Navigating an online discussion forum can be challenging, especially for students who may struggle to find a clear structure for their responses. However, mastering the key components of a discussion post is crucial for staying on topic, engaging effectively with peers, and meeting the assignment’s expectations. Without this guidance, students risk posting irrelevant content or missing important points, which could affect their grades.
A high-quality discussion post should flow naturally with the topic at hand, while maintaining focus and adhering to the prompt. Some discussions will require more in-depth analysis, while others may invite open-ended responses. No matter the nature of the discussion, if you follow these steps, you’ll be well on your way to acing your posts.
Typically, an effective discussion post includes three essential parts:
1. Introduction: Hook and Context
- Engage the reader: Begin with a hook that captures attention, such as a compelling question or interesting fact related to the prompt.
- Clarify your focus: Introduce the topic and provide a clear thesis or central argument that you’ll explore in your post. Be specific about the angle you’ll take to avoid vague responses.
- Preview the structure: Briefly mention the key points or subtopics you’ll address in the body, helping guide the reader through your argument.
2. Body: Develop Your Argument with Evidence
- Expand on your thesis: Dive deeper into your main idea by providing analysis, reasoning, and relevant evidence. Be sure to include specific examples or data to strengthen your position.
- Stay on topic: Ensure your points directly respond to the discussion prompt and your thesis. Avoid going off on tangents, as this can weaken your overall argument.
- Incorporate peer engagement: Respond thoughtfully to other students’ posts. You can agree or respectfully disagree, but always provide additional insights or ask questions to deepen the conversation. Engaging critically with peers demonstrates strong communication and critical thinking skills.
3. Conclusion: Summarize and Provoke Further Thought
- Reinforce your thesis: Summarize the key points made in the body and reiterate your main argument, showing how you’ve supported it.
- Encourage further discussion: Pose a question, offer a new perspective, or suggest a related topic that invites others to continue the conversation. This keeps the discussion active and shows your willingness to engage with other viewpoints.
Final Tips for Success:
- Be respectful: Always maintain a respectful tone, especially when responding to differing opinions. This fosters a positive learning environment.
- Follow guidelines: Pay close attention to any specific instructions provided by your instructor, such as word count, citation style, or formatting rules.
- Cite sources: If you’re referencing readings, research, or other materials, make sure to properly cite them. This adds credibility to your argument and avoids plagiarism.
By mastering these key parts, you can elevate the quality of your discussion posts, leading to more engaging conversations and better academic outcomes.
How to Write an Effective Discussion Post
Using the parts of a discussion post mentioned above, you can now compose some of the best posts overall. Ideally, it takes time and practice to perfect your posts and make them more op-topic. By this stage, you probably already know that there’s no hand-raising when using online classrooms.
There’s no vigorous head nodding as an agreement to a great point made by a classmate. You cannot approach your professor after a lecture as it is in a physical classroom.
However, when used appropriately, online discussion posts are an excellent tool for both students and instructors. These forums can help students to connect more with their course classmates, instructors, and courses being taught. Students can actually learn more from online discussions than from other parts of the course if they work as intended.
To make that possible, here are some expert tips on how you can ace your online discussion board sessions:
Step 1: Understand instructors directions for the discussion post
One of the most important parts of a discussion post is the directions provided by the instructor. Unlike in a face-to-face conversation where you can jump from one topic to another, writing sessions are much stricter. Composing a discussion post doesn’t provide you with the luxury to jump from one topic to another.
You must stick to the topic in question lest you end up confusing other members in the forum. Ensure, therefore, refrain from presenting jumbled ideas. It’s imperative that you compose organized discussion posts as if they were any other formal writing.
Syllabuses typically outline specific instructions and directions that govern how online discussions are used. As a result, it’s imperative that you read all directions carefully before you send any post. Some instructors outline how often you can post in the forum, what you can include in each contribution and the word limit for all responses.
Only by following the instructor’s directions will you improve your final grades. Otherwise, none of the time and energy that you invest in your post will mean anything if you don’t stick to the instructions.
Step 2: Come up with a Substantive opinion
In as much as your opinion always matters in online discussions, it’s still important that you have substantive opinions. This also forms a significant basis in the parts of a discussion post. Always try to back up all your opinions and post with facts and evidence.
Citing sources from both inside and outside classroom materials can also help to stem plagiarism. Remember, it’s vital that you make your argument look more legitimate and on-topic. This is the surest way to earn more points with your instructor.
Discussion boards are meant to be conversational. This means that each post a member submits should build on a previous comment or lead to new conversations. Submit posts that other members can build and expand on or use as reference material.
