DB or Not DB?
That Is the Question!!
Training Notes
Even if you are an experienced online instructor,
if you haven’t yet used Discussion Board, you
might find it somewhat intimidating.
Let’s face it: many of us only use DB because we’ve
been told we need to:
• because it can foster connectedness in a medium
where isolation runs rampant
• because it’s generally considered to be evidencebased best practice
Discussion Board hasn’t been met with universal
approval by either faculty or students…but that
may be related to a limited understanding of the
uses and benefits of this handy online tool.
Some instructors merely post their DB forums each
quarter, barely skimming through student
responses, grading simply on the number and
length of posts, rather than on content…
…and never actually responding to student posts.
Most faculty use DB to have students discuss
topics covered in their readings. Most don’t
actually take part in the discussions, feeling DB is
for students only.
Others use it as a repository for a second level of
assignments (“regular” assignments being
submitted, obviously, under Assignments instead
of Discussion Board).
Rationale for a two-tiered system of assignment
submission?
• “Students don’t expect any feedback from me
on Discussion Board,” and
• “You have to keep them really busy so they
don’t get bored or start feeling that online
classes are just an easy ‘A’.”
Are these the best reasons for assigning extra
work?
Some faculty never actually read DB posts or
assignments, though they might skim for key
words to suggest whether they’re “on topic.”
Some give credit/no credit, based on whether or
not the student completes the assignment—
content doesn’t really matter.
All of this does tend to fit with the general
student opinion of DB which is that it’s busy work
that instructors rarely seem to read and to which
they rarely provide appropriate feedback.
Most instructors of online classes work very
hard and spend long hours—often many more
than they spend on their face-to-face classes—
ensuring a quality learning experience for their
students.
But their Discussion Board efforts don’t always
reflect that!
However, even if you’ve heard both faculty and
students alike complain about DB, don’t let that
deter from using this excellent tool!
Once you’ve decided to use Discussion Board in
your course, you’ll want to sign up for the next
available Blackboard DB training session.
This will provide you with a good overview of how
DB works, with some very useful step-by-step
written instructions (tutorials).
Meanwhile, consider what you’d like DB to
accomplish in your class.
When you know what role you want DB to play in
your course—what goals you hope to accomplish
by adding DB to your repertoire of tools—it’s time
to get down to business.
Deciding how you intend to implement DB is
critical in figuring out how you want to implement
it in your course—so this is something that must
be determined even before you develop your
course syllabus.
Some possible ways to use DB in various types of
courses:
• To replicate the kind of group participation that’s
typically lost in an online course, develop forum
topics that expand on readings and lectures, and get
students thinking/talking.
• Consider a weekly topic, or one per learning
module.
• Think of what grabs students’ attention in the faceto-face setting, and build on that.
• Combine topics where appropriate, to help students
make additional connections
• To expand the discussions you begin in the
classroom, create and post forums that follow up
on what was discussed in class that day.
• Did you run out of time in the midst of a really
interesting interaction? Let students continue the
discussion online.
• Was the topic too sensitive for students to feel safe
speaking aloud? DB can provide anonymity.
• DB can be used for extra credit opportunities, or as
part of the participation part of students’ grades.
• Be sure to establish expectations/ground rules in
advance!
• To enhance students’ ability to think critically,
develop forums that require them to really think—
as opposed to simply regurgitating what you or
their textbook has told them.
• Encourage students to question the obvious—
don’t just accept the status quo.
• Require them to apply scientific method in their
reasoning, and to explain their thought processes.
• Where applicable, allow students to discuss their
own culture, values, beliefs, and experiences, and
to recognize the impact of seeing (whatever the
topic is) through these particular filters.
• To give students an opportunity to show each
other how they solve problems…(this one is pretty
obvious):
• Give a specific problem as the forum topic; students
create “threads” with their solutions to the problem.
• Problem-solving processes can be typed in, or if work
is done via a special software program or by hand
(e.g., math problems, scientific formulas), documents
can be saved or scanned and uploaded/linked to DB.
• Students view each other’s work (although there are
also other ways to accomplish this besides DB), and
can critique or even grade each other’s work if the
instructor desires.
How to Set Up a Discussion Board Forum
1. First, log onto Blackboard and open your
course.
2. From your Home page, click on “Tools”, and
then on Discussion Board. (I always create a
direct link to DB for students—that way they
see it any time they open Bb).
3. When you open DB for the first time, you’ll
see no content, but you WILL see a box that
says, “Create Forum.” Click on the box.
