Supplementary Discourse - Forming an Online Learning Community with Asynchronous Discussions

Abstract

The use of social media platforms to promote social interaction in a digital classroom is a common approach used by many educators. However, implementing such a platform is met with many challenges, the biggest being student shyness and reluctance in participating publicly. In this paper, we introduce the Supplementary Discourse (SD) model, inspired by the Supplementary Instruction (SI) model, where the goal is to promote student–student interactions in an online space. The SD model is also applied in an introductory organic chemistry course using Discord, a channel-based social media platform. By engaging students with tutors and discussion questions, we successfully catalyzed the formation of a student learning community, with the Discord server accumulating an average of 86 messages per week in a 13-week period, with students commenting that they felt less intimidated to ask questions in the server.