Be ready to participate in our discussion forums; that means, you will have read all required materials and thought about them prior to posting. As mentioned in the syllabus, I recommend you post your comments early on and not wait until the last minute, i.e. 11:58PM. Starting tomorrow, Wednesday, January 8, you should also visit the discussion forum more than indicated on our weekly schedule. Imagine being in a “real” class where you might want to engage in class discussions. When you “engage,” you’ll respond to comments made by other students, which will create lively discussions. So, in other words, students in discussion forums earn top grades if they participate (i.e. post more than one thoughtful and interesting post) as this active participation is critical for your learning experience in an online format.
One thing about the online format is that you cannot “hide.” You will get no credit if you don’t “say” something (so, in that way, an online class might be more difficult).
As your instructor, I will facilitate our discussions and might comment on this or that post and share ideas but I will not address each and every post. I will check and read your discussions on a regular bases. Please read below some of the guidelines for successful participation and its subsequent Discussion Participation Rubric (from ww2.nau.edu/d-elearn/support/tutorials/discrubrics/disc1.php which I found very useful. I have copied this below and made some changes):
* Submit initial post(s) early in the session, and subsequent responses to the posts of other learners at timely intervals throughout the duration of the session. The goal is to have a dynamic discussion around the topic that lasts throughout the entire session (2 x a week). * Posts and responses should be thorough and thoughtful. Just posting an "I agree" or "Good ideas" will not be considered adequate. Support statements with examples, experiences, or references (particularly address our readings). Be brief — keep each post and response to one or two short paragraphs. Keep in mind that fellow learners will be reading and responding to you, too. * Posts should be within a range of 75-150 words. If a post does not meet the minimum word count of 75, I will not count it toward your grade. * Make certain that all posts and responses address the question, problem, or situation as presented for discussion. This does not mean you should not extend the topic, but do not stray from the topic. * Discussions occur when there is dialogue; therefore, you need to build upon the posts and responses of other learners to create discussion threads. Make sure to revisit the discussion forum and respond (if necessary) 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. (giving credit when appropriate). * Contributions to the discussions (posts and responses) should be complete and free of grammatical or structural errors.
Discussion Participation Rubric Criteria | Unsatisfactory | Satisfactory | Exemplary | Quantity and Timeliness | Does not submit at least one initial response early in the session and/or does not submit at least two peer responses closer to the end of the session. 0 point | Submits at least one initial response early in the session, and at least two peer responses closer to the end of the session. 1 point | Submits one initial response early in the session, and two or more thoughtful peer responses early in the session, and more than two peer responses closer to the end of the session. 2 points | Spelling and mechanics | Does not submit posts that are in complete sentences. Or two or more of the complete sentences are grammatically incorrect and have greater than 2 spelling errors. 0 point | Submits posts that have one or more grammatically incorrect sentences and two spelling errors. 1 point | 2Submits posts that contain grammatically correct sentences without any spelling errors. 2 points | Demonstrates knowledge and understanding of readings | Post(s) and responses show little evidence of knowledge and understanding of readings. 1 point | Post(s) and responses show evidence of knowledge and understanding of readings.2 point | Post(s) and responses show evidence of knowledge and understanding of readings, and include other resources that extend the learning of the community. 3 points | 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.
1 point | Posts attempt to elicit responses and reflections from other learners and responses build upon the ideas of other learners to take the discussion deeper. 2 points | Posts elicit responses and reflections from other learners and responses build upon and integrate multiple views from other learners to take the discussion deeper. 3 points |
Total Possible Points: 10 points
Credit to: ww2.nau.edu/d-elearn/support/tutorials/discrubrics/disc1.php
