that invite known responses.
Questions that can be answered simply or without deep thought can feel like busywork and cause students to “check out.” Asking open-ended, varied, and compelling questions can invite learners to feel more involved in the discussion, encouraging more thoughtful answers and follow-up queries.
Be sure to design the questions to intentionally connect to your learning objectives and materials. Less is usually more, so be sure not to overwhelm the students with too many or vague questions.
The ability of questioning to enhance online learning is great, and intentionally crafting your questions can elevate your learners’ educational experiences.
Practical Tips
- Discussion questions can drive the overall direction of the activity or discussion.
- Avoid vague, ambiguous, or yes/no questions.
- Open-ended questions encourage learners to fill in the blanks, exploring their knowledge and understanding to create an answer.
- Ask questions at various cognitive levels using instructional scaffolding – a good reference is Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Resources
Questioning, University of New South Wales
Methods of Questioning, Changingminds.org
The Socratic Method, Colorado State University
References
Andrews J. (1980). The verbal structure of teacher questions: Its impact on class discussion. POD Quarterly: Journal of Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education, 2(3&4), 129–163.
Ertmer, P. A., Sadaf, A., & Ertmer, D. J. (2011). Student-content interactions in online courses: the role of question prompts in facilitating higher-level engagement with course content. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 23(2–3), 157–186.
Gilbert, P. K., & Dabbagh, N. (2005). How to structure online discussions for meaningful discourse: a case study. British Journal of Educational Technology, 36(1), 5–18.
Lewandowski, J., van Barneveld, A., & Ertmer, P. A. (2016). Posting with Intentionality in Online Instruction: Supporting Instructors’ Facilitation Efforts. Educational Technology, 56(4), 15–21.
Richardson J. C. Ice P. (2010). Investigating students’ level of critical thinking across instructional strategies in online discussions.The Internet and Higher Education, 13(1-2), 52–59.
Wang, C.-H. (2005). Questioning skills facilitate online synchronous discussions. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 21(4), 303–313.
