Engaging Students with Online Discussions Microcredential Overview

eCampus Center offers a microcredential to help online faculty better identify and utilize strategies to facilitate engaging discussions in online courses.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the microcredential requirements, faculty will be able to:

Identify affordances of different discussion types and formats
Design engaging discussions promoting active learning
Effectively facilitate discussions in online courses
Employ appropriate ways to grade various discussion types and formats.

Microcredential Requirements

The Engaging Students with Online Discussions Microcredential requires completion of the following:

Setting Up Successful Online Discussions Seminar
Designing Engaging and Effective Discussions for Online Courses Webinar (A Taxonomy and Framework)
Facilitating Active and Engaging Discussions Webinar
Strategic and Effective Approaches to Grading Online Discussions Webinar
One of the following electives:
- Productive Civil Conversations in the Asynchronous Online Classroom Webinar
- Integrating Synchronous Strategies Into an Asynchronous Course: More Than Zoom! Webinar
- AI Proofing Your Discussion Prompts Webinar
Microcredential Reflection Activity

All microcredential requirements are offered at least once a year. Check CampusGroups for upcoming offerings (please be logged in to access).

Enrolling, Tracking, and Completing Microcredentials

To enroll in this microcredential, go to the eCampus group page in CampusGroups (be sure to log in) and locate the Join Sub-Groups area at the bottom-right corner of the page. Click the relevant checkbox for this microcredential to enroll in it. You can then view the requirements for the microcredential (as described above) by clicking on Home, then My Activity, then My Checklists.

Image showing how to enroll in the writing microcredential — Enroll in the Engaging Students with Online Discussions Microcredential

You can enroll in currently scheduled offerings for this microcredential, as described above, on our eCampus Faculty Development Event page in CampusGroups. Go to the Event Page, locate the required offerings, and click register. Make sure you are logged in to CampusGroups to see all events.

If a required course for the microcredential is not listed, that means it has already been offered this semester. You can contact onlinefacultydevelopment@boisestate.edu to learn when the next offering will be.

Image showing how to register in the discussion seminar — Example of Registration Page

After you complete a seminar or elective activities for a microcredential, your progress will be reflected in CampusGroups. You can view your progress by clicking on the Home button in CampusGroups, and then in the main menu selecting My Activity, then My Checklists.

Updates to the progress can take up to one week to be reflected after completing an activity. If you have a question about your progress, please reach out to onlinefacultydevelopment@boisestate.edu.

Example of a Checklist Page for Tracking Progress Towards Certificate

Once you complete the final activity for a microcredential, you will be notified by the eCampus Faculty Development team. You will then receive a badge recognizing that you completed the certificate which you can save to your computer and upload to LinkedIn. Your achievement of the microcredential will be announced in an upcoming eCampus Update Newsletter. Prior to announcing it in the newsletter, you will be offered the opportunity to opt-out of the announcement.

In addition to your achievement being recognized with a badge and the announcement in the eCampus Update newsletter, your completion of the seminar and elective activities will also be reported to Faculty 180, where appropriate, a tool at Boise State for faculty to collect, organize, and display their research, teaching and service data for the purposes of annual reviews, promotion and tenure.

Learn more about Faculty 180