Step 3: Start writing on time
Students always have a habit of writing and submitting their discussion posts right at the deadline. However, striving just to beat the deadline often results in the production and submission of poor-quality work. If everybody decided to procrastinate at the deadline and only work to beat deadlines, we would be in a lot of trouble.
With regards to discussion posts, writing your posts at the last minute often affects the quality of the entire conversation. More often than not, your contribution to the post will be very surface-level. It won’t delve anywhere close to where you want it to be. A thoughtful and informative discussion requires a significant amount of time and effort invested in it.
Step 4: Ask A Question If You Don’t Understand A Concept
It’s always okay to ask a question if you don’t understand a concept or if you are stumped on a particular topic. Help is always just an email away if you want to have a more private conversation with your professor. Better still, you can always ask for help from your online discussion forum.
There are also several resources available that you can use if you hit a roadblock with your assignment. Course community forums are another excellent resource that students can use to ask for clarity on any assignments that they have.
Step 5: Use Research and peer reviewed studies
Several parts of a discussion post will require that you invest time in research. This is often a requirement for discussion posts. Your research should only always include course materials unless otherwise instructed by your professor. Of course, you can also research external sources such as library databases.
It’s also important that you always remember to integrate and cite all your research with relevant sources. Remember, those parts of a discussion post also form part of academic writing. They must, therefore, be properly cited.
Step 6: Proofread and ensure formality
An online discussion forum is a space where students discuss academic issues with an instructor. As a result, you must always remember to stay as respectful as you can with how you use your words and how you address other members in the post. Also, the tones of different forums always vary.
Some may be formal, while others are semi-formal. Remember, however, that this is an academic forum. So, your writing should be as formal as you can make it.
Your writing can tell a lot about your personality. Think of the discussion board as a global classroom. Here, you will interact with members from different backgrounds and upbringings. Therefore, while communication styles may vary from one discussion forum to the next, you should always remember to stick to the communication guidelines of the forum that you are using at that time.
It’s about respect and courtesy. You should learn to consider other people’s feelings, values, and cultures when using discussion boards. This forms the basis of all parts of a discussion post.
Read Also: How to Write a Discussion Post in APA Format
What Should be Included in a Discussion Post?
A discussion forum is basically a virtual bulletin board where members can start or join conversations on different topics. In this case, an academic discussion forum is meant for academic discussions. The online course environment provides students with the opportunity to learn and interact with one another and their professors outside of the physical classrooms. Here, you can ask your instructor or classmates a question or request assistance or feedback.
Discussion posts are often mandatory in online classes. And the more active you are in your online discussions, the more likely you will score higher grades. The grading system of discussion posts also differs from one instructor and course to another.
For instance, the grading might depend on the amount of detail that you put into your posts. The lengths of your posts can also impact your grades. Your level of participation is, therefore, your best move at acing your exams.
Fortunately, there are several academic writing services that can help you with your discussion posts. Ukessays ranks as the best academic writing website that incorporates all the parts of a discussion post to make every post complete. You never have to worry about you’re your discussion post being too shallow or offensive. Kessays.com has a team of certified, professional writers who work round the clock to ensure that you get the best finished products.
Student Responsibilities
Discussion posts are often meant to help students to reflect thoughtfully on their coursework and exchange ideas with their colleagues. As a class, you can benefit a lot from using online discussion forums. But discussion boards are also only as good when you put in the effort to use them appropriately.
Submitting posts last-minute that are sloppy, inaccurate, unclear, and inaccurate will help no one. If anything, these actions will only end up hurting your grades.
Basically, online discussion posts work like this; if someone asks you a question, it’s courteous that you respond to them. If your post is inaccurate, you can ask your colleagues for help or further clarification to point out the inaccuracy. It’s also your responsibility to post all your responses on time and in the correct format.
Instructors will always comment wherever they deem appropriate if their input is necessary. Your instructor can also point out our inaccuracies in your responses and help lead discussions to their conclusions. Having read this section of the excerpt, you should have a much better understanding of discussion posts and how they can be handy, especially for students.
Elements of a Discussion Post Example: Seven-Step Method: The Case of “The Ides of March (2011)”
Film Selection
I selected Stephen Meyers, the main character in The Ides of March (2011), to illustrate the seven-step method of making an ethical decision (Meyers, 2018). Throughout the play, multiple moral dilemmas face the character due to the compromising situations that his line of work, politics, puts him in.
The whole film plays out during the onset of a very brilliant political operative’s career, in the climax of the bid for the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. He is a very ambitious but naïve person for his work line and has absolute and sheepish trust for Mike Morris, a seating governor, and presidential aspirant.
