JT Learn Week: Discussion Boards

JT Learn allows teachers to create discussion boards at the course level or period level using Feature Builder. Within the discussion boards, all students have the ability to post messages and respond to others. Edutopia.org offers a helpful list citing the benefits of using online discussion boards in the classroom: 

Image taken from: http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/stw/edutopia-onlinelearning-mastering-online-discussion-board-facilitation.pdf

To get started with discussion boards on JT Learn, you must use Feature Builder. Located on your teacher page, Feature Builder allows you to create a discussion board with the correct permissions for all students.

Once the discussion board is created, you can then add questions for students to respond to by just clicking "add new discussion". After you add a new discussion, move forward by typing in the question and selecting save.

Students are then able to click on the question and reply to it. They can also respond to other classmates as well by just clicking reply in the far right corner of the question.

When you and students view questions and replies within the discussion board, there are two viewing options: flat and threaded.

• Flat: All replies and questions will appear in chronological order according to the time-stamp
• Threaded: All replies will appear under the post where reply was clicked

The threaded view makes it a bit easier to follow along in the overall conversation. If left on flat view, a student responding in the evening to a question posted in the morning would place the two posts very far from one another because of the time stamp.

To change between flat and threaded views:

Click on the Question in the discussion board – click list – under current view choose flat or threaded

As discussion boards offer numerous benefits in the classroom, it is important to prepare students to navigate within them, but also how to use proper discussion board etiquette. The infographic below created by Touro College’s Online Education Department offers 15 quick rules for Online Discussion Board Netiquette; click on the image to enlarge:

If you plan on implementing discussion boards on your JT Learn page, explore these resources for further ideas, inspiration, and support:

Mastering Online Discussion Board Facilitation Resource Guide

Improving the Use of Discussion Boards
Generating and Facilitating Engaging and Effective Online Discussions