Building a community for meaningful conversations is a challenging task that requires continuous effort and time. Yet, using online discussion tools can be a helpful approach to support your students and clients in developing these skills.
Online discussions can improve the quality of in-person discussions later on. People can interact virtually, and it helps validate their thoughts and opinions. This sets the stage for more active participation, where participants can raise their hands and speak out loud.
In this blog, we will learn about online discussion tools and check out the top 11 options.
What are Online Discussion Tools?
Online discussion tools are platforms or apps that help communication and collaboration among users over the internet. These tools allow individuals or groups to engage in conversations, share information, and exchange ideas in a digital environment.
Common features of online discussion tools include forums, chat rooms, messaging systems, and collaborative document editing capabilities.
These tools are widely used in various contexts, such as business collaboration, education, classroom community, discussion forums, and team communication, providing a convenient way for people to connect and interact online.
What is the Purpose of Discussion Tools?
Discussion tools make communication and collaboration easy for people or groups in a digital space. They have various important roles:
- Information Sharing: Discussion tools provide a platform for users to engage in online discussions and share information, knowledge, and ideas with each other. This makes it easy to spread information quickly and get different viewpoints.
- Community Building: Building and maintaining online communities greatly relies on discussion tools. These tools create a place for people with similar interests to connect, talk, and form connections.
- Problem Solving: Discussion tools enable users to discuss any issues or difficulties they’re dealing with. This teamwork can generate creative solutions and valuable insights that individuals might not discover on their own.
- Feedback and Evaluation: Users can use discussion tools to seek feedback on their ideas, projects, or work. This feedback loop is essential for continuous improvement and refining one’s contributions.
- Facilitation of Learning: In schools and colleges, discussion tools are often used to make online learning easier and encourage students to participate. These tools offer a place for students to discuss course materials, ask questions, and collaborate on projects.
11 Best Online Discussion Tools in 2024
If you’re looking for an online discussion tool, there are several options to choose from. Here are the 11 best popular choices:
01. QuestionPro Communities
QuestionPro Communities is one of the best online discussion tools designed for engaging conversations, gathering feedback, and building communities. It’s an effective tool for market research, helping researchers find online focus groups for their studies.
Through video discussions, you can extract valuable research insights and oversee community members. The tool also offers features like auto-transcription and comment flagging, allowing you to focus on the most important aspects of video discussions and online focus groups.
QuestionPro Communities is more than just a simple forum, as it includes a series of functionalities allowing researchers and professionals to do much more than just moderate discussions. They can also obtain data from these interactions and extract valuable insights that are helpful for understanding the target audience in a unique and organic way that other mediums do not allow.
Some of the standout features include:
- Discussion forum
- Analysis panel with advanced methodologies
- Quick polls
- Idea boards
- Sentiment analysis and text analysis
Are you interested? Contact us, the QuestionPro team will be happy to clarify all your doubts and help you find the solution for your projects.
02. WebEx
WebEx is a well-known online discussion tool for its video conferencing abilities and strong discussion features, making it a great option for teamwork and online meetings. It’s suitable for student participation, teachers, and staff because of its built-in chat function.
With WebEx, users can easily host or join audio and video meetings, presentations, and conferences. They can share lecture slides easily on students’ devices. The chat feature allows students to engage in real-time conversations with their peers, instructors, and presenters.
03. Recollective
Recollective is a flexible tool for online discussions that provides features for getting detailed qualitative insights and keeping participants engaged. Its Video Focus Groups feature allows you to connect with up to 25 participants easily using any device for live discussions and insights.
Moderators can plan in advance by preparing text, polls, photos, videos, and files to use as conversation starters. Additionally, you can share your screen or let participants share theirs during the session.
04. incling
incling is an all-in-one solution for online qualitative research. It provides a ‘Live Chat’ tool for focus groups and interviews. Each group can have up to 9 participants, including a private observer chatroom with unlimited capacity. Observers can communicate with each other and the moderator during the session.
You can preload questions, videos, and images; the moderator and participants can share their screens. The platform includes built-in text analytics to explore key themes within specific groups or across pre-tasks and focus groups.
