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Discussion Forum Participation Guidelines 1

Participation in the discussion forums is critical for maximizing your learning experiences in this course. You are required to be a part of an online community of learners who collectively interact, through discussion, to enhance and support the learning of each other. Part of the assessment criteria for the course, therefore, includes assessing the quality and quantity of your participation in the discussion forum.

Some characteristics considered to be part of excellent discussion contributions are outlined below. Your professor will consider these characteristics when assessing the quality and level of your participation.

You should submit your initial post(s) early in the session, and your subsequent responses to the posts of other learners at timely intervals within the duration of the session. Keep in mind the goal is to have a dynamic discussion around the major content of the session that lasts throughout the entire session.
Your posts and responses should be thorough and thoughtful. Just posting an “I agree” or “Good ideas” will not be considered adequate. Support your statement with examples, experiences, or references. Keep in mind that your fellow students will be reading and responding to you, too.
Make certain that all your posts and responses address the question, problem, or situation as presented for discussion.
Discussions occur when there is dialogue; therefore you should build upon the posts and responses of other students to create discussion threads. Make sure you revisit the discussion forum and respond to what other learners have posted to your initial responses.
When relevant, add to the discussion by including prior knowledge, work experiences, references, Web sites, resources, etc.
Your contributions to the discussions should be complete and free of grammatical or structural errors. It may be helpful for you to construct your answer in a Microsoft Word document and then cut and paste it into the discussion forum.

To help you understand the level of participation required in this course, please refer to the following guidelines.

1 Adapted from PBS Teachline Discussion Rubric, 2003 and the Intel

Discussion Forum Participation Guidelines

Criteria

Unsatisfactory

S a t is f a c to r y

E xe m p la r y

Quantity and

Timeliness

Does not submit

at least one post early in the session and/or does not submit at least one

response to other learners at

various times

during the session.

Submits at least

one thoughtful post early in the session, and at least one response to other learners at various times during the session.

Submits two or

more thoughtful posts early in the session, and at least two responses to other learners at various times during the session

Demonstrates

knowledge and understanding of content

Post (s) and

responses show little evidence of knowledge and understanding of course content.

Post (s) and

responses show evidence of knowledge and understanding of course content.

Post (s) and

responses show evidence of knowledge and understanding of course content making connections and includes other resources that extend the learning of the community.

Generates

learning within the community

Posts do not

attempt to elicit responses and reflections from other learners and/or responses do not build upon the ideas of other learners to take the discussion deeper.

Posts attempt to

elicit responses and reflections from other learners and responses build upon the ideas of other learners to take the discussion deeper.

Posts elicit

responses and reflections from other learners and responses build upon and integrate multiple views from other learners to take the discussion deeper.