Writing Strategies for Online Courses Courtney Doi Ext. 4294

Discussion Boards Provide clear expectations and directions with models of effective and ineffective posts. Just a heads up: on any and all forums, please make sure you refrain from using texting shorthand. This is, after all, a college class. That means, no symbols and no "u" for you, etc. That also means you need to use appropriate capitalization (I, not i) and appropriate punctuation.

Discussion Boards A discussion forum post should be a thorough and quality response to the prompt. The forum post should also be least 150 words long and should be presented in standard English. All forum assignments can earn a maximum of 10 points. To earn full points, you must post your thoughts and respond to at least two classmates. You will receive up to 6 points for your main post. You will receive up to 2 points for each of your responses to classmates. If you use any outside sources as you compose your forum posts, you must correctly cite those sources in the forum post.

Discussion Boards Develop a heuristic or discussion pattern. (Questions at end of post or inclusion of web links.) Utilize a rubric.

Rubric Samples Component:Value:Earned:  Initial Response is substantive, clearly addressing the question and developing the answer in full paragraph form: 3  Initial Response was posted on time: 1  Replies are substantive, thoughtful, and original and reflect careful reading of the posts: 4  Replies were posted on time and on two separate days: 1  Postings are, for the most part, grammatically correct and appropriate in tone and content: 1 Totals:10 English E: Discussion Forum Evaluation (Sarah Boone)

Sample Discussion Board Activities “Web Field Trips Brainstorming Problem-Solving Writing Groups Case Analysis Collaborative Writing Cooperative Debate Discussion of Course Readings Research Bank” (Blackboard 9.0)

Other Vehicles for Writing Wikis for group projects Journal entries Glossary entries Summary projects

Responding to Student Writing Entire class response Small group response Scattered response News forum posts