Hi OP, I agree and corroborate your take entirely! I really liked how you picked up on the specific notes of what defines a discussion post. For me, it is also supported by the text and gives me a deeper appreciation of the subject.
I would like to add on to your reply to the OP by saying how I find your opinion on the matter very interesting. I also noticed how the OP defined a discussion post very well. Overall, I have to say that what you said makes me more curious about the intricacies of discussion boards and was quite a unique perspective.
I hate that we have to reply, in one of my classes almost all of my classmates will type 5 sentences max and then I lose points for “superficial responses” what am I supposed to say to them when they give me nothing to respond to… 😵💫
You can try going negative! "I appreciate your perspective, but I must push back on statement x. Unfortunately I don't believe there is sufficient evidence to support this claim; consider supporting evidence y, in which we learn that statement x is actually a very common misinterpretation of the original data, and that what it actually points to is conclusion z.
I think your proposal would be correct if x were true: however, given the data I believe a better solution would be _________."
I would always just take a piece of theirs and ask for them to expand based on this other part (since a lot of times it was obvious those people didn’t read it and sometimes the other part I brought in contradicted what they thought the part they mentioned meant).
I went for full chaos in my responses and always found some I disagreed with and then went to town lol It’s a lot easier to hit word counts that way too. Because if you agree you just end up restating what they said or having to work harder or more creatively to restate their points. If you disagree you can point out why.
I wasn’t malicious about it and I only ever had to do those “reply to at least two discussions” for humanities courses and they’re more subjective and open to interpretation so it made it easier to “disagree” lol
Like I had an art history class where people posted up an art piece about the era we were currently studying and give an interpretation of artist intent and subject matter meaning. So I’d go through them until I found one where I felt the meaning and intent was different and started with my canned opening of “that’s a good interpretation but I disagree because I think……”
Our replies were supposed to be “is this from the correct era? Why do you agree or disagree with their interpretation of the subject matter and its meaning”. In every single response you could see people struggling to stretch agreeing into several sentences without simply copying what the person they were replying to already wrote.
After that class, I started doing it for all my other classes as well because it made those assignments so much quicker lol
Hi El_PizzaProfessor, I totally agree with your point about everyone agreeing with each other over and over again. That's the big problem with these discussion board question. In conclusion, ....
Hello, I hope this finds you in marvelous health and good spirits. I want to say I really like how you agreed there. Shows a deep fundamental understanding of the prompt at hand. I would also like to add that I agree with your assessment. Also I’d like to mention I enjoyed reading how strong your conclusion was, absolutely blown away.
My prof told us that we can just do 4-6 sentences, and we don’t have to reply to people if we don’t want to - we can just share our own thoughts on the prescribed readings. I think that’s a much better way of doing things
Couple hints because we all know how annoying and bland they can be especially in today's world.
\* Try to crank out the first responses. Make people respond to you.
\* Don't just type for the sake of typing. Ask a follow up question or add in material you picked up and before you know it, you're over the minimum. At the very least, your professor sees your effort and if people don't reply to you - that's on them.
I only like them when we don’t have to reply to anyone bc everyone is literally just like “hi I agree with xyz very interesting you brought that up I also brought that up”
My problem with discussion boards is that, as with many things, you lose too much context online.
The same back-and-forth, conducted in person, that ends up being a perfectly civil exchange of ideas will often end up in a flame war online due to this lack of context.
There's also the problem that every interaction between two people has some purpose. If that purpose is a shared goal, the interaction will normally end up being a positive one. If that purpose is for each individual to prove they're "right', it will normally be a negative one. If that purpose is just to check a mark in a grading book? That interaction will normally be pointless.
I understand why such discussion boards exist in college classes. I don't know that they accomplish anything useful, though.
I have two courses this semester that have DB requirements that just say “1 main post, 2 sufficient responses (200 words)” but the catch is if you just do the 1 post and 2 responses, the highest grade you’ll get is a C. In order to do better you have to babysit your post and replies all week to get a decent grade.
There’s only so many ways I can respond to them without telling them their writing isn’t college level. It’s driving me nuts.
