Creating Engaging Discussions in Wisr

There is certainly an art to crafting great and engaging discussions, and you never truly know what will yield digital pages of responses. At the same time, there is some science and tips that can help you more consistently see engagement with the questions and content you worked so hard to create.

The World Bank Group’s Building community: a primer 2018 update includes a great template for creating a discussion ( http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/188671504682900121/Building-community-a-primer-2018-update)

One of the biggest take-aways from this guide is to ask a question in the subject line. We constantly receive inquiries from customers asking why nobody is responding to their discussion. In the vast majority of cases, there is no question to serve as a prompt.

Provocative questions can be a great way to stimulate engagement following an event or other digital, shared experience. If you host a webinar, lecture, or even publish an article, priming your audience that there is a place to connect with other attendees and continue the discussion helps with successful engagement. In this example, consider the use of volunteers, peer leaders, or other voices to prompt discussion as your audience can quickly become desensitized to having the same university administrator always asking.