DISCUSSION: Week (1) introductions, discussion norms, practice reading

In your first discussion section, you will meet your TA and your fellow students, get answers to any questions you have about the course, and set some ground rules for how you will conduct online synchronous discussions over the teleconferencing software. You'll also use your reflections on this week's practice article to hold an example article discussion.

Accessing your discussion section

Each week when you meet for live synchronous online discussion on Thursday, you will use the Zoom system. Your TA should have provided you with the URL of your Zoom room in your Discussions board for your section. The Zoom room for your TA is also listed on the Home page of this web site and on our Zoom Rooms page -- just click this icon next to your discussion section listing:

Tips for good discussions:

Turn your video on so that everyone can see you.
Mute your microphone at the start, and only unmute it when you want to talk.
You can use the "Raise Hand" icon at the bottom of the screen to indicate to your TA that you want to speak.
You can leave text comments for everyone by using the text chat panel.

Ideas for icebreakers

You will probably also engage in an icebreaker (we know, we know, yet another icebreaker) where you are asked to introduce yourself with not only your name and things like your major or hometown, but also something to generate discussion, like maybe the last book you read that wasn't assigned in class, or the one movie you think everyone should watch at least once (and why), or one fun fact you think you can teach the class because nobody else will know it.

Your TA may even ask you to speculate on the most challenging class you're taking this semester, why you're taking it, and how that class relates to your career goals -- what depth of skills you'll learn from it, what kind of breadth of experience it exposes you to, what concrete products or accomplishments you'll emerge with that could go into an online portfolio, and how the class might help extend your professional social network through relationships you build with instructors and peers.

Discussing scholarly articles

Your TA will lead you in a brief discussion of your "practice" scholarly article for this week. Your goal is to make sure you understand the ideas that the author was presenting, and to discuss relevant questions that might help with your future assignments in the course.

Think about what kind of unspoken rules and expectations (norms) make for an effective discussion. For example,

acknowledging the points that a previous student made and building upon them as you make your own points
referring to fellow students by name as you consider or build upon their ideas
keeping the discussion close to the topic of the reading and the learning goals of the course, rather than letting it drift to personal anecdotes
focusing on how authors make arguments and what evidence they offer, rather than focusing on an author's writing style or voice

In particular, for online discussions you might want to think about what practices work well. For example,

using the chat feature to "queue up" questions that might be interesting to everyone
using the "raise hand" feature to indicate you are ready to speak
making sure to maintain eye contact with the camera even when you are not speaking, so everyone can see that you are paying attention
having each student discussant pass the conversation on to the next speaker by name based on the list of people with hands raised

At the end of your discussion your TA will likely ask you for some feedback of what seemed to work well, to keep in mind for future discussions.

Preparing for next week

Finally, if you have time, your TA might have you try an exercise to prepare you for your Draft and perform your personal brand assignment next week. This exercise is based on the "present-past-future" method as described on the career advice site The Muse: "First you start with the present—where you are right now. Then, segue into the past—a little bit about the experiences you’ve had and the skills you gained at the previous position. Finally, finish with the future—why you are really excited for this particular opportunity." For the exercise, your TA starts by randomly picking a student and then calling out either "present," "past," or "future" -- depending on the word that's called out, the student has to then quickly say one thing about themselves from the present, past or future. Then that student chooses the next participant, again saying either "present," "past," or "future" to the new student. The relay goes on like this until everyone has had a chance to speak. (This is also a good way to get familiar with the BBCollaborate Ultra attendees feature and to practice quickly coming forward and unmuting your microphone.)