What forum should i use

Please enable JavaScript on your browser to best view this site. Click here to download a printable version of this guide in MS Word format. We have created advice to support your use of Discussion Forums. This resource provides guidance about the management and assessment of forums for large and small student groups. We have provided some useful suggestions for managing a successful Discussion Forum in Blackboard at this link.

The Discussion Board is a communication tool that can be used to enhance your Blackboard course. The discussion board can contain multiple forums, forum conversations are grouped in threads that contain a main posting and all related replies messages.

Generally a forum is about a single topic. All students on your Blackboard course can contribute towards forums.

Depending on how the discussion forum is set up, students can create threads and messages. You can also choose to grade and leave feedback to student messages in threads and forums and assign individual grades for student participation. If you use groups in Blackboard you can also set access to group discussion boards which only members in groups can view their discussion forums. This video offers some useful information about how to deploy discussion forums and use them as part of your teaching.

A forum can be set so that students only see posts from other students once they themselves have posted a message. You can choose to grade and leave feedback in forums or threads or not to grade a forum. Users can have their overall participation in a Forum graded. Selecting Grade Forum allows the option to select the box and the number of posts required to show participants in Needs Grading status. Applying this setting will show the Needs Grading icon in the Grade Centre and place the posts in the queue on the Needs Grading page after the specified number of posts have been made.

Users can be graded on a thread-by-thread basis. If you choose to grade threads, students will not be able to create new threads. Consider these three tools the way you would consider any teaching strategy. First ask yourself, what are the outcomes you want to achieve in your teaching? Then ask, what do the tools offer, and how do they differ from each other? The following table gives a short summary of each tool's functioning.

It should help you decide the answer to a third question: which tool can best help your students achieve the desired outcomes? This website. UNSW Websites. Breadcrumb Teaching. Blog, Wiki or Forum - which should you use? Function Blog Wiki Forum Definition An online journal web log , diary or news column with posts in reverse-chronological order latest first and options for readers to comment An easily-edited set of one or more linked web pages that readers can add to or modify.

Facilitates collaborative content creation. A noticeboard or message board where people can start new topics or discussions and respond to existing ones Updating Updated as regularly as the author desires. Anyone can update in real time. Asynchronous—users can post at any time. Ownership, authors A blog is owned by an individual. It can have a single author or multiple contributors. Multiple authors: owned and edited by a group. A wiki is updated by many people, from a local group or remotely diverse locations.

Multiple authors contribute to their own or others discussion threads. Timeline The timeline of blog posts and comments is more important. By signing in with LinkedIn, you're agreeing to create an account at elearningindustry.

Learn more about how we use LinkedIn. We use LinkedIn to ensure that our users are real professionals who contribute and share reliable content. When you sign in with LinkedIn, you are granting elearningindustry. We also use this access to retrieve the following information:.

This speaks volumes about social interactions in our tech-centric world. More and more people are turning to the internet to reach out to stay updated and in-touch. As eLearning professionals, we have the opportunity to tap into this need for virtual interaction by using online forums in our eLearning course design.

Here are some top tips for using forums in eLearning experiences. Forums in eLearning give learners the opportunity to connect with their peers and receive invaluable feedback. They are particularly useful for learners who lack motivation or are easily distracted, as they keep them immersed in the educational experience and cater to a wide range of learning styles.