Discussions

Discussion Tips

The following information provides tips on the best way to prepare students for using Discussions and tips on how to write good discussion questions.

Providing Discussion Guidelines and/or Expectations

In your syllabus and probably even in a "Getting Started" page in your Course Modules, make sure and define exactly what you expect from students when posting to discussions. This can include general netiquette information Links to an external site., use of full sentences, citing sources, and specific information on how discussions will be graded (include quantity and quality of posts!).

The general rule of thumb is to have students post once to the discussion question and reply to at least two of their peers. In addition, it is normal to require students to respond to any questions asked of their initial posting. 

Writing Good Discussion Questions

Asking the right question(s) is vital to creating a good discussion in your course. The following are some possible question types you could use in your discussions:

• Advantages or Disadvantages Question: Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using solar power.
• Controversial Question: Should military women be able to serve in combat situations?
• Reading Assignment Question: Using information from Chapter 3 on Behavior Modification, pick one theory and give an example of how it could explain something in everyday life.
• Library/Research Question: Pick a recent (within 2 years) article from the American Journal of Nursing and provide a brief summary of the article and how it relates to your future career as a nurse.
• Weekly Reading: Pick two important ideas from the reading for this week and briefly summarize why you think they are important and how they relate to the overall chapter as a whole. 
• Project Update Questions: Have students provide updates on how they are coming along with their project and/or paper. This is a great way to keep students on task and make sure they aren't waiting until the last minute to work on a big project!

Creating Discussions

There are important considerations to make when deciding how you want to create your discussions. When a discussion is first created it is a blank shell, below and on the following tabs you will learn how to add content and correctly apply settings.

**Note: You may have already created the shells of your Discussions while working through this Training. If you have then the information below is for future and additional reference information.**

Ways to Create a Discussion

There are three main ways to create a discussion, from the Assignment Index page, Modules, or the Discussions Index page.

Online Learning recommends creating your discussions on the Assignments Index page. While it may seem easier to add a discussion directly to a Module or from the Discussion Index page, you then need to go back and add it to the gradebook. If you set your gradebook and discussions up first, then you can easily add a discussion to the Modules page and they will automatically populate in the Discussion Index.

Creating a Discussion from the Assignments Index Page

Information on how to create a discussion from the Assignments Index Page is provided in Module 5 under Setting up your Gradebook or you can see the following guide - How do I create an assignment?

Creating a Discussion from the Module Page

Information on how to create a discussion from the Modules Page is provided in Module 7 under Modules or see the following guide - How do I add items to a module?

Creating a Discussion from the Discussion Index Page

Information on how to create a discussion from the Discussion Index page can be found on the following guide - How do I create a discussion as an Instructor? Links to an external site.

Discussion Settings

After a discussion has been created instructors then need to set up the discussion settings. The following information will show you how to do this.

Global Discussion Settings

In Canvas there are important global discussion settings that you can apply either from your Course Settings or from the Discussion link/index. These features include:

• Manually mark posts as read Links to an external site. - by default Discussion posts are marked as read when users view each post. This features gives instructors the option to manually mark when discussion posts have been read.
• Create discussion topics Links to an external site. - this feature allows students to create their own discussion forums within your course. Most instructors do not want this feature available to students.
• Edit and delete their own posts Links to an external site. - this feature allows students to edit or delete their existing posts. If the post is edited, there is no history for the Instructor to look at to see what was changed. If the post was deleted, the instructor has no idea what the post was or whose post it was. Most instructors do not want this feature available to students.
• Attach files to discussions Links to an external site. - this feature allows students to attach files to their discussion posts. Some instructors may want students to have this ability and there is no specific reason to not allows students to have this ability.

Different Discussion Due Dates for Different Students

If you need to give a student (or students) different discussion due dates compared to the rest of the class you can do this using the Differentiated Assignment feature in Canvas. When you do this students only see the due date they are assigned, they do not see the dates for other students. For more information see the following guides.

• How do I assign a graded discussion to an individual student? Links to an external site.
• How do I assign a graded discussion to a course group? Links to an external site.
• How do I assign a graded discussion to a course section? Links to an external site.

Threaded vs. Focused Discussions

One option you have when you're setting up your discussion is whether you want it to be a "threaded" discussion or a "focused" discussion. For more information on the difference and when you would use each type see the following guide - What is the difference between threaded and focused discussions? Links to an external site.

Directions for Applying Discussion Settings

Rubrics

Rubrics are a great way to communicate assignment expectations to your students and let them know up front how you are grading their Discussions. Rubrics are also a huge time saver for faculty and make grading a lot easier!

Information on the advantages of using Rubrics and how to design them can be found on this page - Rubrics.

Creating and Adding a Rubric to a Discussion

Below are the general directions on how to create and add a rubric to an discussion:

• How do I create a rubric in a course? Links to an external site.
• How do I add a rubric to a graded discussion? Links to an external site.
• How do I manage rubrics in a course? Links to an external site.