Various individuals warned him of the consequences of having such a point of view in politics; for example, Ida Horowicz, a reporter, told him, “You really buy into all this crap? All this take back the country nonsense?” something that he denied (Clooney, 2011).
Stephen Meyers’s naivety drives him into a sexual relationship with an intern who had an extramarital affair with Mike Morris, and the film plays with Stephen’s reaction to the realities of his world, thus making the film a right candidate for the illustration of the seven-step method of making an ethical decision (Meyers, 2018).
Evaluate
Stephen Meyers, the main character in The Ides of March (2011), is faced with multiple moral problems throughout the movie’s plot and his decisions arguably lead to the tragic death of a young intern in a presidential campaign team.
He is an ambitious junior campaign manager for Mike Morris, one of the democratic presidential candidates and sitting Governor for Pennsylvania. The first moral problem which Stephen Meyers faces is whether to engage in a sexual relationship with an intern who was significantly younger than him.
Even though Molly Stern, the intern, and the Democratic National Congress chairperson’s daughter expressed her romantic interest in Stephen, he had adequate information to make a moral judgment before engaging in a sexual relationship with a disgruntled and confused young intern in Morris’s campaign.
Stephen Meyer was right to accept an invite for a date from a junior collogue, but he should have made more responsible decisions and known her and her circumstances. This way, he would have had more control over the matter and maybe saved Molly Stern’s life (Clooney, 2011).
Even though Stephen Meyer was faced with various moral challenges throughout the plot of the tragedy, the initial moral problem had the most impact on his morality. At first, he was a very naïve but talented junior campaign manager who believed in his presidential candidate’s course.
However, the immorality of the political scene subjects him to compromising his lack of experience in politics, and he ends up making the wrong decision leading to severe consequences. The ethical component involved in this moral problem is sexual harassment in the professional setting.
Stephen Meyers’s decision to engage in a sexual relationship with Molly Stern may be legal because it was consensual, but it was immoral to confirm the consequences. Molly Stern was a very beautiful and ambitious intern working under Stephen Meyer for a period, but he had not noticed her, something that she leverages to invite him for a date “You ought to stop by one night and have a drink with the worker bees.” and being a nice person, Stephen says yes (Clooney, 2011).
However, it depended on his values to determine whether to engage in a sexual relationship with her after determining that she was 20 years old. He should have done some due diligence before showing up for the date and preferably befriended her first to know her better.
The fifth of the seven-step method of making an ethical decision is “Consider the potential consequences of all options and determine a course of action.” (Meyers, 2018), which may not be applicable to Stephen’s initial moral problem because he did not make any deliberations or consideration for potential consequences of having a more intimate relationship with a junior colleague.
However, he learned very first from his mistakes and courageously took personal responsibility for his role in the tragic death of Molly Stern by bearing the guilt and not blaming it on other parties involved. He considered the consequences of Molly’s pregnancy and is a presidential candidate’s responsibility in it and offered to help her exercise her “prochoice rights” and save Morris’s campaign.
Given that Stephen Meyer does not consider the consequences of his actions, he chooses action and blindly engages in sexual relations with the intern. The first time he faces the reality of the world within which he works, which is evil, is when he learned that Governor Mike Morris had engaged in a sexual relationship and impregnated Molly Stern, something that could destroy his bid for the presidency.
Stephen Meyer helps her to terminate the pregnancy and instructs her to leave the campaign. When he got fired, he also failed to consider informing Molly and reassuring her that he would not be able to compromise her dignity. This made Molly panic and commit suicide, which Stephen exploited to get back to his adversaries and save his career in politics (Clooney, 2011).
References
Clooney, G. (2011). The Ides of March [Film]. Netflix; Netflix.
Meyers, C. (2018). The professional ethics toolkit. John Wiley & Sons.
What a learner should include in the first discussion post
An initial discussion post is the learner’s first response to the instructor’s question. They should include a clear answer to the question. Additionally, they ought to include the evidence through citations and referencing credible academic resources like research papers. They should draw a connection between their answer and the evidence provided. The learner can also pose a question that other learners on the discussion board can answer.
What a learner should include in the follow-up posts
After posting the initial discussion post the learner is then required to read the responses provided by their fellow learners. This allows them to view the course material from different perspectives. They are then required to reply to several of the posts by providing their subjective perspective. They should go beyond agreeing and disagreeing and add something unique to the discussion. They should include the claim they are making, the evidence to support it, and the connection between the two.
Dos in Online Class Discussion Forums
- Log into the discussion board as regularly as possible
- Read the provided course material
- Take notes of the course material
- Cite the sources
- Respond to the follow-up posts
- Be open-minded in the discussion process
- Proofread the posts made
- Dos in Online Discussion Posts
Don’ts in Online Class Discussion Forums
- Do not provide one-word answers on whether you agree or disagree with the other learners
- Do not respond emotionally especially when a colleague disagrees with your perspective.
