Designing Competitive Discussions for Equity and Inclusion

In this case, we focus on two innovations in the design of competitive discussions for a high stakes learning context. The designer created the intervention to provide learners first-hand discussion experiences despite large class sizes. It was a business communication course, and the large class sizes and group dynamics previously had inhibited constructive feedback and limited learner participation; however, the combination of a (1) time-constrained asynchronous CMC activity, along with (2) strategically selected smaller groups, created an interactive space that matched the designer’s values of equity and inclusion that he wanted to bring to the design. The case chronicles a number of unforeseen consequences of logical design moves, and presents a multimodal re-conception of what it means to discuss in the context of modern business school.