Online Discussion as a Part of Educational Process (Free PDF Sample)

Let us define the nature of college discussions in terms of writing. Online Messaging Board is a portal or part of your school’s website that looks like a forum and is meant to handle discussion board online communication for specific subjects. Discussion board, if used properly, creates freedom of thought, provokes creativity and assembles great communication. It helps teachers handle the required writing and keep it interesting for students.

Every online communication requires etiquette of some sort, so let us take blackboard discussion board and their help section as an example. The rules they suggest can help create a thread that is interesting to read, with all members being comfortable enough to share their ideas and yet keep academic and related to the subject.

How Do You Write a Discussion?

So let us have a closer look at the rules of online discussion from the student's point of view:

keep your posts wishing the suggested words length, making them both easy to read and long enough to let you express certain idea;
support your ideas with evidence, facts, and references, but do not let them be everything your post can suggest;
keep it formal, in terms of language and grammar as it is suggested for academic-related information. Avoid acronyms, slang or emotions;
focus on the topic and do not let others distract you or drag you away from it;
be respectful and tolerant, even towards the most provocative, silly or inequitable ideas.

Many users have troubles with forum discussions, as they ignore some other simple ideas as well:

read what has been written before. This means you have to check what was written couple of posts before you and use search option to check old threads (and a little trick: you may find great sample discussion board questions and answers or at least understand how people answer it);
for long quotations, attachments, and links there specific functions like Expand/Collapse, Upload, and Hyperlink;
if you would like to address specific user and post your reply to a part of their post, use Reply and Quote buttons to do that.

How to Answer Discuss Questions?

So you have a question from your professor and you would like to begin working on your response. Before you do, there are three simple things to check. First, thinks of how this question addresses the content of the course. By doing this, you will be able to determine what is expected and what ideas from other disciplines can you use. Second, plan your post. You need to say what you think, give some ideas on why do you bear this idea and ask questions to your fellow classmates. You may well choose to be provocative, yet respectful. Third, be substantial yet concise. Make sure all the information is accessible and double-check everything before posting. Fourth, be thankful. If someone corrects you, makes a good point or take their time to reply to your comment, it is a good idea to return the favor and thank them for their time and ideas.

How to Write a Good Discussion Question in the Discussion Thread?

If you are not the first person to reply to the thread, you are most likely to end up posting your comment with a question to fellow students. While you think your question will provoke interest and get you few extra points in the eyes of your professor, you have to understand that these are your classmates and you will have to go to class the other day. So not to begin the next world war, keep in mind that:

you have to be polite and keep the formal tone, even if this is your BFF and you are sitting next to them while posting a discussion comment;
main idea of any thread is to enroll students into the discussion through creating the safe environment and making sure discussion will continue;
this is a group activity so posting every single piece of information you can find on the Internet just by yourself may not be the best option.

Discussion Board Reply Examples

Despite the common belief that discussion post should look like a regular essay, they are different in both the structure and formatting. Any good discussion post will include mentioning the previous author and explaining how you feel about ideas they have posted, your own ideas as well as actual data or sources to prove your point. Let us give you some examples of discussion board posts introductions:

Reply 1	*I have to agree with Meredith on the evolutionary approach, however, I would like to pay attention to the fact…*
Reply 2	*Having read all the post above, I have to disagree with most of them in terms of …*
Reply 3	*As there is no scientific data to rely on, my response will be based on personal experience and relevant literature sources. To prove my point, let me quote ….*
Reply 4	*If you take a closer look at the concept itself, you will probably notice that idea of anarchism being the best form of government is not as absurd as it may seem.*
Reply 5	*According to Doe, there three ways to approach the question. While my fellow students have already covered two out of three, I would like to focus on the idea of…*

As you can see from everything written above, discussion post is a specific type of academic writing that requires attention to details, some research as well as adherence to the discussion etiquette. And many students feel overwhelmed with the amount of work and requirements, but you know the answer, right? If you would like a professional writer to handle your discussion post, your answer is Prime-Essay.net. Ordering from us, you will get:

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