Discussion Boards

The articles listed below both reference how to appropriately use a Discussion Board in an online setting. Benefits of using a Discussion Board include that due to the reflective nature students often learn more with this type of activity. Students are often asked their opinion and must use evidence to support it giving them the ability to take a stand on a certain subject. Since the student is ‘behind the screen’ and cannot be seen they tend to participate more so than they would in a classroom. With all students participate a community is sensed within the online environment which builds trust among the learners. The second article lists and describes several methods used to set up a quality learning environment in a discussion board. For example, give a rubric that sets up expectations within the course and keep the descriptions within short paragraphs that the students will not be overwhelmed with. Also, if students are put into groups then they muster up a sense confidence in their response because they know that only 4-7 other students are going to read their post. Also, it makes them want to learn and own up to what they know so that they ‘look good’ when compared to the other students.
These articles benefit educators because they show how to build confidence and ownership of learning among student groups. This is a challenging task however, the steps in these articles are simple and easy to follow. I would recommend both articles for other educators because they clearly state the objectives of the articles to the left which makes it easy to pull the main ideas from. One example includes the following statement, “encourage your students - especially those who do not normally speak out in class.” (ATC 2010) This statement is listed to the left of the page and clearly summarizes the main idea for the story to the right. I don’t feel that the articles did a very good job discussing how an instructor is supposed to reply and post in a student led discussion board. This article would benefit from a list of comments that could be used by the teacher in a discussion board.