Courses & Services

Learn more about the different courses we provide and services we offer

The Discussion Project offers an in-person and an online course series, both of which focus on discussion pedagogy in the university classroom. We also offer services that support institutions, departments, and individual instructors in continuing to improve their practice. 

Below are our curricular modules. Note that we begin and end with community, an essential ingredient of a discussion-based classroom.  

  1. Building Community
  2. Defining Discussion
  3. Facilitating Whole Group Interactions
  4. Structuring Discussion & Crafting Questions
  5. Planning & Assessing Discussion
  6. Critiquing Discussion Plans
  7. Maintaining Community


Here are the course learning objectives.

  • Create an equitable and inclusive classroom climate conducive to high quality discussion.
  • Distinguish between discussion and other forms of student talk.
  • Learn different ways to structure and facilitate discussion. 
  • Learn to craft questions that foster discussion. 
  • Design, implement, and reflect on plans for discussion. 
  • Implement strategies that develop students’ discussion skills.
  • Understand the purposes and methods of assessment for improving discussion skills.

Online Course

Seven 2-Hour Online Sessions

The Discussion Project Virtual is an online training for designing and implementing equitable, inclusive, and engaging online (rather than in-person) discussion in university classrooms.  The training focuses entirely on synchronous video conference discussion (online discussion via Zoom or another video conference platform).

This is a 21-hour online course to be offered to faculty at an institution of higher education.

  • Classes meet on Zoom for seven, two-hour sessions. Please see the registration form for specific dates and times.
  • There will be one hour of asynchronous reading / preparation each week.
  • The cost is $1,000 per attendee.
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In-Person Course

3-day course

The Discussion Project offers an in-person course for designing and implementing equitable, inclusive, and engaging discussion in university classrooms.

This is a 3-day (8:30am to 4:30pm) in-person course taught by instructional experts who specialize in discussion pedagogy. We will provide this course in 2022. Please contact us if interested.

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Services

Sharing our expertise

Services provided by The Discussion Project include instructional consultation, embedded professional development, and classroom discussion observations and feedback (including reporting on institutional status of discussion implementation).

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