Discussion questions-the bane of Blackboard for both professors and students

By Alejandro Arcos | Published by October 23, 2020

To discuss the future of Kean, remote learning and especially discussion questions, an online Kean senate meeting was held on September 29^th, attended by faculty members and class professors alike.

Upon the start of the Covid-19 quarantine in March and the transition to remote learning later in September, Kean University has taken action to continue its programs and classes online via remote learning, limiting, if not outright preventing classes from being done in person to minimize infection rates. While many of these accommodations have been effective in providing education services to student homes, one aspect of online learning in particular troubles both professors and students – the learning/management system known as Blackboard, and more glaringly its discussion questions, abbreviated and better known as DQ.

Discussion questions have a goal that’s intended beneficial and convenient – it should encourage students to discuss topics with each other for each of their respective classes in their forums, simulating the conversations that would occur in a classroom attended in person. In execution, it’s been sourced as the root of a myriad of problems for many people involved.

“If you look at the discussions students post, they’re all saying, ‘I agree…’, ‘I disagree…’, and they’re really not learning.” said Sucheta Ahlawat, a marketing professor at Kean.

As observed by professors and students, meaningful conversations don’t often occur on Blackboard discussion questions. A student will post their required answer and responding students answer back in agreement usually, reiterate the point made, and move on to the next discussion to meet their quota. By design, meaningful conversations don’t often occur given that the simulated conversation and arguments on an educational forum is vastly different from the human passion done face-to-face

So then, why deal with such an impassioned system if many agree that it’s more of a time sink then? One would think that professors would be able to veto out these DQ assignments in favor of their regular curriculum, but that is apparently not the case for many.

“A large majority of us were required to insert discussion questions into our course work, books, and syllabi, even when we did not feel it was appropriate.” said Craig P. Donovan

Director of the BA/MPA honors program at Kean. “Either because it was a graduate class or the nature of the course.”

Donovan continued to state that he and other professors had no say in the matter.

“My ED said I don’t care what it says anywhere else, I’m telling all of you you’re having discussion questions. I’ve heard similar stories from others (professors) where they were told no matter what, you’re having discussion questions. No ifs, no ands, no buts.” says Donovan.

“There was different info coming out during the summer. If you look at the site, it said discussions are optional.” Ahlawat says. “So, when I submitted my workbooks, I got the question ‘why are there no discussions?’, and I directed them to that statement.”

At the time of this writing, there is a Change.org petition named ‘Get rid of Discussion Questions and Replies at Kean University’, made by fourth-year student Sallem Giljic. Its name is self-evident; it aims to raise enough attention to discard discussion questions from remote learning.

“We have to participate in a lecture which is about 3 hours a week, do homework, study for quizzes/exams, do projects/presentations, and Discussion Questions with Replies. I feel like this is too much for every single class.” says Giljic. “Discussion Questions for every class every week with 6 replies on 3 separate days is outrageous. Some students are working full time jobs, some maybe have difficulties at home, and we are all under stress with the current situation that’s going on in the world.”

At the time of this writing, that number is now over 2000 signatures. Measures are being taken by the university itself to address these concerns, such as reporting them to the Dean’s office and arguing in favor of a heavy workload for certain classes already occupied with plenty to do.

“We are aware that students have concerns and we’re working with student affairs to clarify and alleviate those concerns. (…) Courses are different, we don’t want to presume that everything is the same and that this is the answer for everyone.” Said Joy Moskovitz, the Assistant Vice-President of Academic Affairs.

“As of now the university plans to proceed with a spring semester in the same format as the fall, so primarily remote.” says Donovan, on what the current future of Kean entails.

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