The Impact of Program-Wide Discussion Board Grading Rubric on Student and Faculty Satisfaction

Abstract

Abstract:In addition to learning more about a topic, online discussion activities may be used to develop skills in reflective practice, critical evaluation, and leadership. Faculty often spends a great amount of time and energy developing discussion assignments that will improve these skills and align with course learning outcomes. Facilitating and evaluating online discussion assignments can seem overwhelming and time-consuming for instructors. Students may feel the online discussion forum assignments lacks clarity and be at a loss on how to proceed. Incongruity about the assignment occurs when the instructor’s expectations about the discussion activity and the students' understanding about the assignment’s expectations do not align. This article will review a collaborative process used to align instructor expectations and student understanding for the express purpose of evaluating online discussion board assignments in a fair and objective manner.

Teacher candidate perceptions on alternative asynchronous online discussion boards

“…A total of 27 participants (35.1%) ranked traditional discussion board as the least preferred, followed by video-response (n = 22, 28.6%). These finding are aligned with existing research in which shows consensus regarding the disengagement of teacher candidates during traditional AODB platforms as robotic, shallow, disingenuous responses (Ding, Kim, Orey, 2016;McKinney, 2018;Xie, Durrington & Yen, 2011). Teacher candidate participants were asked to provide a rationale for their top ranking.…”

“…Participants indicated their strongest preference for BookSnaps (37.7%) and Flipgrid (28.6%) over video-response (7.8%) and traditional (5%) platform. These finding are aligned with existing research in which shows consensus regarding the disengagement of teacher candidates during traditional AODB platforms as robotic, shallow, disingenuous responses (Ding, Kim, Orey, 2016;McKinney, 2018;Xie, Durrington & Yen, 2011). candidates to feel a deep and meaningful learning experience when using Flipgrid (Huang et.…”

“…The common AODB usage has delivered some negative consequences. Most commonly referenced is disengagement as evidenced by robotic, forced, unnatural, shallow, disingenuous responses (Biesenbach-Lucas, 2003;Ding, Kim, Orey, 2016;McKinney, 2018;Xie, Durrington & Yen, 2011). Additionally, AODBs that are solely text-based may not be effective for all learners (Green & Green 2018).…”

“…Additionally, discussion board responses can provide an environment for developing a social presence if the proposed prompt is purposeful (Kreijns, Kirschner, Jochems, and Van Burren, 2004;Remesal & Colomina, 2013). Faculty in education preparation are generally thoughtful about their teaching presence and often spend a significant amount of time and energy creating discussion board assignments that will develop a teacher candidate's understanding, creativity, leadership, and critical thinking skills (McKinney, 2018). Currently, there is no research comparing teacher candidate perceptions of Flipgrid, Video-response, BookSnaps, and traditional AODB platforms.…”

Development of a rubric to assess student participation in an online discussion board

“…They proposed a framework that included criteria and ratings for content, interaction quality, and objective measures (participation rates and consistency of participation). This framework and subsequent studies were reviewed to select the following elements: contributions are regular and timely (Kemble, 2017;McKinney, 2018;Nandi, 2009;Phillippi, 2015), contributions display knowledge/content (McKinney, 2018;Nandi, 2009;Phillippi, 2015), contributions are reflective (Giacumo & Savenye, 2020;Nandi, 2009;Phillippi, 2015), contributes to social learning environment (McKinney, 2018;Nandi, 2009;Phillippi, 2015), additional resources shared (Kemble, 2017), and contributions are appropriately written and collegial (McKinney, 2018;Phillippi, 2015).…”