Discussions Tool

Screenshot of Discussion section

Screenshot of Discussion section

What is the Discussions Tool?

The Discussions tool provides an area for collaboration allowing learners to post, read, and reply to messages on different topics, share thoughts about course materials, ask questions, share files, or work with your peers on assignments.

Why would you use the Discussions Tool?

Use the Discussions Tool in your course to:

  1. Encourage users to share thoughts on course material with their peers
  2. Set up forums for users to ask questions
  3. Pose a question for the class to debate
  4. Discuss the answers to an assignment
  5. Create forums for groups to work on group assignments

Suggested reading(s)

Scenario 1: Communicating with Students

Professor Burgundy wants to keep all communications related to the courses he is teaching in the courses themselves. He finds organizing and searching email folders time consuming and wants to be able to track all communications between him and his students. Professor Burgundy uses the Groups tool to create a Group for each student in his course and then creates a Discussion area for the Groups. This allows him to communicate privately with each of his students and not have to dedicate resources to managing his email.

Sara Taylor is a student in one of Professor Burgundy’s courses. By communicating with Professor Burgundy via the private Discussion she received quicker responses and could track and refer to past conversations.

Creating a private Discussion area for each student means that the entire conversation with each student is contained in one easily readable (or printable place) and not in many separate emails.

Student’s questions can be answered in a private way but without using separate emails. Instructors can see the current question in the context of previous questions and see what replies they have already provided to the student in the past.

Students have one place to go to ask their private questions and see the history of all their previous questions to the instructor and their answers in context.

 

Scenario 2: Directed Discussions

In line with the curriculum, Professor Saunders has developed a learning module to explore global warming. As part of the module students will engage in a discussion to identify leading causes of global warming and the consequences of carbon emissions. Using the Discussion tool, she is able to guide students, track engagement and interact with students to boost their participation.

Linda is a student who is enrolled in Professor Saunders’ online Earth Sciences course. As part of the class requirements, Linda participates in the Discussion on Global Warming. She has time to process and develop her thoughts before posting.

The Discussions tool provides the vehicle for student interaction and discovery on topics based on the curriculum. It allows the Professor and the student the ability to interact and engage, as well as view statistics on topic engagement.

Discussions provide a structured format for the teacher to guide students in the discovery of class topics. The Discussion tool centralizes Professor directed discussions so that the Professor can facilitate multiple discussions, track student responses and can directly interact with the students.

Discussions allow students the ability to engage with the Professor and peers in the exploration of specific class topics. This can be performed regardless of geographic location. The nature of online discussions also provides the allowance for students to reflect and develop thoughts prior to presenting to the class.

 

Scenario 3: Icebreaker Student Introductions

Check out these websites:

Video Tutorials: Discussions


 

Your Turn Activity

Any access issues with Dsicussions section contact Champlain’s D2L Brightspace administrator.

Access Discussions section top menu bar, see side bar

  1. Click New Topic
  2. Select or create a Forum
  3. Enter a Title
  4. Enter a description
  5. Click save and close
  6. Click edit Topic
  7. Change the title
  8. Click save and close

Note: Your menu bar might not have all the same items as screenshot.

Build Two New Discussion Topics

  1. Topic One requires the following:
    • Posts must be moderated
    • Allows participants to post anonymously
    • Is available for contribution for two weeks
    • Can be viewed for the duration of the course
  2. Topic Two requires the following:
    • Participants must create a Thread before they can view others posts
    • Topic will be assessed out of 5 points
    • Allows posts to be rated by others
  3. Now Delete and Restore a Topic
    • Setup one topic that is moderated, allows participants to create threads anonymously, that is available for contribution for two weeks but can be viewed for the duration of the course

Extra – Setup one topic that is moderated, allows participants to create threads anonymously, that is available for contribution for two weeks but can be viewed for the duration of the course.

 

Take Away


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