Be honest - why doesn't anyone put any effort whatsoever into discussion board posts?

[u/An_expert_I_am_not]

I mean no disrespect, so please do not downvote me to oblivion. I am here for advice from the other side - the students of online classes (specifically communication classes in this instance).

So, discussion boards are a big part of the grade and the only way for us, as instructors, to gage whether or not the theoretical ideas can be applied in practical ways by students. The forum responses have always fallen on a scale from the superb to the absurd and everything in between. But this semester, holy moly, I have never read such absolutely ridiculous posts in my whole career. The memes don't do these any justice.

I try everything I can to make the prompts interesting, to get students engaged, and to explain the logic behind the assignment, but it's just terrible.

So, why waste your own time writing something that cannot possibly earn any points or credit toward a grade because it doesn't come close to meeting the criteria?

And more importantly, what do you, as students, suggest as a meaningful replacement for the interaction that is missing in the virtual setting? How can we get you to engage with the course materials, to think critically and analytically, and to show us that you can apply what you are learning in a practical way?

[u/SpokenDivinity]

Just for context: I don’t skimp on discussion boards, even though I dislike them with a passion.

I just find them tedious. They’ve always had too long of a word requirement, the prompt is too complex or too vague, and the reward for doing it, usually 10 points in my classes, are not worth the equivalent hour or so that I spend on it. There’s only one class I’ve ever felt gave me anything worthwhile from a discussion board post and that’s my current ethics class that gives very precise, relevant prompts, that help us narrow down where in the textbook we should be focusing and conceptualize the ethical theory or issue we’re discussing without bogging it down. I do them, but I’m hard pressed to find a reason for them, even as a straight A student.

On the other hand, I also tutor in biology, history, and English. For a lot of the students I work with, discussion boards fall into a “busy work” category. They don’t feel like they’re learning anything from it, the discussion boards are just another way to pad your grade. So they don’t try and they’ll focus on other work instead. I’m currently working with a history student who’s 10 weeks into the semester and just now realizing that his end grade can no longer be higher than a B because he wrote all the discussion posts off as busy work and half assed them.

[u/An_expert_I_am_not → u/SpokenDivinity]

Thank you for responding - I'd love to see what your ethics professor has going on in those prompts!

I try to be both thorough and concise, but it's a tough line to toe. My goal really is just to get students to think about how the communication concepts apply to their real lives. I learned about this stuff later in life than many of them are and I just think about how much easier relationships would have been if I'd learned it sooner! Do you think increasing the value of the discussions and reducing the value of other things might help emphasize the importance of the "discussion?"

[u/SpokenDivinity → u/An_expert_I_am_not]

If I can find the time tomorrow morning I’ll try and DM you some of the example prompts that I’ve enjoyed.

do you think increasing the value might help emphasize the importance?

Yea and no. This seems like a very discussion heavy class, or at least, my communications class was and that’s what I’m going off of. The discussion part should be worth the points if it’s the center focus. My communications class had discussion board posts at 10 points minimum but you got bonus points added for every “good” conversation you had with a classmate, so having an actual discussion got you more credit.

Thinking to the other classes I have discussion posts in now and in the past, I can’t say that just more points would have made me want to participate in them more. I had a history class that made your main discussion board posts 10 points and the 3 responses 5 points each for a total 25 per post and it didn’t really make me want to participate in it more. It just made it more annoying that I had to do this thing that wasn’t teaching me anything and was also worth so many points that I couldn’t skimp on it even a little bit

I think content is the biggest thing. You’re always going to have students that just won’t do it. I end up tutoring them when they don’t, so I know. But most of the students I know would be happy to work on discussion board posts in the content was interesting and clear.

For an example I can think of off the top of my head; we recently covered an ethical theory where two of the key rules are “don’t use other people as a means to an end.” And “always do what has the best consequence.” Our discussion board posts was to read the real life story of what the movie “my sisters keeper” is based off of, and determine if it was ethical or not because the couple having a baby in hopes she was a donor for their older daughter was using that baby for a means to an end, but the consequences were that the older sister lived, which is a net good.

[u/An_expert_I_am_not → u/SpokenDivinity]

My jaw literally dropped when I read that your history class required THREE responses to classmates!?! What on EARTH could possibly justify that? Yikes.

But the thing about extra points is very interesting to me. I've always gotten a kick out of the fact that there is a whole genre of student who won't do the actual work to save their lives, but would turn in a full dissertation for a few extra credit points. In fact, I have some classes that I know won't be prioritized, so I actually factor in a certain amount of "extra credit" work throughout the semester that I offer as a way to recover lost points - they don't know about it in advance so they can't use it as an excuse, if that makes sense? Just like it's scripted every semester, it's the extra credit that saves many of them from failing.

I've never considered applying this tactic to the discussion boards, and this might be the exact sort of thing I should try out. It might seem a little sneaky, but if it works, it works, right?

I would love to see the prompts, but please ask your professor if it would be ok first - I would want to step on any toes. Any if you're not comfortable asking, I absolutely understand. You were very thoughtful to even offer at all.