Experience: Discussion Leading

In this unit, I was one of two discussion leaders. It took a couple of emails to realize that none of the other students listed on Blackboard besides Jonathan were still in the class, so we were off to a little bit of a slow start. Once that was established, Jonathan and I communicated via email and decided to just both post things we found relevant and thought-provoking, and to post a few open-ended questions about each item.

I posted three items. The first was a short story about a hiring manager faced with the dilemma of hiring either a black man or a white woman for a high-level, high-profile position in what seems to be a successful and competitive firm. The executive wrestles with his decision; in the process, the reader learns about the many subtle factors - personal, ethical, and logistical - that go into this decision. I posted it in the hopes of starting a discussion about the "sticky" factors that go into choosing between more than one qualified candidate. I was interested in hearing how willing other students would be to be transparent about the factors that might influence their own hiring decisions, and whether or not they felt comfortable with those factors or felt they could bear a bit more critical thought.

The second item I posted was an article that appeared in a relatively recent issue of the Economist, about the change in attitude of job-seekers during the recession. I posted this in response to some of the issues that were brought up in the lecture/powerpoint presentation.

After a few days, no one had responded to either of my posts at all. I tried responding to a few other threads, but I got no response on my own.

Frustrated by this, I set out to find an article that would be relevant to what people actually were discussing - namely: Google benefits. The article I found and posted described cutbacks in Google's benefits package. No one responded to this article, either.

I emailed Jonathan (my co-leader) in frustration. Kindly, he quickly posted a response to the short story. To date, no one has responded to either of the articles I posted.

All in all, trying to lead a discussion on an online discussion board was a frustrating and ultimately futile experience. I sought out some class members in person who are also in this class, and none of them even realized I was supposed to be a discussion leader for this unit. In fact, no one seemed to know (or bother to look up) who the discussion leaders ever were. This certainly makes it difficult to "lead" any discussion online.

One thing I have gained from the experience is the knowledge of what it feels like to try to lead a discussion in what feels like a vacuum. As a result, I have been careful to look up who the discussion leaders are for this unit. When I post my thoughts and replies this week, I will take care to reply to at least one post by each of the designated leaders. Hopefully, this will also increase the overall continuity of the discussion(s) on Blackboard.

I am thinking carefully about how to change my strategy for next time I'm a discussion leader so as to make it a more beneficial experience - both for me and (hopefully) for the rest of the class!