Google Moderator: Discussion Board Alternative

In my role as Director of Teaching and Learning Innovation, I regularly get asked about Discussion Boards. Faculty regularly wonder,  how they can get their students to participate meaningfully in an online discussion. Discussion boards are often blamed for much of what is wrong with online learning. In my humble opinion the reason traditional discussion boards are failing to grab students attention is because they are difficult to navigate and tedious to view. Not too long ago discussion boards took the world by storm and were thought to be revolutionizing how students communicated outside of class. Since then, things have changed dramatically in the last few years, we now live in the world of social media where communication is fast, short and simple to view. I believe that what many faculty are looking for in a discussion board is something that allows students to quickly engage in a meaningful and public way outside of the classroom. One option I like to suggest is Google Moderator.

Google Moderator allows students to  engage in Q & A, debates and/or brief reflections and responses. Moderator allows students to post questions, statements (250 characters or less) or videos. Other students may write a response (no character limit) and vote the question/statement up or down. This allows the instructor to quickly see which students have participated and which questions/statements are most important to the class as a whole. 

I have personally used Google Moderator to begin debates in my classroom.  After I have asked students to read, watch or otherwise consume new material on a controversial issue, I like to know where they stand on this issue. To do this, I have students write a brief statement taking one side of an issue using Google Moderator. Other students must then respond to posts they feel most strongly about (at least 3). I ask students to include citations in their responses to increase the academic nature of the interactions. After responding to three entries, they then vote on the posts,  voting up the posts they most agree with and voting down the posts they disagree with. This activity prepares students for engaging in a discussion in class about an important topic or provides a good jumping off point for students writing an position statement on the issue being debated. 

Another instructor at CSUCI, Melissa Stone, has also used Google Moderator to engage students outside of the classroom. Melissa has her students create a short introduction video, post it to YouTube and share the link on a Google Moderator page. Students are then able to view their classmates videos and comment on them. The easy integration of YouTube to Google Moderator makes the use of student videos very easy. This idea could be expanded to students creating a video on a stated topic while the other students in the class vote on the impact of the video and comment on what they learned from it.

If you choose to use Google Moderator you will need to assure your students all have a gmail account.  Also, when setting up Moderator, be sure to turn on the ability for students to post responses and if needed post a YouTube video.

Let me know if you try this out or have other uses for Google Moderator.