Our students are pretty sharp. In fact, I think that they are often sharper than we give them credit for. But maybe we're not challenging them enough or in ways they find engaging.

Consider making one or two students "discussion facilitators" each week. They are sort of like TAs, but without the ability to grade other students. Here's how:

About a week in advance, identify your top participants (start with them--they're already eager).
Send them a private message with the outcomes for the discussion--what you want the students to get out of the discussion.
Give them a lot of details: what do you want to avoid / encourage / link / go deeper with / prepare for in the discussion?
Promise them that you will be monitoring the discussion along with them and popping in as necessary.
Make it optional.
Do not award extra points.
Let the rest of the class know in the discussion instruction that one or more of their classmates will be helping to facilitate the discussion.

Here's an example of the invitation message:

Dear Jennifer -

I would like to offer you an opportunity to do something a little bit different in Week 8. Because you were so confident in your interviews, I wonder if you would like to facilitate the Week 8 discussion. The topic will be overcoming fear of public speaking.

In the Week 8 module, everyone will watch four videos of nervous public speakers. They will also learn a lot about public speaking apprehension. Then, in the weekly discussion, students will assume the role of a communication consultant who has been hired to offer advice to those nervous speakers. The content that will be needed to answer why it happens, what happens, and what to do about it will all be included in the weekly module. The follow-up portion of the discussion will then ask students to pretend they're one of the nervous speakers and to respond to a classmate's letter by explaining what steps they will take to reduce their public speaking apprehension.

As discussion facilitator, your role would be to read your classmates' posts and further the discussion by asking questions, making observations, and guiding comments toward helpful resources (within the course, usually), as needed. There's no extra credit involved (not that you need it anyway); it would simply be a different role for you for one week.

I'll also be participating and monitoring the discussion, so you will not be abandoned. What do you think? Would you like to give it a try? :) LL

Here is Jennifer's response:

I think it would be a BLAST!!! I'm in! :)

(Thanks for the opportunity, and for thinking of me, Prof. Lawrence!)

And here's how it worked: