This is designed to help online educators have simple and effective discussions. The first part is the timing of the discussion, Usually it is good for the teacher to post the discussion topic and information on Saturday, the students then have Monday and Tuesday to post their first post, Wednesday and Thursday to post 1 or 2 responses, and Friday to do their final post. Obviously, this varies according to how long the teacher wishes the discussion to go along (how many responses, etc.)
I am also including some helpful hints and ideas for a successful discussion as well as a rubric for grading. I changed it each semester but here is the original.