The next screen walks you through setting up
your discussion forum.
• Give your forum a title, and enter that in the
“Name” box.
• Under “Description,” describe the topic—
explain what students need to do to respond
to the forum.
• Under “Forum Availability,” check Yes—but be
sure to specify immediately under that the
time frame for the forum to be available to
students (unless there are no restrictions).
Under “Forum Settings,” your first choice is
whether or not to allow anonymous posts.
• Online courses have a high degree of built-in
anonymity, so I don’t allow anonymous posts in
those classes.
• However, if you’re using DB in a hybrid or webenhanced face-to-face course, giving students
the option of posting anonymously will usually
encourage them to speak more freely.
• Check the box if you want students to post
anonymously; leave it blank if not.
These are the settings options I suggest:
• Allow Author to Edit Own Published Posts (hey, we all
make typos or inadvertently write something we wish
we hadn’t!
• Allow Users to Reply with Quote (if that’s okay w/you)
• Allow File Attachments (ditto)
• Allow Members to Create New Threads (there might be
times when, for example, you only want students to
respond to your thread, or you create multiple threads
and ask students to choose one or more of these
threads to which they wish to respond—in which case
you would want to UNselect this option!)
• I personally do not allow students to delete,
tag, subscribe, or rate posts, nor do I force
moderation, as these things don’t fit my course.
But they might fit yours, so check with the
experts for more info about them!
(For more info on any of these options, review the
DB tutorials or contact Jane Chinn or Delayna
Breckon).
Your last choice is in grading the forum, you’ll
need to give this some thought.
Bb will not let you grade forums that allow
anonymous posts. So if you’ve checked “Allow
anonymous posts,” you can’t check “Grade Forum.”
And if you check “Grade Forum” after having
checked “Allow anonymous posts,” it will UNcheck
“Allow anonymous posts.” Very frustrating!!!
But fortunately, there is a way to get around this!
Here’s what you need to do:
Click “Allow anonymous posts,” but do NOT click
“Grade Forum.” This means there will be no
column for your DB forum in your Grade Center,
so you will need to manually add one.
You will not be able to grade this forum in the
same way that would be possible were you not
allowing anonymous posts, but with a few very
simple extra steps, you can grade your forum as
you wish—the process is described later.
When you’ve checked all the appropriate
options, click “Submit,” and your first forum is
posted.
I strongly suggest that if you intend to use
regular (for example, weekly) forums, plan them
ahead of time, and have them ready and
waiting.
I know from experience it’s far too easy to forget
if you procrastinate in posting weekly forums!
Note: forums not yet available to students will
not show up when they visit DB; they’ll only see
those forums currently active.
Once a forum opens, you can leave it open for
the remainder of the quarter, or you can close it
any time (or designate this ahead of time, so it
automatically shuts down when you want it to).
Unread posts are noted by boldface type so you
can easily see which ones need to be read.
Some general tips to keep in mind while developing
and using DB:
• Provide specific topics with well-defined parameters
for each forum—and make them relevant to what’s
being covered in the course itself.
• Read every single post! You don’t need to respond
to each one, but you DO need to know what’s going
on in your class.
• Stay actively involved in DB, but don’t take it over!
This can be a temptation, but let students do most of
the talking (plus, DB can become WAY too timeconsuming if you let it).
• Check DB frequently, because:
• It’s overwhelming to log on and find 67 posts
waiting to be read.
• Students appreciate seeing that others are
reading what they have to say.
• You DO want to know what’s going on—
sometimes you’ll need to clarify, correct, edit,
maybe even delete…and on occasion, you
might need to referee or intervene in some
other manner.
I recommend you begin with a forum in which
everyone introduces themselves to the class.
• In addition to the usual ways students identify
themselves, include some questions like:
• What interests you about this course?
• What other courses in this field have you taken?
• What experiences have you had with online courses
before this one?
• What would you like others in the class to know
about you?
• Consider 2 forums for the first and last weeks:
•
•
•
•
First forum: introduction
Second: that week’s course topic
Penultimate: that week’s course topic
Last: Closure (saying goodbye, final comments)
This has worked quite well for me, although it
does make for a lot of extra reading those 2
weeks.
• Give students something to look forward to!
• Make the topics INTERESTING!
• When possible, let students express their own
thoughts and feelings, instead of merely regurgitating
what they’ve read/heard in the readings or lectures.
• If that doesn’t fit, give them thought-provoking topics
that really do make them think and that stimulate
creativity.
