Assignment Information about Discussion Forums

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Tips for Discussion Boards

Rubric for Grading Discussion Forums

Tips and Requirements

You will have a number of opportunities this semester to learn about and from your fellow students through discussion activities and group projects. Students often gain a lot from these sorts of activities, but they can also create frustration. For example, some students shy away from disagreeing with other students in a public way on a discussion board and/or feel hurt or surprised when another student disagrees with their work. When working with other students on discussion boards or group projects, you should feel free to politely disagree, ask questions, and make suggestions.

Here are some tips that tend to increase the likelihood feedback will not be resisted as critical but accepted as constructive (see also Kluger & DeNisi, 1996).

1. Start with some positive feedback. This lifts your fellow student's sense of self-efficacy - making it more likely he or she will feel empowered to improve his/her performance or change his/her mind in reaction to your thoughts rather than feeling deflated or offended.
   
   
2. Provide constructive recommendations on how to improve or change. In other words, do not just state that you feel the other student did something poorly or applied a concept incorrectly, but instead explain 'why' you felt so and 'how' he or she might have done something differently to be more in-line with expectations and/or your understanding of the material.
   
   
3. Always focus on the behavior (or content of the work), not the person. Starting negative feedback with phrases, such as "I feel... I perceive... I think..." rather than beginning the phrase with "You..." can help in this regard. Try framing the feedback as a question or suggestion rather than as criticism.
   
   
4. Do not be overly critical. Try to use objective language and compare the work or behavior to a standard for performance (i.e., assignment instructions or lesson material). Highlight discrepancies with the standard rather than trying to describe the performance with colorful language. For example, avoid describing another’s thoughts as “ridiculous.” Assume the reader will read your reply with some emotional attribution whether you intended any or not. Choose your words carefully with this in mind. We are human, so we tend to infer things like emotions and intentions in others' writing.
   
   
5. Use netiquette and be professional. Avoid capitalizing all of the letters in a word or phrase as this can be seen as the cyber equivalent of raising your voice or yelling. Do not type responses the same way you would send a text message to a friend. As mentioned above, your writing in this course should reflect a more professional relationship.

Receiving negative feedback is almost as difficult as giving it. Here are some tips that might help.

1. If you feel somewhat surprised or taken aback by a comment from another student or your instructor, step away for a moment and reread the comment(s) again when you feel calmer. It is a natural human reaction to feel somewhat defensive when someone else questions or disagrees with us. We often project that feeling of discomfort onto the person giving the feedback and make assumptions about his or her emotional state or intentions that are either incorrect or exaggerated (Audia & Locke, 2003).
   
   If you have done the above and still feel the comments are hurtful, bring this to the attention of your instructor. Your instructor may offer his/her perspective and encourage you to share your feelings directly with the other student so he/she may have an opportunity to apologize and learn better communication skills. If necessary (i.e., if comments are personal or abusive), the instructor may intervene more decisively. Some negative feelings are okay; frustration can be motivating. However, we do not want anyone feeling personally attacked or offended as that is not conducive to our educational goals.
   
   
2. Accept feedback gracefully. If the feedback was intended to be constructive, take from it what you can and try to be thankful. Even when you disagree with another's constructive criticism, you can usually sincerely thank them by saying, "You have given me something to think about; thank you." I do not require that you thank everyone that replies to your discussion post, but it is a good habit to get into and will serve you well in your career.
   
   
3. Ask for clarification if you are not sure you understand the suggestion or criticism. Again, the goal is that you learn and improve. If the person giving the feedback is not doing all the steps above well (particularly tip #2), help them help you by asking for a recommendation/ suggestion.
   
   
4. Feel free to explain your position if you disagree, but do so with respect using the tips in the list for giving feedback above. For example, your explanation should not only state that you disagree but clearly (and as objectively as possible) also explain why. Resist the tendency to use defensive language as this can lower the perceived credibility of your counter-argument. Defensiveness tends to be viewed as self-serving rationalizations rather than valid arguments.
   
   
5. If you are feeling deflated or offended, try to do something to pick yourself up. If the person giving the feedback was not successful in helping you feel empowered to change, try to do this for yourself. The goal is that you grow and improve from feedback. Even if you feel strongly that this was not the intention of the person giving the feedback, try to set your mind towards change and improvement. This is a great tip for life in general: do not let others get you down.
   
   
6. Be a careful consumer of feedback. Feedback is subjective and does not always reflect good advice. If you are not sure whether the feedback is in your best interest, ask another person (such as your instructor or another student you trust) for reliability.

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Rubrics - How will discussion forums be graded?

Content (15 points for lesson 1; 30 points for other lessons)

Your original response to the discussion questions provided in the discussion board start a new thread in the discussion forum (click 'new post' at the top of the discussion board).

Your response should be thoughtful, reflecting on your personal experience and/or examples from history or contemporary society. You should answer all parts of the discussion question unless any part is specifically labeled optional. But, most importantly, your response MUST reflect that you read, understood, and can apply concepts from the current lesson. See the tips in lesson one for how to incorporate lesson material into your answer.

Since others will be reading and responding to your work and may wish to look up something you wrote about, you should provide page number citations whether you are using direct quotes or not.

Participation (10 points for lesson 1; 15 points for other lessons)

Discussion board activities allow you to learn from and about your fellow students. While this activity occurs synchronously on-line, it should reflect a verbal discussion. In other words, there needs to be some give and take. Therefore, you are required to reply to others ideas. ask follow up questions, and answer questions other students pose to you. These 'replies' will NOT be new messages (do not use the 'new' button but rather click on 'reply' at the bottom of the messages already posted to add to an existing thread).

Also, it is expected that you use proper netiquette. I encourage you to disagree with one another as this creates a more lively discussion, but you need to do so in a respectful way.

5 Points - quantity of participation:

• You must reply to others ideas and/or answer their questions to you on at least 3 separate days throughout the week. That is, you must have a minimum of 3 replies in addition to your original post. Of course, you can participate more often and are encouraged to do so.
• Postings should be evenly distributed during the discussion period (not concentrated all on one day or at the beginning and/or end of the period).
• Be proactive, not just reactive. Answering questions made by other students' replies to your post will count as long as they are thoughtful and extend the discussion. However, not all 3 of your replies can be within the same discussion thread. That is, I need to see evidence that you are reading the original work of other students, not just responding to their remarks on your contributions.
• Postings should be a minimum of one short paragraph (i.e., more than 3 sentences). Superficial replies (i.e., statements limited to “I agree” or “great idea” with little elaboration) will not count.

10 Points - quality of participation

• Build on others’ responses. As mentioned above, you should avoid postings that are limited to 'I agree' or 'great idea', etc.
• If you agree (or disagree) with a posting then say why you agree by supporting your statement with concepts from the readings or by bringing in a related example or experience. 
• Ask questions relevant to other students’ post.
• If you disagree with something another student wrote, frame your critique of that post as a question and provide evidence of why you do not agree such as follows: “I notice you state that...Could you explain why you feel this way, because I read (on page # of the commentary that...which seems to contradict what you wrote”)? "