05. Qualsights
Qualsights focuses on qualitative research discussions. It helps users collect valuable insights through meaningful conversations and participant feedback. It can enhance in-person projects and allow customers or field staff to broadcast live.
The software can record video from any camera and uses machine learning to convert audio into text, identify keywords and topics, analyze sentiment and emotion, and recognize objects and scenes in videos. It also has an easy-to-use video editor for creating clips and showreels.
06. FlexMR
FlexMR is an all-in-one research platform with strong discussion tools, perfect for businesses looking for detailed insights and teamwork.
The Groups feature provides interactive options like images, audio, video, smart online discussion boards, and quick polls. It supports both video and text chats. Stakeholders and decision-makers can observe sessions from a virtual room with a private chat option. Hosts can actively facilitate engagement by coordinating between moderators and stakeholders watching the sessions.
07. Vocal Views
Vocal Views specializes in discussions using videos, offering a unique way for users to express themselves and share opinions visually.
The platform has various features, like hosting discussions with up to 20 participants and a separate observer room. You can share screens and use interactive whiteboards to collect feedback and involve participants.
Vocal Views gives access to a community of over 850,000 members for recruitment, filtered by demographics, purchase habits, hobbies, and interests. Alternatively, you can upload a list of respondents via email. Clients can also find moderators in the marketplace to conduct video focus groups if necessary.
08. itracks
itracks is a flexible platform that provides a variety of tools for discussions and collaboration, suitable for research and business communication purposes. With video focus groups, you can easily upload media for feedback and include polls. The groups are recorded in high-quality video with clear audio.
The platform automates communication with participants before the group session and offers project management tools for a smooth process. Participants don’t have to download extra programs or plugins. After the group session, you can access all video recordings and transcripts.
09. Backchannel Chat
Backchannel Chat offers supervised online discussions designed to engage students and motivate them to participate. It’s like a teacher-monitored, which allows students to talk about topics that go beyond the virtual space.
Teachers can create a chat and share the URL with students. Students can join using just a name without providing any other personal information. Teachers can oversee discussions, delete messages, and “lock” the chat whenever necessary.
10. Kialo Edu
Kialo Edu is a free platform for encouraging thoughtful debates and conversations. Students can explore and join ongoing discussions or start their own. After selecting an online discussion board, students choose whether they’re for or against it and share their opinions.
It helps teach the significance of well-thought-out, polite arguments when convincing others. Many teachers may prefer creating private discussions just for their students to concentrate on topics related to the curriculum or class.
11. NowComment
NowComment is a tool for student engagement to discuss and annotate documents. You can upload documents in various formats to start an online discussion.
You can control when students can comment and view each other’s comments. It’s also useful for group projects or peer-reviewed tasks, allowing students to upload their own documents.
Conduct Online Discussions with QuestionPro Communities
QuestionPro Communities is an online discussion tool and focus group software. It’s a highly effective market research tool that helps researchers find online focus groups for their studies, including market research.
Organizations can ask people to join a moderated online discussion forum where they can answer questions whenever convenient. Users can submit topics, vote in existing posts, and leave comments or feedback instantly.
In Idea Board, individuals can share their thoughts, and other group members can review, provide feedback, and vote on the ideas.
By using online discussion tools, organizations can better understand their customers and make smarter decisions for success.
QuestionPro Communities is the only tool for online discussions that works on both desktop and mobile devices. You can take Discussions, Idea Board, and Topics with you wherever your respondents are.
Begin your online discussion with participants worldwide using QuestionPro Communities today.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Online discussion tools are platforms or software that help people communicate and work together online. These tools can be as simple as chat apps or as complex as forums and virtual meeting spaces.
Online discussion tools promote efficient communication, enable collaboration across distances, facilitate knowledge sharing, streamline decision-making processes, and provide a platform for ongoing feedback and interaction.
They allow team members to communicate in real-time or asynchronously, share files and resources, brainstorm ideas collectively, track progress on projects, and maintain a centralized repository of discussions and decisions.
They provide a platform for remote teams to stay connected, collaborate on projects irrespective of geographical locations, conduct virtual meetings, share updates and documents, and foster a sense of teamwork and community.