• Use the same kinds of techniques in DB that you
employ to make your in-class interactions noteworthy.
• Try not to censor the discussion, unless it’s truly
necessary.
• Students will typically confront each other for any
inappropriate posts; most tend to tactfully assume
their peers’ intentions were good, despite what
they may have actually said.
• If you must edit or delete a post, consider emailing
that student privately with an explanation, to avoid
publicly humiliating them. If you feel you must
address the issue in the open forum for teaching
purposes, model the tact and professionalism you
wish the rest of the class to learn and practice.
If something a student has posted suggests to
you that they may need counseling or other
resources, offer support and provide a referral to
appropriate resources, when necessary.
I have, for the most part, been more than pleased
at the degree to which students have provided
support and validation to each other.
If that always happened, our jobs as online
teachers would be so much easier!
But of course, not everyone responds to others in a
positive, supportive manner…
…and you will encounter students with mental
health issues, students with spiritual or political
beliefs they feel compelled to share with everyone,
students with extremely narrow minds who are
unwilling to listen to opinions which differ from
their own, etc., etc., etc…..
This, of course, is a major reason why close
monitoring of DB is important:
You will need to intervene promptly if students
behave online in a matter that causes concern (e.g.
if they’re responding to the material or to each
other inappropriately)—just as you would in class.
In fact, since you’re not there in person, it’s even
MORE important for you to respond accordingly as
quickly as possible!
Tips on grading DB
An effective grading rubric is essential! Use it to
grade each forum as objectively and consistently
as possible.
Students need to have easy access to your
grading rubric, so they understand clearly your
expectations when they post DB entries.
Make it as clear, concise, and unequivocal as
possible…admittedly challenging when you’re
seeking quality and not quantity.
Keep your grading rubric understandable and
easy to use.
• Once you get used to grading DB forums, if
you decide you need a more detailed grading
rubric, you can always develop that for later
use.
• Keep in mind that students must be able to
understand it, if they’re going to be able to
comply with your expectations!
Keep it simple!
Grading DB forums, step by step:
For a forum in which anonymous post are not
allowed, it’s quite easy:
1. Open DB, and click on the title of the forum
you wish to grade.
2. Click on “Grade Forum.”
3. Choose the student whose forum you wish
you to grade, go to the column labeled
“username,” and click on the double-down
arrows after the student’s user name.
4. From the drop-down menu, select “Grade.”
You’ll then see each post the student has
entered into that forum (both their original
thread(s) and any responses to other posts).
5. Determine the student’s grade based on the
grading rubric, and enter the appropriate
number of points in the box near the top of
the window that says “Grade.” This will enter
the points in your Grade Center.
That’s it!
To grade a forum in which anonymous posts
are allowed, a bit more effort is involved.
1. Remember that you will need to manually create a
column in your grade center for each forum you
intend to grade.
2. Open the Performance Dashboard (Course Mgmt—
Evaluation—Performance Dashboard), where you’ll
see an alphabetical list of all students in the class.
[Please note that when you use Performance
Dashboard, the tabs on the left will disappear. To
get them back, click on the little arrow in the
margin on the left.]
3. Select the student you wish to grade, then locate
the Discussion Board column, and click on the
underlined number, which is a link to a list of the
forums in which that student has participated.
4. When that list opens, go to the forum you wish to
grade, find the column labeled Total Posts, and
click on the underlined number, which is a link to a
page showing each entry that student has posted
under that forum.
5. Determine the number of points earned for the
forum, and enter it in the appropriate column in
the Grade Center.
A few concluding thoughts….
When I first agreed to try teaching online, I was both
scared and skeptical—and one of my biggest areas
of concern was Discussion Board.
Overall, though, outcomes have by far exceeded my
wildest expectations. My experiences have been so
positive that I now incorporate DB in almost all of
my face-to-face classes.
Student feedback is almost universally positive:
• Online students tell me my class is the most
interactive online course they’ve ever taken—and
many online friendships started through DB last
beyond the class itself, something virtually
unheard of in most online courses.
• Face-to-face students say the use of DB with the
option of posting anonymously contributes
significantly to their overall learning experience—
particularly, the opportunity to hear from peers
who would never have spoken out in the
classroom setting.
If you do it well, DB can be a lot of work—I can’t
pretend otherwise! And done poorly, it benefits
no one, creates bad feelings, and could actually
do harm.
But the rewards of a well-planned, creativelydesigned, and effectively-delivered Discussion
Board are incredibly well worth the effort.