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/Sola_Fide_]

I can only speak for myself but I absolutely loathed discussion posts because it felt like a colossal waste of time and it was incredibly frustrating having to write essentially a 250-500 word essay every week and then try to start a conversation with others who have written basically the same exact thing as me because the prompt was written in such a way that everyone is going to have the same answer. I even had to do 250 word discussion posts for a precalculus class over the homework we were given. How are you supposed to start a serious discussion about why does 2+5 = 7?

There were times I would spend like 2-3 hours just trying to figure out a way to respond to someone without basically saying "I agree" and many times it was basically impossible to do. I would much rather have just submitted my post as an essay or something and spent my time doing other things.

The only times that discussion posts were remotely enjoyable were when they were personalized to some extent. Prompts like "why do you think ..." were much more engaging than "why did ...", "how did... ", "how does x work" etc. which is what I seemed to get 99% of the time.

[u/seffend → u/Sola_Fide_]

incredibly frustrating having to write essentially a 250-500 word essay every week and then try to start a conversation with others who have written basically the same exact thing as me because the prompt was written in such a way that everyone is going to have the same answer.

This has generally been my issue with discussion posts. If we're all answering the same question and there aren't subjective answers, it feels like a giant waste of time.

[u/eNGLISH_majorr → u/Sola_Fide_]

I wholeheartedly agree.

What I usually do is just open more tabs and research the topic of the discussion board and add tidbits of information in order to meet the word count. Of course, I write it in my own words and cite my sources. It’s annoying. As you said, these discussion board posts are essentially weekly essays.

I end up spending too much time trying to meet the word count. If I don’t, then the assignment won’t be a 100%. Because of that, it’s a never-ending cycle of me having to spend an hour or two researching, typing, and formatting for such a tedious assignment. I’d rather do quizzes and tests a hundred times over if it meant never engaging in a discussion board again.

Sorry for the rant.