Managing Online Discussion Forums: Building Community by Avoiding the Drama Triangle

Abstract

The authors critically analyze how the concept of the drama triangle—part of the game theory associated with transactional analysis—can be used by post secondary instructors teaching online to build a sense of community and decrease students’ dependence on instructors in discussion forums. The article begins with an overview of sense of community, followed by a detailed discussion on the drama triangle and its applicability to online instruction and discussion forum management. Observational data as an online instructor are presented in order to illustrate how drama triangle interactions in the online environment can stall sense of community formation. In addition, the authors provide online instructors with specific strategies for recognizing and avoiding instructor–student interactions that promote the rescuing, victim, and persecutor behaviors that detract from sense of community formation.

Keywords:

• drama triangle
• online learning
• online sense of community
• teaching strategies
• transactional analysis