Students using a laptop together while sitting outside

Online Discussions

Office of Distance Learning

Online Discussions

Implementing discussions in your online course is a great way to build community, increase faculty presence, keep students engaged, gauge comprehension, and witness critical thinking skills. Asynchronous discussions can take place in the Discussion Board, Blog, and/or Journal tools in Blackboard. To get even more creative, tools such as YouTube, VoiceThread, and/or Yuja to allow the opportunity for text, audio, and video synchronous or asynchronous discussions.

Feel free contact an ODL representative or use our resources for developing Discussion Board Expectations for you online course.

Discussion Strategies

Use the following methods to help enhance collaborations in your online discussion activities: