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Involving Lurkers in online discussion

From an actual online conversation among faculty, here are comments from Lurkers, and responses from other faculty, about involving lurkers in online discussion. The comments come from a recent “Teaching Online” course sponsored by LERN.

Lurkers speak out.
I'm a lurker by nature even in several listserves that I read on a daily basis. Personally, it satisfies me to just glean the information I want/need. However, I'm not sure if I'm missing something by not being more involved. Does anyone have ideas on how to get lurkers to be more involved in the discussion process? Or, is it OK to "JUST" lurk. Judi Colver

Judi: Thanks for your honest comment. What I have discovered this week from the online chat and this forum is that every comment creates thinking. You may have just the comment another needs to get the brain rolling and creating. Vickie Taylor
Some students (me :^)) get just as much from following the discussion as in directly participating. Since students learn best in a comfortable environment if we force lurkers to have to be a part of the discussion are we ultimately reducing their learning experience? -Judi Colver

It occurs to me that many of the issues being raised are teaching issues that I have in a traditional classroom situation, and hear from faculty all of the time. Others seem particular to online learning and determined by what the expectations are of students.
Perhaps learning by lurking is absolutely essential for some people...which I why I appreciated hearing that some folks interview any student they plan to work with on line. -Leslie Fedorchuk

I must admit that I have probably raised lurking to an art form. I rarely visit chat rooms online [outside of this course] with the intention of speaking. I think I am one who probably learns best by listening to what others have to say & internalizing what valuable information I am able to glean from reading and thinking about the discussions encountered...I guess it's a type of research mode for me. Because of this, I would be hesitant to penalize students who lurk what's mportant is not the way they learn [i.e. do they post messages on the discussion board], but rather the fact they master the material successfully :) -Eileen

Leslie: I tend to "lurk" as well. Having enough courage to just toss out comments is something I am working on. Lurking has its advantages? What would you suggest I do to be more courageous? -Diane Hess

Online faculty respond
Very interesting comments about "lurkers". I am not a lurker, but I certainly do acknowledge that they exist, in the classroom and in committee meetings for that matter. Some people learn this way. It is also less stressful, I would imagine, to stay quiet, for some (but not for others).
I have often seen these quiet people speak their minds online more than they do in class (when I have been able to have the student in both).
I guess for me the "course statistics" function helps. I can see how much and how often a student has accessed material, etc. This morning I noted that one of my students has accessed material over a thousand times in just 3 weeks...and honestly the scores show this, so far. He is doing well. On the other hand, I have a student who is calling me daily, and today checking this function, I see he has not accessed the course yet....Hmmmmmm....
I do encourage lurkers to talk now and then, but don't usually push them too much. -Liane Connelly

I think increasing their learning experience will occur by making them participate. The experience to move outside their comfort zone to interact is probably worth their uneasiness.
The goal is to make certain that the discussion expectation isn't too high so that their uneasiness is not overwhelming. -Nicole Borman

I would not like to be penalized for lurking. Some of the folks that lurk may be like me and entirely new to online learning. I think that maybe lurkers should be allowed to "walk around the car" for awhile without being forced to get in and take it to the track. - Don Gaskin

I have found that the people who comment most favorably about the discussion groups are the ones who say "I never talk much in class, so I like the discussion groups because nobody hogs the discussion time like in class. I can think about what I want to say before I say it."

I've never had a complaint about forced discussion, and have never had to penalize anyone. I do post a discussion question each couple of modules or each week, and have the rule that people must respond once directly to my question and then once in reply to something another student has said. Again, no complaints, never a penalty. -Mike Brown