Graduate Teaching Toolkit: Facilitating Engaging Classroom Discussions

Wondering how to engage students in course discussions? Not sure how to facilitate effective discussions in the course that you're teaching? Here, we address some of these topics – and put these topics into practice.

This workshop introduces participants to skills, strategies, and best practices in facilitating effective discussions. Participants will have the opportunity to practice designing discussion questions and structuring discussion environments in an informal and supportive learning environment with other members of the graduate student community.  

All Toolkit workshops are designed to support participants’ professional development, engage them in reflecting on, discussing, and sharing their teaching practices, and build community between graduate instructors on campus who are passionate about improving their teaching. All graduate students, regardless of teaching experience, are welcome to attend.  

As a result of this workshop, participants will be able to:   

• identify the benefits (and challenges) of discussions
• encourage balanced participation in classroom discussions   
• design effective discussion questions    
• effectively manage classroom discussions 
• identify and employ appropriate discussion structures and formats  

• understand the practice of setting classroom community norms / guidelines

You may register here.

If you have registered for this event, or are on the waitlist and require an accommodation such as live captioning or interpretation to participate, please contact drakeinstitute@osu.edu. Requests should be made at least two weeks prior to the event, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.

All members of the university community are welcome in Drake Institute activities, programs, services, and employment —regardless of age, ancestry, color, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity or expression, genetic information, HIV/AIDS status, military status, national origin, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, or any other bases under the law.

Institute for Teaching and Learning programming is offered in accordance with university guidelines associated with in-person and remote activities. The Institute will inform registrants of delivery modifications should those guidelines change.