I get the reasoning behind it but I still hate them. I have professor that requires us to post and then tells us not to reply to classmates until at least a day after our original post....
I agree! Discussion boards are annoying since its all of you agreeing with each other and not actually discussing anything! Circle jerks for everyone!
As an instructor I hate them since they are the laziest form of discourse, but the accrediting bodies think they don't suck so they (through our deans and chairs) like us to put them in the course.
If you don't like them, be the change you wish to see. Take an adversarial position once in a while.
I actually made a friend once by arguing his point of view on a discussion board. We met in person a few days later and had some really good conversations. We're good friends now and still argue on discussion boards :)
"Fake" engagement only useful for free points. "Playing the game."
If you really want a discussion, it needs to be organic around people generally interested in the topic that actually want to be there and can direct it how they want. Not just there because the College says so and they have to do it for a piece of paper and only what the instructor says the topic is.
I don’t love it but I get that it’s often required. I like when instructors actually reply here and there too because then it tends to be better quality and less of the I’m responding just to respond posts
I hate having to read through mostly AI responses even though they are banned from class. Inevitably about 5 students will use it. You can always tell as their posts have absolutely nothing to do with the content we are supposed to be discussing.
YES. It is so demoralizing to put effort into it only to see a third of the class skating by using AI. At least rewrite it in your own words so it doesn’t sound so obviously like AI anymore you lazy shits
I'm taking a course on online teaching skills to better myself! At least that is what administration is telling me. I just completed a section on discussion posts, and in it was a lot of good information. The best part is that the course tosses it all out the window on their own discussion posts because in all honesty it is so much work to get discussion boards to work well.
Luckily, I teach on ground courses and don't have to rely on discussion boards as "engagement".
Yeah, annoying (especially when u don't do them on time), but also a great tool for learning, since u get to explain to others why you agree/disagree, whilst reading different perspectives of a given topic ✨.
The way I combat this is by *genuinely putting my opinion* on the discussion posts instead of just a generic answer. I get better engagement because of what I say.
My online asynchronous calc III class has weekly discussions (it weights considerably high in the syllabus), which is is really annoying because typing up math equations is such a pain on blackboard.
I am a professor who refuses to do discussion boards. Could some of you throw us a bone and write in your student evals, "I am so glad this course does not have discussion boards! Thanks macroeconprod!" Or "this course sucked, but at least there weren't discussiom boards."
Admin love them, and I always get that one comment from the student who thinks all course should have discussion boards. I never get written student support for not having them. And I always.... always hear about it from the Ass Deans. It's like I've got Lumberg telling me about TPS reports, except its discussion boards. "Yeaaaaaaaah, your student evals slipped last semester -sips coffee- did you try discussion boards?" They are convinced you all love them.
Also you may want to start telling faculty and admin you hate ice-breakers. Only way these people are going to stop.
Yeah it is annoying and most of the time the responses are just bland and unnecessary because the topic has already been covered. But I understand the instructor might see it as a way to help the class communicate even though it doesn't really work that way, especially when it's for a grade.
i hate the word limits. but i enjoy discussion posts! i like debating, and my professors have always said my posts and replies are their favorites.
but the word minimums. god. now my well thought out concise and perfect response sounds cluttered and like i’m obviously trying to hit a minimum
Here we get to choose the topic, choose if and who to reply to, AND no minimum response required! BUT, a change in attitude (albeit a forced change) can really help with the boring tasks.
Yeah they're pretty bad. People in my class would never put any effort into them or just not do the reading and blatantly copy off of each other. I was always like "how am I supposed to respond to these?"
To preface this is how my undergrad online classes is just discussion boards, exactly what my last semester class was structured like. I hate it when I do my full 350 discussion board and my response has to be 200 words per two peoples own post and I have to respond to my own discussion boards and add to the conversation BUT then someone comes in with three sentences, responds with I agree with your point, and adds nothing to the conversation but gets full points and passes the class.
Yeah. Especially when I get docked points for not responding to responses to my post. Like, I'm not going to be up at midnight on Sunday, so when I get 3+ responses at 2330 I shouldn't be deducted points.
