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Online Learning Instructor Resources





Discussion Assignments
You can assign students to post to a discussion forum their ideas on a problem or question and to respond, for example, to two other students' postings.

 

How To

Go to instructions for setting up a discussion forum.

Go to materials on facilitating discussions.

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Best Practices

An announcement such as the following is useful in setting expectations:

You are required to participate in group discussions via threaded discussion forums. Your participation in the discussion forums is considered in evaluating your overall course performance.

Your instructor will provide structured questions and guidelines for discussion. You are expected to participate by providing thoughtful, substantive answers and also to respond to other students. In other words, engage in meaningful conversation!

Two types of discussion forums will be available: a general discussion forum for ongoing conversation, class news, and so on, and specific discussion forums for group projects. Information for these will be posted on the general discussion forum at an appropriate time.

Note: If you have questions that you don't want to discuss with the entire class, you may contact your instructor directly. For contact information, please see the "About Your Instructor" page on the syllabus.

Your instructor reserves the right to post your direct questions on the general discussion forum if in your instructor's opinion the questions are important or representative enough that the entire class would benefit. In this event, the instructor will remove the sender's name.

Go to an example of a small-group discussion assignment.


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