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What is a Discussion Board?
What is a Discussion Board?
For online courses, a discussion board, also known as a forum, typically takes the place of classroom group activities/discussions. These asynchronous conversations (either written, audio or video recordings) promote student engagement and foster greater understanding of the course material among peers.
Discussion encourages independent thinking and listening. The student identifies and assesses problems, forms reasoned interpretations and reaches/tests conclusions. Therefore, the alternating of questions, listening and response is conducted to carry out critical/intelligent thinking (necessary for cognitive development).
The goal of a discussion forum is to foster conversation, mimicking the face-to-face classroom in an online environment.
components of a traditional discussion forum
components of a traditional discussion forum
I. Initial Post
I. Initial Post
Each initial post should be the most in-depth and substantive response to the prompt provided. Typically, unless directed otherwise, this is written in paragraph form responding to the prompt in detail displaying your understanding of the material by sharing examples, connecting to experiences. Your instructor may choose to incorporate recorded responses to provide students the opportunity to engage with the course and each other using more than traditional text-based discussions.
Remember to treat discussion boards as a conversation rather than just another assignment. To prompt a collaborative exchange with your peers, consider ending prompt by providing 2-3 open-ended questions to prompt peer replies.
II. Reply Posts
II. Reply Posts
These responses, though less in-depth than your initial post, should still be thought provoking and conversational demonstrating comprehension of the original post content while furthering the online discussion.
Like initial posts, reply post best practices include consulting and properly citing external sources and course materials, if referenced.
Introductory discussion
Introductory discussion
Generally, the first discussion forum students will participate in for each course is the Introductory Discussion, which reads as follows:
Please take a moment to introduce yourself, share some information about your education goals, career, family or anything you would like the class to know about you. In addition, please read the course description located under the welcome banner for the course. Please share with your peers and instructor your interest and general experience in this field of study. What do you bring to the course? What would you like to learn more about?
Students and instructors may choose to reply to this initial post but are encouraged to read this submission as a launching point for future course discussions.
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