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Very similar as face-to-face. I would image one benefit of on-line conversation is that it affords some individuals the ability to gather their thoughts before posting.

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Trust and the support of those involved that ideas and thoughts will not be berated if it differs from the group.

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Similar to face-to-face in that it refers to a particular point in one's experience.

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The lack of engagement. If there is a long delay between inputs.

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When individuals are building on and from the ideas and thoughts of others.

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Thinking before you contribute (write); “listening” to others by reading their posts. Acknowledging others by reiterating others’ points when responding to them.

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Trust and respect are essentials to fostering good discussion spaces. Setting ground rules and expectations in advance give guidance to participants.

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Time in terms of a discussion online might mean setting some parameters in advance like what we see in this course i.e. 45 minutes or 20 minutes to let them know how long it might take to complete.

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What helps a discussion are clear instructions and expectations. What can hinder discussions online are long delays in posting and/or responding to posts.

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I agree with Antar, acknowledging and building on others ideas engages the discussion.

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Consistency and safety regarding disclosures

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I would also like to add the opportunity of creativity with the way conversation occurs (Padlet, Jamboard, Video posts, etc.)

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When a discussion is due/length of the discussion.

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How many replies must be made is a hindrance. Asynchronous or synchronous discussions, what is required for a discussion to count for points.

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Collaboration online can include combining answers from all participants to equal one post, or each person replying and then everyone replying back.

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I think there needs to be a higher level of trust and support for an online discussion to be successful.

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Comfort with technology, comfort with discussion participants, understanding of what is expected.

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Writing concise and complete thoughts with clarity is important in online conversations. Since the non-verbal cues are not as apparent in online communication, we need to ensure healthy, clear sentences are used to carry the conversation forward.

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Having clear expectations from posters/students on what is appropriate and what is not. Discussions of differentness should be encouraged to further important dialogue and provide more experiential learning online. With clear expectations, students can feel safer to provide their open ideas.

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Students have increased time in online discussions to clarify what they want to say and provide feedback to others.

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When students feel not engaged and utilize superficial conversation it can hinder learning/online discussions. Allowing students creativity and/or humor to be used can help increase engagement.

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Continuous building of comments on students' posts that further understanding or expression of different ideas. Validating each other openly and asking curious questions.

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Writing ability is important. As Chris W said, it's important to be able to write with clarity. Some people feel less comfortable about their written communication skills than their verbal communication skills and that may be a hindrance to engaging in online discussions.

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As others have indicated, the ability to engage respectfully is very important. I also like what Chris W said about creating clear expectations for your students in terms of what is appropriate and inappropriate.

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When everyone is engaging at different times, the lag can interfere with fruitful conversations. Also, as I mentioned earlier, if some students feel less confident about their written communication skills (as opposed to their verbal communication skills), they may not feel as sure of themselves in an online discussion forum.

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Encouraging responses to one another will promote a sense of collaboration. It may also be helpful to specify what kinds of responses may be most helpful and provide your students with a framework.

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I'm loving that our convo has gone towards the benefits of writing skills! As a writing teacher, this is the main benefit to me--when students have to think on their feet in an oral, realtime discussion, they may not generate clear and substantive content. I agree with others that in addition to writing skills, we also need tech literacy, as well as the ability to read and understand written instructions from our instructors.

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I totally agree: establishing community norms is essential, as is continually reinforcing them (I've learned that the community norms conversation needs to be had several times over the course of the semester, and there's a learning curve to practicing community norms, as there is with any new practice).  I find that having students coauthor community norms can be incredibly beneficial--that way, they have buy-in to them.  And they tend to create way better ideas than I do because they've seen online learning go wrong, and know specifically what they want to see in an online community.

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That sometimes, as anticipated in the "Dispelling Myths about Online Learning," students might think that tasks in an asynchronous course might take less time than they actually will!

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What I've seen is that the same person is always the first to post in a given week, so that person always sets the tone for most conversations. I've tried ways around this, but those strategies haven't worked...

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I agree with others--that students build on each other's responses to work out consensus and dissensus and a common vocabulary as they discover new ideas. But how do we ensure they actually read the entire conversation that transpired before they hopped online?

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Even clearer communication skills than in a face-to-face conversation. We also have to have word choice that reflects some sort of personality- the academic style of writing is too dry for good conversation. Words in an online discussion should remain more colloquial.

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I'll say it again: trust. I think this is much harder to develop in online teaching. I've found discussion boards are far too "agreeable" and ideas do not get challenged enough.

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The time requirements to be able to have a back-and-forth discussion present some challenges. It could be days before a response comes in to a post and by that time the course has moved on to a new topic.

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Dynamism from the instructor is important. Group dynamics and climate can help or hinder online discussions. Following keys for effective feedback is also not taking criticism of ideas personally helps to keep discussions moving.

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I don't see this as much different than face-to-face learning. Collaboration includes engagement and the movement of ideas.

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I agree that writing is imperative, I think one of the keys is including more reflection. Because an online space is one where students can project anything on others content, including context on one's reaction and context for reaction (as professionally appropriate) can help mitigate the ambiguity of online discussion

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Engaging with material on time. Another meta-moment: Being late on this, I have the benefit of seeing/engaging with others reflections, but decreased likelihood of having others see/interact with my contributions.