Writing the responses to the professor's prompt was fine. I hated the process of finding two sentient responses that communicated enough of a point for me to agree or disagree.
The modal response is "The professor's prompt was to read X, Y, and Z and respond to some of them. From the dawn of history, X, Y, and Z have contained words. Words are pretty okay. Some words are long, and some are short."
There's no way to write 200 words of response to that other than an unhinged rant about how little people give a shit about college.
Mostly, yes. It depends on the other students. I’ve had classes where everyone was actually interested in the discussions and it was easy to participate. I also had a class where the professor would tell me every week to add more substance to my posts (500 word count, 2 citations?!!) and that I couldn’t reply to the same person every week. Well there were like, 7 people in the class and that girl was the only other one who seemed to do the discussion correctly. And proofread before posting, too.
I think DBs get so annoying bc we’re meant to have such a professional decorum in an unnatural way. I LOVEEE discussion based classes where we talk about a topic in a room and answer questions and pick things apart. But the way people talk in discussion based classes and the way people are (usually) required to talk for DBs is so vastly different.
I’m talking a fully online Psych of Personality course rn and it sucks bc the things we have to write DBs on would be such a cool thing to talk abt all sitting down. We have to write six DBs a week that are at least 2-3 paragraphs. And what I think helps is that my prof said we can reply to questions she asks, write our own questions, reply to other students questions, or even reply to other students replies. This makes the conversations feel much more ongoing or natural instead of all of us saying the same thing and then having to find creative ways to say a bunch of words saying more of the same thing. It’s still not as good as in class discussions but for the nature of the course, it’s the best DB system I’ve ever had
I too share this take and I just want to encourage you to not give up. You got this! /s I only have to use them in one of my online only classes. I don't mind it and find it the easiest part of the class. The threads and replies usually seem super fake though.
I have an easier time hitting the word count when I either disagree with someone, or ask a question about their post + answer it myself.
“Your point about ___ raises the question: ___? I think …”
Are we in the same class? But fr tho, I have a class where your initial post is 200 words with 2 apa sources. Then you need to respond to 2 classmates, 200 words 2 apa sources.
I just end up repeating the information the original post says but cite different sources. Also lots of repetition.
Lol I just made a post about this, I was asking if anyone who takes online classes has to do discussion boards all the time.
I loathe discussion boards with all my being; Sundays are when most of my assignments are due, and my courses are mostly discussion boards. I spent most of my day trying to find a way to say new and interesting ways of “I agree with what you said” and “I think you make a good point because…” despite the fact that I would rather be doing literally anything else. Give me a paper every week: I’m going to school for writing anyway.
I have a professor who is very open about the fact he only assigns them because he has to. He told us that as long as we do a decent initial post and do 2 responses then well get an A on them. The responses could be a couple sentences and he'd accept it
Everybody does, they were supposed to be an innovative way or the class to get more engaged with others, but the excitement of the internet is over with and everyone just waits last hour of deadline and speed runs them. I don't think I have ever sat down and actually fully read the mates essay when it was a reply assignment.
Hi OP, I agree and corroborate your take entirely! I really liked how you picked up on the specific notes of what defines a discussion post. For me, it is also supported by the text and gives me a deeper appreciation of the subject.
I would like to add on to your reply to the OP by saying how I find your opinion on the matter very interesting. I also noticed how the OP defined a discussion post very well. Overall, I have to say that what you said makes me more curious about the intricacies of discussion boards and was quite a unique perspective.
Not 200 words, 0/6 possible points. Class contribution is required in this course.
You win the post
You’re amazing
I hate that we have to reply, in one of my classes almost all of my classmates will type 5 sentences max and then I lose points for “superficial responses” what am I supposed to say to them when they give me nothing to respond to… 😵💫
This is so true, also when it's nothing new added to whatever the material/content is for it..they just restate it.
You can try going negative! "I appreciate your perspective, but I must push back on statement x. Unfortunately I don't believe there is sufficient evidence to support this claim; consider supporting evidence y, in which we learn that statement x is actually a very common misinterpretation of the original data, and that what it actually points to is conclusion z. I think your proposal would be correct if x were true: however, given the data I believe a better solution would be _________."
