forums and other tools

Online "discussion" can be challenging.  Too often we use forums as mini writing assignments.  If you want to allow for more organic discussion, carefully consider your prompts, your rules for completing posts/replies, and your strategies for grading participation. 

You may want to break your students into groups to provide them a bit more room to answer.  You may want to consider assigning students different roles within the week's discussion.

Or, you may want to scrap the discussion forum all together and try a different tool.  VoiceThread is a great tool to try, and every student at UC has an account available to them!
 

If you would like to explore your forum discussions, VoiceThread, or other communication tools, let us know!