Students participate in an Oxford-style debate in which they are assigned a stance on an issue (in favor, against, or consensus), then debate each other depending on their role.
Why Use This?
Oxford-style debate improves student-to-student interactions within the course and inspires deeper thinking about a topic. It encourages students to go beyond their own perspective.
How Does It Work?
At the start of the course, students are split into three groups (Groups A, B, and C) via a student-editable content page in Canvas and are given the instructions for participating in an Oxford-style debate. Throughout the course, there are three debates, each on a different topic. Each group is assigned one of the following roles regarding the topic: argue for, argue against, or provide an assessment. The role of each group changes for each debate. This way, every student participates in each discussion from a different perspective. Each group is required to post by specific deadlines during the week (Group A on Tuesday, Group B on Wednesday, etc.). The assessment group responds at the end of the week with their perspective on which group they found to be more convincing.
Keep In Mind
Sometimes editable pages can cause issues if two students are editing it at the same time.
The instructor should participate in the debate while it is ongoing. This shows students the discussion is active and organic in nature.
Instructors should also remind students about post deadlines (in an announcement, for example), which tend to be more intricate for debate-style discussions.
An optional resource, Intelligence Squared, can be given to students so they can familiarize themselves with the Oxford-style debate format by watching debates on different current event topics.
Testimonial
I have observed that this [an Oxford-style debate] allows students to participate in these discussions from a much more academic perspective, while eliminating the personal hostility and argumentation that might otherwise arise when discussing more contentious topics. Students have regularly reported that they enjoy these discussions' format, and the length of their posts and quality of responses indicates that they consistently have a high degree of "buy-in" during the course of the discussions.
