44:["$","title",null,{"children":"Conversation Themes | Yellowdig | Observable"}] 4c:T6bf,principles = html`Conversation themes help students develop ongoing conversations and initiate branching conversations, inspiring variations on a theme. Prompts elicit prescribed responses to narrow questions, inspiring reiterations of a thesis. Prompts are issued on a metronomic cadence with weekly deadlines, while conversation themes are shared extemporaneously, sans deadlines. Communities with conversation themes are like jazz — structured, yet improvisational; directed, yet unscripted.

Fortunately, converting prompts to conversation themes is much easier than jazz! It's largely a matter of simple reframing and expectation resetting. If you preface any prompt with this brief paragraph, you'll be 80% of the way toward converting that prompt to a genuine conversation theme:

If you’re looking for ideas on what to talk about, feel free to address the conversational themes I’ve offered below. As always:

You can choose to create a post to start a new conversation on these themes, take part in a conversation someone else started, or create an entirely different conversation of your own (as long as it is relevant to the course).

The goal here is to have good course-relevant conversations and share articles and examples that are relevant to the course topic. You’re more likely to receive reactions, comments, and accolades if you do that.

You can discuss these and any other themes for as long as you find that conversation enriching and your contributions remain relevant to the course and your learning.

`4d:T409,examples = html`Not sure how to write a conversation theme? Get some inspiration from the examples below, which have been written by Yellowdig instructors and by members of the Yellowdig Team. Many of these conversation themes have been tested in live classes, and all have been curated to align with conversation pedagogy. If 80% of converting prompts to conversation themes is reframing, the remaining 20% is content revision.

To find conversation themes for your discipline or use case, type a phrase in the Search bar, or click on Subject or Topic in the table below to alphabetically sort by subject or topic, respectively. Select one row by checking the box to the left of the subject name. To display the box, hover over the row.

Selecting the row will print the conversation theme, along with rationale for its inclusion. For comparison's sake, we'll sometimes include a "prompty" correlate of the conversation theme and explain why the conversation theme is preferable. `4e:[] 48:{"id":"dc79554c67f6d791","slug":"conversation-themes","title":"Conversation Themes","thumbnail":"deea71915dc991b70c0b488a915c51e4ba1c0c67bda24dfe4f0e79ae416490cb","access_level":"public","create_time":"$D2021-06-15T13:43:21.248Z","update_time":"$D2021-07-01T13:14:19.913Z","view_time":null,"first_public_time":"$D2021-06-15T15:12:18.718Z","has_unpublished_edits":null,"fork":false,"stars":0,"starred":false,"owner":{"type":"team","id":"ed5d48fa9ee28c83","login":"yellowdig","name":"Yellowdig","avatar_url":"https://avatars-next.observableusercontent.com/e8639c767e7c55d27868c8ceee8d83256929a09b796be712cbd3864aee389a06","tier":"starter_2024","bio":"Yellowdig is a social learning platform driven by collaboration, data science, and evidence-based educational outcomes.","followed_by_you":false,"follows_you":false},"version":115,"publish_version":115,"role":null,"authored":false,"authors":[{"type":"individual","id":"a3c65f77e6c92f85","login":"samuelkampa","name":"Samuel Kampa","avatar_url":"https://avatars-next.observableusercontent.com/83e6e7421b41b40a6924d179dd9f68302f0f128da50a133257c1c286db7f10f4","tier":null,"bio":"","followed_by_you":false,"follows_you":false}],"members":[{"type":"individual","id":"a3c65f77e6c92f85","login":"samuelkampa","name":"Samuel Kampa","avatar_url":"https://avatars-next.observableusercontent.com/83e6e7421b41b40a6924d179dd9f68302f0f128da50a133257c1c286db7f10f4","tier":null,"role":"editor"}],"comments":[],"custom_thumbnail":false,"trashed":false,"lapsed":null,"subscribed":null,"forks":0,"collection":null,"type":"notebook","body":{"titling":"auto","title":"Conversation Themes","cells":[{"id":0,"value":"title = md`# Conversation Themes`","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":5,"value":"$4c","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":11,"value":"heading_2 = md`## Conversation Theme Examples`","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":16,"value":"$4d","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":19,"value":"viewof search_convo = Inputs.search(convo_themes)","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":21,"value":"viewof table_convo = Inputs.table(search_convo, {\n columns: ['Subject Area', 'Topic'],\n sort: \"Subject Area\"\n})","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":24,"value":"details_convo = {\n if (table_convo.length == 1) {\n let html_string = '';\n for (let i = 0; i < 7; i++) {\n if (table_convo[0][column_names[i]]) {\n html_string = html_string.concat(\n \"\",\n column_names[i],\n \"
\",\n table_convo[0][column_names[i]],\n \"

\"\n );\n }\n }\n return html`${html_string}`;\n } else {\n return html`
Select one row above. Details will appear below.`;\n }\n}","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":27,"value":"heading_3 = md`## Diagnosing Prompts`","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":33,"value":"viewof search_diag = Inputs.search(diagnoses)","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":36,"value":"viewof table_diag = Inputs.table(search_diag, {\n columns: ['Symptom']\n})","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":39,"value":"details_diag = {\n if (table_diag.length == 1) {\n return html`Symptom
${table_diag[0]['Symptom']}

\n Diagnosis
${table_diag[0]['Diagnosis']}

\n Cure
${table_diag[0]['Cure']}

\n`;\n } else {\n return html`
Select one row above. Details will appear below.`;\n }\n}","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":42,"value":"md`## Technical Appendix`","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":45,"value":"convo_url = \"https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSEMeniArdwGOe59sCdvSI-jpIYCi0aYFiErkATK-OX7-ud4p9ULNgJmfMnDglX_eXlGaBjAvqHJN8I/pub?gid=0&single=true&output=tsv\"","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":48,"value":"import { names as convo_themes } with {\n convo_url as url\n} from \"@bryangingechen/importing-data-from-google-spreadsheets-into-a-notebook-we\"","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":51,"value":"diag_url = \"https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSEMeniArdwGOe59sCdvSI-jpIYCi0aYFiErkATK-OX7-ud4p9ULNgJmfMnDglX_eXlGaBjAvqHJN8I/pub?gid=577958220&single=true&output=tsv\"","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":54,"value":"import { names as diagnoses } with {\n diag_url as url\n} from \"@bryangingechen/importing-data-from-google-spreadsheets-into-a-notebook-we\"","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":57,"value":"column_names = [\n \"Subject Area\",\n \"Topic\",\n \"Conversation Theme\",\n \"Strengths of Conversation Theme\",\n \"Prompt\",\n \"Problems with Prompt\",\n \"Author\"\n]","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"}],"files":"$W4e","stdlib":"1"}} 24:null