General Rules for High-Quality Postings

• Participate regularly in your class discussions.  It sometimes takes time for discussions to become robust, so be sure to return frequently.  Check the discussion’s progress a day or two after you’ve posted your comments and address other participants’ responses to your initial post.
• Take time to organize your thoughts before posting. You want everyone to read and understand your comment, so present it in an organized, easy-to-read manner. Provide only the most essential information in your post. If people want further details, they’ll ask for them in a reply.
• Avoid discussion posts that offer little more than “I agree.” Each discussion posting should offer some new content, aimed to foster continued exploration of the topic. Stating “I agree” or “I disagree” alone will not add much to the discussion, and if a number of people post such statements, the discussion may quickly come to a halt. Raise new questions, and keep track of issues that have not been fully investigated in previous posts.
• Remember that discussions are an exchange, not a lecture. Solicit feedback from your classmates. You should take a clear position in your post, but it is a good idea to invite alternative perspectives. What new questions or problems arise from the position you’re taking?  How does your position relate to the position taken by other participants?

A Few Tips for Successful Discussion Posts

• Your original postings should be thorough yet concise, thought-provoking, yet thoughtful.
• You should be able to make a substantive posting in roughly two short paragraphs (around 200 words).
• Your answer should address the topic of the discussion in a meaningful way that will engage your classmates.
• It must be obvious from your postings that you have completed and comprehend the assigned reading for the week.
• You will not have the opportunity to edit your posts, so be careful.  Sometimes using a program like Word will allow you to catch spelling and grammar errors before posting. (But be careful—sometimes it will also copy in unintended formatting!)
• When you are responding to your classmates, posting a simple “I agree/disagree with your comment” is not considered an adequate response.   Explain why you agree or disagree in your response to add to the original discussion.
• Your posts will be graded on a weekly basis according to the grading criteria posted by your instructor.
• Write and save Discussion Posts in a Word document to ensure you have a backup copy of your work.

 An Important Note About Faculty Involvement in Discussions:

While the course instructor will not lead the online discussion, he/she will provide reactions to student responses and discussion as appropriate in order to clarify important ideas and concepts.

Your course instructor will be involved with online discussions and his/her level of involvement will vary. You will be expected to discuss the assigned topics/questions with your classmates. Sometimes instructors choose to kick-off the conversation at the beginning of the week. Other times, instructors will hold their contributions until the end of the week and recap the week’s discussion, adding anything that may have been missed. While the course instructor will not respond to every post, she or he will consistently monitor course discussions to ensure that students are on task and grasping the course content.