From CATs to WILD HOGs: Elevating the Level of Discussion in the Online Classroom

Online education is growing at a rapid pace. To meet the increasing demand for online education, many universities have designed courses to enable the instructor to be more of a facilitator than an active participant in the classroom space (Ragan, 2009). However, building an active, student-centered learning environment in online classrooms is needed to prevent instructors from becoming stagnant and to inspire them to take on a range of roles as the students' "guide, facilitator, and teacher" (Ragan, 2009, p. 6). One integral component of this process is to develop and test effective questioning skills and activities in the discussion forums like Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) (Angelo and Cross, 1993) and Written Intentionally for Learning Depth and Higher Order Genius questions (WILD HOGs) (Johnson, 2014). This article argues that in combination CATs and WILD HOGs help establish teacher presence, assess student learning, address areas of concern in the classroom, and, most compellingly, elevate students' understanding of challenging concepts.