Questioning Strategies for Online Discussion

Questioning Strategies for Online Discussion

When facilitating online discussions or chats, prepare thoughtful, probing, open-ended questions and ideas to engage the participants into digging deeper into your topics. Questions should inspire participants to engage in higher-level thinking about the topic and should encourage participants to give opinions, to activate background knowledge and experiences, and to provide support with details from the content. The questions and comments made to the participants must be positive and encouraging. Facilitators should employ a variety of Voices and Tones in conjunction with questioning strategies to achieve critical thinking and engaging, extended-level discussion.

*Strategies
Through the use of questioning, a facilitator can:
Ask participants to respond to different points or statements in an article.
Pose a question that requires participants to take a stance on a topic.
Pose alternative points of view, asking for opinions or additional ideas.
Ask participants to respond to a particular idea in more detail.
Ask participants to compare multiple ideas.
Highlight important threads, or “gems” in the discussion and shift the discussion focus.
Inquire in more detail about assumptions made by participants.
Probe the discussion for key concepts or connections that may be missing or not clearly articulated.
Use analogies to help clarify thinking.
Seek reinterpretations of concepts.
Incite reflection about key topics addressed in the discussion.
Propose multiple viewpoints and seek a deepened dialogue.
Pose and respond to a sequence of directed questions to model the process of deeper introspection.
Ask questions to promote synthesis of ideas and connections made between participants.
Explore disbelief as a way to see the bigger picture.
Reground participants to revisit the original purpose and outcomes of the discussion.

When developing a list of questions about particular content to use when facilitating the dialogue online, consider the key points about your topics and what the participants may already know about the content. If you do not know the knowledge of the participants, you can begin the discussion by activating their background knowledge. Once you have a better understanding of the knowledge and experiences of your participants, you will be able to build the discussion based on their needs.

Identify the purpose and goals of your discussion, including the key understandings you want them to have at the end. It will be helpful to list the key ideas and questions to help participants reach these ideas. Be creative and be prepared to introduce new ideas about your topic and probe participants’ responses.

Typically, in the beginning of an online discussion, participants share what they already know, as well as reactions to content and ideas based on their personal and professional experiences. To achieve a higher level of discussion, synthesize the opening discussion and pose a challenge question that supports the construction of new knowledge. The challenge question may or may not have an individual or team activity component. In addition, use a variety of voices and tones in combination with questioning strategies to engage the participants and generate new knowledge through the dialogue.

At the end of the discussion, prepare a synthesis statement if you want to provide closure.

Reflect on the questions you’ve developed:
Are your questions directly related to the content?
Do your questions engage participants to dig deeper into the topic?
Do your questions reflect a certain style and personality (i.e., voice)?
Do you have a mixture of general and specific questions?
Are the questions worded in a positive, encouraging manner?
Do the questions promote higher-level thinking?
Do your questions allow participants to connect to the content personally?
Do your questions address key points about your topic?
Do the questions allow participants to meet the purpose and objectives of the discussion?
Are the questions engaging?

When developing higher-level thinking questions, the following site is extremely useful. Critical Thinking Across the Thinking Project ( provides question starters at each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. The questions that promote higher-level thinking are in levels three (Application) through six (Evaluation).

Additional Resources for Questioning Strategies:

20 Questions for Exploring

This site provides a list of 20 specific questions that are “thought-starters”. The type of response each question solicits is listed.

Did you ask a good question today? Alternative cognitive and metacognitive strategies

Knowing how to ask good questions enhances your comprehension by focusing on main ideas and making connections among ideas. This site focuses on 4 types of questioning strategies: Memory, Convergent Thinking, Divergent Thinking, and Evaluative.

Using Questions to Enhance Learning

This site briefly covers the development of higher-order thinking questions through the use of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Effective questioning strategies are also included.

Strategies and questions to promote thinking in sose (Electronic Version)

This site contains strategies for questioning during active social investigations. Useful examples of types of questions can be found by clicking on “All sorts of questions”.

Reference:

Collison, G., Elbaum, B., Haavind, S., Tinker, R (2000). Facilitating Online

Learning: Effective Strategies for Moderators. Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing.