I have a strong aversion to discussion boards, and if you haven't experienced it already, you're likely to share my sentiment very soon. Pre-pandemic, discussion boards were virtually unheard of; they were a novel tool you might encounter as a one-time occurrence, but they weren't commonly used. During the pandemic, they served as an alternative means of participation, favored by professors who doubted whether students were actually keeping up with readings or paying attention in class. (I'll admit, I was occasionally guilty of dozing off, but let's not mention that to my professors!) Now that the pandemic is mostly behind us and classes are returning to their regular format, I had hoped that discussion boards would vanish into academic oblivion. Unfortunately, that's not the case.
These days, discussion boards are no longer an alternative to the daunting task of speaking in class; they've become an additional requirement. Professors haven't stopped making discussion boards mandatory, even as we've returned to in-person learning. We're now tasked with reading, posting concise to moderately-sized comments, responding vaguely to our peers, and then attending class to engage in live conversations.
Posting
To make a post on a discussion board, navigate to the tab under your class list and locate the discussion board for the relevant day or topic. Most likely, you'll need to respond to the primary discussion board. When doing this, you'll have access to various tools, such as text formatting options, links to documents, and the ability to add images. You can also keep track of the word count of your post, which can be quite handy when you're attempting to meet a 300-word minimum for a politics class text that you only comprehend about 5% of.
Replying
When you're required to reply to a couple of your peers as part of the discussion requirement, you can do so by clicking the 'reply' button directly under their posts. If someone has already replied, your response will appear beneath theirs. If you wish to reply to a second person, it will create a chain of responses that everyone in the chain will be notified of.
Searching
There may come a time when you need to locate a specific comment made by a particular individual on a particular day within a specific discussion board. In such cases, you can employ the discussion board's search tool to find comments in specific entries or by specific people. You can also filter the board by unread replies and collapse replies to other people to make the board easier to read.
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