Recently a group of thirteen online instructors met to discuss issues related to student engagement in the discussion forums. This discussion led to defining the types of posts that instructors make. There was a general consensus that instructor posts could be categorized into two basic types: content-centered posts and student-centered posts. 

As one might surmise by the name, content-centered posts are posts that an instructor makes to provide general clarity on the material being covered in the course. They also tend to be posts that instructors have previously created due to having taught the course before. The instructors' familiarity with the subject matter allows them to create these posts in advance since they know that the average student will benefit from the explanations provided.

Student-centered posts are always created on the spot and are directly related to a student response. After reading a student's response the instructor recognizes an opportunity to help the student better comprehend the learning objectives or advance their critical thinking to a higher level. In student-centered posts, the instructor is dealing directly with one student (or sometimes a few) with the goal of taking the student from point A to point B in their comprehension of the material being covered.  Student-centered posts may sometimes even go off-content in order to capitalize on a teaching moment presented by a student's post. 

All of the thirteen online faculty in the meeting saw that both types of instructor posts were beneficial. There was also consensus that both types are needed to provide maximum opportunity for student engagement in the discussions. Instructors who tend to only provide content-centered posts in the discussion forum are not engaging students at a personal level. This can cause students to feel that the instructor is only providing regurgitated responses and thus not engaging in the discussions themselves. Instructors who only provide student-centered responses may not be taking advantage of an opportunity to teach problem areas within the curriculum. They also may end up going off on many "rabbit trails" as they explore each teaching moment that arises.

The general conclusion of the online faculty who attended the meeting was that ideally instructors' posts were around 60-80% student-centered. Student-centered posts are more personal and encourage more student engagement. They also help promote the student-instructor relationship. These posts do not need to be lengthy responses. Instead, it is much better if they are short responses that ask a probing question. This leaves 20-40% of the posts as content-centered posts. Since these posts are meant to provide information and not necessarily to stimulate further discussion, they tend to be lengthier posts that provide food for thought on the content.