DisCourse

The DisCourse activity offers the possibility to conduct group discussions in a multi-step procedure.

Based on the concept of the deliberation-based pyramid discussion (by Bettina Blanck), the participants of the DisCourse initially write their own text on the discussed topic in a first phase. In the next two phases, they then combine their own positions with those of other participants and thus develop more differentiated texts together, incorporating other points of view. Finally, in the last phase, all DisCourse participants collaborate to develop a final position on the discussed topic based on their previous results.

In this way, the DisCourse enables the participants to work together to develop arguments and perspectives on a topic and to weigh them against and with each other. This allows the participants to develop differentiated positions on a complex topic in a reflexive exchange while making the progress of the discussion visible by displaying the previous preliminary positions.

On the overview page teachers can …

• See all phases and their deadlines and hints specified when the activity was created
• See a brief summary of all DisCourse groups and their submission states and open the group pages for each of these groups
• Switch phases (phases can also be switched automatically by Moodle at the specified deadline)

Students can …

• Also see all phases, their deadlines and the phase hints
• View only their own groups in the different phases and open the group pages for these

On the group page teachers can see …

• The members, the submission state and (if already handed in) the submission of the selected group
• The hint for the phase of the selected group
• The position of each group from the last phase included in this group

Students can additionally hand in a submission for the group if the phase of the group corresponds to the current phase of the DisCourse (the positions of the pre-groups are already pre-filled in the editor).

Feedback or bug reports are always welcome in the bug tracker or the comments section.