- Do not respond to a colleague without understanding their perspective.
Sample 2: Discussion Prompt
This study suggests increased use of drugs and alcohol in e-cigarette users in comparison with nonusers (p. 1192). Why is that? Is it purely coincidence or is there a relationship between the two? The study didn’t take into account socioeconomic factors, rather it came from a sampling of 9th to 12th graders in public, parochial, and other private schools (p. 1192).
Is there any connection between e-cigarette usage and socioeconomic status? What are the long-term ramifications of tobacco use in terms of a person’s health? What are the criteria for determining if a person has an addiction to nicotine or a tobacco dependence?
First response
According to Curran et al. (2018), the highest risk of subsequent drug and alcohol use was in individuals who used both e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes. The risk was moderate in conventional cigarette use alone, and lowest in sole e-cigarette use.
These remained significant even after accounting for demographic differences and in children otherwise considered low risk for drug and alcohol use. Some research suggests that the initial trial of e-cigarettes is experimentation as part of the natural adolescent developmental stage. However, this can also be a timeframe where addiction initiates.
One study looking at individuals with addiction showed that most people suffering from addiction started before the age of 18 (Curren et al., 2018). Other research on adolescents and nicotine exposure shows that this population may be more sensitive to nicotine than adults, putting them at a higher chance of becoming dependent upon it (Johnson & Selekman, 2019).
A study by Simon et al. (2018), focused on socioeconomic status and its impact on e-cigarette use. Their study proposed that the rate of advertisements and exposure to e-cigarette products is higher in lower socioeconomic areas, therefore, influencing more adolescents to begin using them.
The result of the study showed that there was a higher likelihood of e-cigarette use among adolescents of lower socioeconomic status and that there was a trend of future conventional cigarette use among this population.
Smoking and tobacco use can cause a myriad of health problems, with the severity of morbidity increasing with the length of time of exposure. Examples of some health problems are coronary disease, lung disease such as cancer and COPD, and compromise of the immune system.
Even secondhand smoke can cause a large list of complications for both adults and children. Adults exposed to secondhand smoke have a higher rate of stroke along with lung and cardiac disease. In children, secondhand smoke increases the risk of SIDs, ear infections, upper respiratory infections, and asthma (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020).
Experimentation and use of nicotine-containing products can quickly turn into dependence or addiction for adolescents. When this occurs, it puts their immediate and future health at risk. An easy, reliable, and valid screening tool to determine which adolescents may be suffering from, or at risk for, a substance use disorder is the CRAFFT tool.
This tool includes questions around six areas: Car, Relax, Alone, Forget, Friends, Trouble. Research that has compared the positive screening point of 2 points on the CRAFFT questionnaire to the criteria discussed in the DSM-V, showed it to be accurate in determining adolescents at risk for substance use disorder (Shenoi, R.P. et al., 2019).
Although CRAFFT has been used mainly in clinical settings, it is a quick and easy tool available for school nurses to implement. When used correctly, it can screen for students in need of further evaluation and intervention to prevent future complications.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, April 28). Smoking and tobacco use: Health effects
Curran, K.A., Pitt, P.D., & Middleman, A.B. (2018). Trends and substance use associations with e-cigarette use in US adolescents. Clinical Pediatrics, 57(10), 1191-1198. DOI: 10.1177/0009922818769405
Johnson, K. & Selekman, J. (2019). Students engaging in high-risk behaviors. In J. Selekman, R. A. Shannon, & Yonkaitis, C.F. (Eds.), School nursing: A comprehensive text (3rd ed., pp. 603-626). F. A. Davis.
Simon, P., Camenga, D.R., Morean, M.E., Kong, G., Bold, K.W., Cavallo, D.A., & Krishnan-Sarin, S. (2018). Socioeconomic status and adolescent e-cigarette use: The mediating role of e-cigarette advertisement exposure. Preventive Medicine, 112, 193-198.
Shenoi, R.P., Linakis, J.G., Bromberg, J.R., Casper, T.C., Richards, R., Mello, M.J., Chun, T.H., & Spirito, A. (2019). Predictive validity of the CRAFFT for substance use disorder. Pediatrics, 144(2), 1-12. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2018-3415
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Conclusion
From the above excerpt, it’s evident that online discussion forums are an effective tool, especially for students who are looking to bolster their academic grades. When used appropriately, active participation in online discussion forums can help you with your coursework. However, you must be willing and ready to participate as an active member of your discussion committee. These parts of a discussion post should help you get started.