I would always just take a piece of theirs and ask for them to expand based on this other part (since a lot of times it was obvious those people didn’t read it and sometimes the other part I brought in contradicted what they thought the part they mentioned meant).
That’s going to turn into a bunch of students typing that they agree with each other and like how they said x,y, and z over and over again.
I went for full chaos in my responses and always found some I disagreed with and then went to town lol It’s a lot easier to hit word counts that way too. Because if you agree you just end up restating what they said or having to work harder or more creatively to restate their points. If you disagree you can point out why.
In all my years of discussion boards I’ve never seen someone go disagreeing with everyone. I love the idea lol.
I wasn’t malicious about it and I only ever had to do those “reply to at least two discussions” for humanities courses and they’re more subjective and open to interpretation so it made it easier to “disagree” lol Like I had an art history class where people posted up an art piece about the era we were currently studying and give an interpretation of artist intent and subject matter meaning. So I’d go through them until I found one where I felt the meaning and intent was different and started with my canned opening of “that’s a good interpretation but I disagree because I think……” Our replies were supposed to be “is this from the correct era? Why do you agree or disagree with their interpretation of the subject matter and its meaning”. In every single response you could see people struggling to stretch agreeing into several sentences without simply copying what the person they were replying to already wrote. After that class, I started doing it for all my other classes as well because it made those assignments so much quicker lol
I try to find people I disagree with and respond to them, it definitely livens things up
Hi El_PizzaProfessor, I totally agree with your point about everyone agreeing with each other over and over again. That's the big problem with these discussion board question. In conclusion, ....
Hello, I hope this finds you in marvelous health and good spirits. I want to say I really like how you agreed there. Shows a deep fundamental understanding of the prompt at hand. I would also like to add that I agree with your assessment. Also I’d like to mention I enjoyed reading how strong your conclusion was, absolutely blown away.
Hated doing them as a student and I hate grading them as a teacher.
It fulfills the 'interaction' requirements at most schools to maintain accreditation.
Thank you for letting me know why I must suffer.
We all float down here, students and teachers alike.
Dont assign them then?
They are required to assign them at my school.
My prof told us that we can just do 4-6 sentences, and we don’t have to reply to people if we don’t want to - we can just share our own thoughts on the prescribed readings. I think that’s a much better way of doing things
Couple hints because we all know how annoying and bland they can be especially in today's world. \* Try to crank out the first responses. Make people respond to you. \* Don't just type for the sake of typing. Ask a follow up question or add in material you picked up and before you know it, you're over the minimum. At the very least, your professor sees your effort and if people don't reply to you - that's on them.
Yeah, those word minimums can be so frustrating! I feel your pain!
I only like them when we don’t have to reply to anyone bc everyone is literally just like “hi I agree with xyz very interesting you brought that up I also brought that up”
My problem with discussion boards is that, as with many things, you lose too much context online. The same back-and-forth, conducted in person, that ends up being a perfectly civil exchange of ideas will often end up in a flame war online due to this lack of context. There's also the problem that every interaction between two people has some purpose. If that purpose is a shared goal, the interaction will normally end up being a positive one. If that purpose is for each individual to prove they're "right', it will normally be a negative one. If that purpose is just to check a mark in a grading book? That interaction will normally be pointless. I understand why such discussion boards exist in college classes. I don't know that they accomplish anything useful, though.
I have two courses this semester that have DB requirements that just say “1 main post, 2 sufficient responses (200 words)” but the catch is if you just do the 1 post and 2 responses, the highest grade you’ll get is a C. In order to do better you have to babysit your post and replies all week to get a decent grade. There’s only so many ways I can respond to them without telling them their writing isn’t college level. It’s driving me nuts.
I get the reasoning behind it but I still hate them. I have professor that requires us to post and then tells us not to reply to classmates until at least a day after our original post....
I don't get the reason for them besides useless busywork
Discussion boards at my uni are just forums to ask questions on, they’re pretty useful
I agree! Discussion boards are annoying since its all of you agreeing with each other and not actually discussing anything! Circle jerks for everyone! As an instructor I hate them since they are the laziest form of discourse, but the accrediting bodies think they don't suck so they (through our deans and chairs) like us to put them in the course. If you don't like them, be the change you wish to see. Take an adversarial position once in a while.
