Expectations for Threaded Discussions

(based on a professional development course for teachers)

You will be using the threaded discussion feature of this course to talk to each other about the labs that you are performing and how they relate to the reading and problem sets. This is like the time before and after (and during!) class when students meet informally in small groups to talk about labs and homework.

In this case the instructor will get things started by posing a question, or by starting a new threaded discussion topic. You can reply to any message by clicking on "reply" when you have the discussion message open in front of you. You may also start a new thread if you have something to say that is not a reply to another's message.

Threaded discussions are the primary means of communication among students and instructors in an online course. It is important to add some new information to the discussion, or to ask thoughtful questions of your classmates. It isn't really helpful to post a comment like "I agree" or "Me too". To make your posts useful, be sure to reply thoughtfully.