Communicating in a Discussion Board
Discussions offer an important vehicle for interpersonal interaction and can serve a range of purposes:
- An online meeting place for social interaction among peers.
- An additional medium for collaboration and the exchange of ideas.
- A medium to pose questions about homework assignments, readings, and course content.
- A way to demonstrate understanding or application of course material.
- A record of discussion that users can review at a later point.
- A graded activity that demonstrates understanding or application of course material.
Each discussion board contains one or more forums. A forum is an area where users discuss a topic or a group of related topics. Typically, within each forum, users can access multiple threads. A thread includes the initial post and any replies to it.
The main Discussion Board page has a list of the forums and their descriptions. Columns also appear for total posts, unread posts, and total participants for each forum. Users can click a forum title to enter the forum and read the posts.