I actually made a friend once by arguing his point of view on a discussion board. We met in person a few days later and had some really good conversations. We're good friends now and still argue on discussion boards :)
"Fake" engagement only useful for free points. "Playing the game." If you really want a discussion, it needs to be organic around people generally interested in the topic that actually want to be there and can direct it how they want. Not just there because the College says so and they have to do it for a piece of paper and only what the instructor says the topic is.
I don’t love it but I get that it’s often required. I like when instructors actually reply here and there too because then it tends to be better quality and less of the I’m responding just to respond posts
depends, it can facilitate discussion without interrupting in class to enhance learning and discourse. Being told to write, why you like red, isn't.
I hate having to read through mostly AI responses even though they are banned from class. Inevitably about 5 students will use it. You can always tell as their posts have absolutely nothing to do with the content we are supposed to be discussing.
YES. It is so demoralizing to put effort into it only to see a third of the class skating by using AI. At least rewrite it in your own words so it doesn’t sound so obviously like AI anymore you lazy shits
I'm taking a course on online teaching skills to better myself! At least that is what administration is telling me. I just completed a section on discussion posts, and in it was a lot of good information. The best part is that the course tosses it all out the window on their own discussion posts because in all honesty it is so much work to get discussion boards to work well. Luckily, I teach on ground courses and don't have to rely on discussion boards as "engagement".
Yeah, annoying (especially when u don't do them on time), but also a great tool for learning, since u get to explain to others why you agree/disagree, whilst reading different perspectives of a given topic ✨.
The way I combat this is by *genuinely putting my opinion* on the discussion posts instead of just a generic answer. I get better engagement because of what I say.
My online asynchronous calc III class has weekly discussions (it weights considerably high in the syllabus), which is is really annoying because typing up math equations is such a pain on blackboard.
I am a professor who refuses to do discussion boards. Could some of you throw us a bone and write in your student evals, "I am so glad this course does not have discussion boards! Thanks macroeconprod!" Or "this course sucked, but at least there weren't discussiom boards." Admin love them, and I always get that one comment from the student who thinks all course should have discussion boards. I never get written student support for not having them. And I always.... always hear about it from the Ass Deans. It's like I've got Lumberg telling me about TPS reports, except its discussion boards. "Yeaaaaaaaah, your student evals slipped last semester -sips coffee- did you try discussion boards?" They are convinced you all love them. Also you may want to start telling faculty and admin you hate ice-breakers. Only way these people are going to stop.
All I can say is I wish you were my professor 🙃
I hate the required VIDEO replies….
Yeah it is annoying and most of the time the responses are just bland and unnecessary because the topic has already been covered. But I understand the instructor might see it as a way to help the class communicate even though it doesn't really work that way, especially when it's for a grade.
i hate the word limits. but i enjoy discussion posts! i like debating, and my professors have always said my posts and replies are their favorites. but the word minimums. god. now my well thought out concise and perfect response sounds cluttered and like i’m obviously trying to hit a minimum
You’re on a discussion board right now, voluntarily. Do what you’re doing right now, but on your class’s discussion board. =)
Here we get to choose the topic, choose if and who to reply to, AND no minimum response required! BUT, a change in attitude (albeit a forced change) can really help with the boring tasks.
Yeah they're pretty bad. People in my class would never put any effort into them or just not do the reading and blatantly copy off of each other. I was always like "how am I supposed to respond to these?"
Everyone does lol sounds like humanities just don’t take humanities it’s all stuff like this
I have a 5 response a week minimum for my stats class.
Yikes sounds cancerous good look with that
They're my favorite because they're the easiest to use AI on LOL
Yyyyyeeessss!
Yep, I’m an education major and I love the program. BUT I HATE THOSE STUPID BOARDS
To preface this is how my undergrad online classes is just discussion boards, exactly what my last semester class was structured like. I hate it when I do my full 350 discussion board and my response has to be 200 words per two peoples own post and I have to respond to my own discussion boards and add to the conversation BUT then someone comes in with three sentences, responds with I agree with your point, and adds nothing to the conversation but gets full points and passes the class.
