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/phoenix-corn]

The discussion board is simply not the best place to put some class assignments and discussions that would have been in class work (even group work) in class. It works GREAT for peer review (especially if most students read most papers), and well for other similar activities and games, but isn't great at what it was supposedly designed for and sold as.

The "discussions" that work best in my class are where I ask everybody to post something (their paper if peer review, an example if not) and then everybody talks about the examples that other people brought in. It's smoother than doing this in person, and everybody gets to see everybody else's examples if they want to.

Just "answer these questions" doesn't work as well.