Discussion Board Guidance

Contents:

One of the main differences between discussion in a traditional (face-to-face) classroom and an online classroom is formally required participation. Usually in a face-to-face classroom, after an initial question has been answered by one or two students, the discussion ends. In an online classroom, ALL students are generally required to answer (post) a comment to a selected question. This is generally referred to as an initial post. There will be a requirement to respond to classmates (referred to as a response).

1 Online Discussion Guidance

The following are “helpful” (note the Dr. Evil quotes; I was tempted to write “lasers”) hints to guide your successful participation in the discussion forum:

  1. It is important to develop and clearly convey your response to the discussion topic. This is accomplished by starting early in the week (reading the assigned materials).
  2. Open a dialog with your peers.
    1. Respond thoughtfully to those who have questioned you
    2. Be open to other perspectives
  3. Use good Netiquette
  4. Cite your references

2 Example Good Discussion Posts and Responses

2.1 Good Initial Post

While I agree with you that too much emphasis has been placed on learning styles, I don’t necessarily agree with teachers having to accommodate each and every learning style. I think that learning styles can benefit students who will occasionally struggle to learn but I think that the student not the teacher is responsible for learning styles. It is beneficial for students to know their own learning style and even share that with their teacher, but students should have the bulk of the responsibility to find information that fits that learning style.

I don’t think it is very realistic to ask a teacher to have information available to fit all students’ different learning styles. I would encourage teachers to switch their methods of teaching between the different strategies but not necessarily within the day’s lesson plan. I also had to read and re-read the articles to fully grasp the concept.

2.2 Good Response

I’m glad to read a response that questions MI as a learning theory. My undergraduate degree is not in education so I had to do some research to find out about MI before I could answer these questions. I do believe that people have widely varying areas of talent and competence, but when

I was researching I felt skeptical of the validity of the idea of MI as a method of teaching or learning. I agree that there are many roads to learning. I’m just not sure that MI is a valid explanation for these differences. How can a teacher accommodate all of the different learning styles?

2.3 What Makes These Good?

Why are these a good initial post and response?

2.4 Bad Post/Response

What they output lets us know that they have learned that information we taught them

or

I comletly agree with this

2.5 Why are These Bad?

Obviously, Fox News wrote them. Why are these poor responses?