{"id":597,"date":"2010-04-27T12:59:18","date_gmt":"2010-04-27T16:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/springboard\/?p=597"},"modified":"2014-02-03T14:10:13","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T18:10:13","slug":"the-many-facets-of-discussion-social-gathering-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/springboard\/2010\/04\/the-many-facets-of-discussion-social-gathering-place\/","title":{"rendered":"The many facets of Discussion \u2013 social gathering place."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One summer, when teaching a cohort, a spontaneous conversation broke out in the online Discussion room about someone\u2019s sister having a baby.  Everyone was interested, and if memory serves correct, there were even pictures posted.  This would have been fine, had I been savvy enough to have created a separate Discussion Topic specifically for this type of interaction.  The problem was that this took place in the middle of a discussion assignment based on the students\u2019 review of a journal article. The next week a similar interruption occurred when the \u201cBig Ships\u201d docked in the Cleveland harbor.  Needless to say, the interjections were somewhat distracting from the intended academic focus.<\/p>\n<p>I now include a social gathering place Discussion Forum where students can share this type of non-class related information.  I usually call mine \u201cCoffee Time\u201d or \u201cStudent Lounge\u201d but you get the idea.<\/p>\n<p>Here is an example of a posting I have used:<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-595\" title=\"Discussion Coffee Talk\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/springboard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2010\/04\/Discussion-Coffee-Talk.jpg\" alt=\"Discussion Coffee Talk\" width=\"548\" height=\"181\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/springboard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2010\/04\/Discussion-Coffee-Talk.jpg 548w, https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/springboard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2010\/04\/Discussion-Coffee-Talk.jpg?resize=300,99 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 548px) 100vw, 548px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Even if you do not use the Discussion tool for graded activities, I would suggest you create this area for social interaction in your online classrooms.  It is essential to community building in a course that is delivered 100% online.\u00a0 I have also seen it used extensively in blended delivery courses as well.<\/p>\n<p>For information on the \u201chow to\u201d of creating Discussion Forums and Topics,\u00a0 <a title=\"Click me\" href=\"http:\/\/uakron.edu\/dotAsset\/1048585.pdf\">click here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Regards,\u00a0 Dr. Jill<\/p>\n<p>Jonnie &#8220;Jill&#8221; Phipps, Ph.D.<\/p>\n<p>Curriculum Designer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One summer, when teaching a cohort, a spontaneous conversation broke out in the online Discussion room about someone\u2019s sister having a baby. Everyone was interested, and if memory serves correct, there were even pictures posted. This would have been fine, had I been savvy enough to have created a separate Discussion Topic specifically for this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":961,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[185],"tags":[283,291],"class_list":["post-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements","tag-discussion","tag-social"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/springboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/springboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/springboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/springboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/961"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/springboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/springboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":847,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/springboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions\/847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/springboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/springboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/springboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}