What is a Discussion Board?

What is a Discussion Board?

For online courses, a discussion board, also known as a forum, takes the place of classroom group activities/discussions. These asynchronous conversations promote student engagement and foster greater understanding of the course material between peers.

What is an Initial Post?

• Be Thorough.....this should be the most in-depth and substantive response to the prompt provided within your course. 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.

• Be Factual.....students are required to properly cite at least one reference from your course materials or external sources to support your writing in APA format.

• Be Creative.....this could include consulting outside sources, sharing articles, multi-media and images to enhance your message.

• Be Engaging.......remember to treat discussion boards as a conversation rather than just another assignment. Consider ending prompt by providing 2-3 open-ended questions to prompt peer replies

What are Reply Posts?

• Be Responsive......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 virtual classroom discussion.

• Be Factual....these responses are supported using sources properly cited in APA format.

• Be Consistent.....ensure the content of your replies is grounded in the course materials and objectives for this unit.

What is an 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.