Effective Consensus Building in Online Discussions

Abstract

This paper presents a mechanism and its effectiveness in increasing communication opportunities and effective consensus building through the use of digital tools as one way to promote effective consensus building on online discussions. Previous studies have suggested the need for a place where active engagement is possible in online discussions and the need to prepare for such engagement. The authors introduced a digital tool that can record the results of online discussions in class and that can be freely viewed and questioned by faculty and students and aimed to establish a mechanism for active discussion between faculty and students and among students. Therefore, the authors will present their efforts and their effectiveness in increasing communication opportunities and effective consensus building. As a result, we found that the authors' efforts have certain effects. In the future, in order to promote effective consensus building in online discussions, we will examine how facilitation should be done online and establish a scheme or framework for effective consensus building.