Using The Discussion Board in Blackboard

Just as most classroom teachers alternate lectures with more student-centered activities such as classroom discussions, online teaching is especially enhanced by including discussion groups (called Discussion Board Forums in Blackboard). The main goal of discussion group work to to place the emphasis on the student processing information in some way, versus just receiving information from a printed page.

• Creating a Discussion Board
• Posting a message or reply
• Best Practices

Creating a Discussion Board

1. Control panel>>course tools >>discussion board
2. Click on add forum ; type title
3. Type directions into the description box
4. Click submit and ok
   
   

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Posting a message or reply to a Discussion Board Forum

Once you have created a forum, students will click on the Discussion Board button in your main Blackboard course site panel, and then click on the forum name. Only the teacher can Modify or Remove the forum.

Click on the Forum to read or post messages.
To post a message, click on

To read a message, click on the message title.

After reading the message the following options are available:

Messages are listed in a chronological order on the discussion board page.

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Best Practices

Each setting serves different discussion board needs. Click the box next to options for specific results.

For example:
If you wish to have an honest, controversial discussion, then allowing anonymous posts will suppress student information. If you wish to give individual credit for participating, you will need to display that information.

Or: If you are grading posted messages for spelling and grammar, you may wish to allow author to modify message after posting . If you want students to be able to upload attachments, you will need to check that box.

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