Discussion Boards

Discussion Boards are a commonly-used Blackboard feature that can serve various purposes (list taken from Blackboard Help - Discussions):

• An online meeting place for social interaction among peers
• An additional medium for collaboration and the exchange of ideas
• A medium to pose questions about homework assignments, readings, and course content
• A way to demonstrate the understanding or application of course material
• A record of discussion that members can review at a later point
• A graded activity that demonstrates understanding or application of course material

View Blackboard Learn's video (below) for a comprehensive overview of how discussions work:

The possibilities for incorporating discussion boards into a course, be it online or face-to-face, are numerous.  Instructors could create a number of forums that present questions, and students could answer by creating new threads within the forum and interacting with one another within these threads.  Questions could be related to content from the textbook, current events/issues related to course content, or extensions of in-class discussions.  Instructors could also create a number of threads in relation to a forum topic (restricting students from creating new threads), and students could choose to respond to one or two threads of choice or respond to threads according to group assignments from the instructor.  Visit Blackboard Help's official page, About Forums and Threads, for additional information.

We typically recommend including a general questions forum that could be called something like "Ask the Instructor."  Encourage students to use this forum to ask general questions about the course or assignments (not personal questions about issues like grades), rather than emailing questions to you.  You might even consider allowing students to post anonymously to this forum, as some may be more likely to ask questions if their name is not connected to it.

Blackboard Help's Set Up Discussions page also provides several helpful tips for developing effective discussions, including defining participation requirements, crafting effective questions, encouraging new ideas, and moderating forums.  There are several options available in terms of setting how much control you allow students to have within the forum.  This help page also discusses options for making discussion forums and threads available to students via either the navigation menu or tool links within course areas - it would be helpful to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each option.  TLC staff is available to help you explore options and determine which method will work best in each of your course settings.

---

Visit Blackboard Help's official page on Discussions for additional information, ideas, and links to supplemental topics related to Blackboard discussions.

In the next couple of weeks we'll focus on other collaborative Blackboard tools like Blogs, Journals, and Wikis, as well as best practices for using any of the tools individually or in combination.