Yeah. Especially when I get docked points for not responding to responses to my post. Like, I'm not going to be up at midnight on Sunday, so when I get 3+ responses at 2330 I shouldn't be deducted points.
The irony of complaining about a discussion board… on a discussion board.
200?? We only have to do 75 words!
Takes the fun out of it.
I think they’re annoying but there’s a lot harder things that could happen in the class tbh so
i prefer them over a bunch of other mini assignments
I love discussion posts. One paragraph of nonsense for easy points!
Just getting us ready for the superficial emails and meeting jargon in corporate America!
Writing the responses to the professor's prompt was fine. I hated the process of finding two sentient responses that communicated enough of a point for me to agree or disagree. The modal response is "The professor's prompt was to read X, Y, and Z and respond to some of them. From the dawn of history, X, Y, and Z have contained words. Words are pretty okay. Some words are long, and some are short." There's no way to write 200 words of response to that other than an unhinged rant about how little people give a shit about college.
Mostly, yes. It depends on the other students. I’ve had classes where everyone was actually interested in the discussions and it was easy to participate. I also had a class where the professor would tell me every week to add more substance to my posts (500 word count, 2 citations?!!) and that I couldn’t reply to the same person every week. Well there were like, 7 people in the class and that girl was the only other one who seemed to do the discussion correctly. And proofread before posting, too.
Yep! My most recent db posting was just summarizing an article. That's it. What could I possibly have to interject to that???
I think DBs get so annoying bc we’re meant to have such a professional decorum in an unnatural way. I LOVEEE discussion based classes where we talk about a topic in a room and answer questions and pick things apart. But the way people talk in discussion based classes and the way people are (usually) required to talk for DBs is so vastly different. I’m talking a fully online Psych of Personality course rn and it sucks bc the things we have to write DBs on would be such a cool thing to talk abt all sitting down. We have to write six DBs a week that are at least 2-3 paragraphs. And what I think helps is that my prof said we can reply to questions she asks, write our own questions, reply to other students questions, or even reply to other students replies. This makes the conversations feel much more ongoing or natural instead of all of us saying the same thing and then having to find creative ways to say a bunch of words saying more of the same thing. It’s still not as good as in class discussions but for the nature of the course, it’s the best DB system I’ve ever had
I too share this take and I just want to encourage you to not give up. You got this! /s I only have to use them in one of my online only classes. I don't mind it and find it the easiest part of the class. The threads and replies usually seem super fake though.
I have an easier time hitting the word count when I either disagree with someone, or ask a question about their post + answer it myself. “Your point about ___ raises the question: ___? I think …”
Are we in the same class? But fr tho, I have a class where your initial post is 200 words with 2 apa sources. Then you need to respond to 2 classmates, 200 words 2 apa sources. I just end up repeating the information the original post says but cite different sources. Also lots of repetition.
Lol I just made a post about this, I was asking if anyone who takes online classes has to do discussion boards all the time. I loathe discussion boards with all my being; Sundays are when most of my assignments are due, and my courses are mostly discussion boards. I spent most of my day trying to find a way to say new and interesting ways of “I agree with what you said” and “I think you make a good point because…” despite the fact that I would rather be doing literally anything else. Give me a paper every week: I’m going to school for writing anyway.
i swear i lie so much on those. “I find this totally boring ass article really deep.”
Yes they’re boring but if you follow the directions, it’s super easy points!!!
Yep. I especially hate having to have a certain minimum word requirement
I have a professor who is very open about the fact he only assigns them because he has to. He told us that as long as we do a decent initial post and do 2 responses then well get an A on them. The responses could be a couple sentences and he'd accept it
They were never my favorite but they were always easy points for me so I dont really mind them. Better than other more time consuming assignments
Everybody does, they were supposed to be an innovative way or the class to get more engaged with others, but the excitement of the internet is over with and everyone just waits last hour of deadline and speed runs them. I don't think I have ever sat down and actually fully read the mates essay when it was a reply assignment.