Activity 2.4 Encouraging participation (Thurs - Fri)

We participate in learning communities in different ways. In the online environment, where we cannot see or hear each other, this may lead to misunderstandings and possibly even to conflict. As an example, highly vocal participants and their more reflective peers may have very different ideas of how learning happens.

Purpose: Developing strategies to encourage participation

Task: Imagine that you are a course leader. You encourage participants to contact you if they experience any problems in the course. It is Friday of Week 1 and you find the following message in the Week 1 Reflections forum:

One thing that really irritates me is the really loud students who like to dominate discussions and then have the nerve to call those of us who prefer to observe and reflect a bit, before participating, ‘lurkers’.

It is 20 minutes since the message was posted and none of the participants have replied yet. How would you respond to this message? Please write your message to the student using italics and then explain your approach using regular text. Come to the 'Encouraging participation' topic to share your thinking. This time you will need to post a message first before you are able to read other messages in the forum topic. Then, respond to messages posted by others in the course.

Tools: Discussion forums

When: Week 2, Thursday - Friday