Online Discussions Posts and Comments Your Professor is Sure to Love?

Jen Westmoreland Bouchard

Online learning has become increasingly popular with college students throughout the country. Typically, an integral part of the online learning experience is the weekly discussion. Some professors prefer a live chat while others opt for having students post their comments and reactions to a class discussion board. Keep in mind that these discussions are often a replacement for time spent in the classroom. Professors consider them to be very important, and you should, too. Here are some tips for impressing your professor (and your classmates).

For the online chat format, usually the professor will ask students to log in to a communal chat once (or more) a week at a specific time. Typically, the professor will start off the discussion with a brief welcome before posting a question for students to answer.

• Read all information/instructions posted by the professor (especially information regarding online chats) and respect those guidelines at all times.
• Be sure to stay on topic.
• If the professor has moved on to the next question, don’t continue to type answers to the previous question (unless they are somehow directly related).
• Don’t try to engage other students in “side conversations” that have nothing or little to do with the conversation at hand.
• Refrain from using “text language” or too many uncommon abbreviations.
• Never use curse Words.
• Supportively comment on or add to other students’ opinions.
• If you disagree with what another student is saying, do so respectfully.

If a professor chooses to use an online discussion forum format instead of an online chat, usually he or she will post a specific question or series of questions for students to answer. Most professors expect students to interact with one another on the discussion board (aka commenting on each other’s posts).

• Read all information/instructions posted by the professor (especially information regarding online discussion boards) and respect those guidelines at all times.
• If the professor does not require you to post a certain number of responses to other students’ comments, a good rule of thumb is to comment on at least two. This way you are showing your professor that you have read and are engaged with what other students are writing.
• Be sure to stay on topic and answer the question(s) posed by the professor.
• Refrain from using “text language” or too many uncommon abbreviations.
• Never use curse Words.
• Supportively comment or elaborate other students’ opinions.
• If you disagree with what another student has written, do so respectfully.
• Reread your posts for spelling or grammar errors and edit them.
• Keep in mind that the discussion posting are primarily what replace the hours you would otherwise spend in class. Thus, a short, curt posting of only a phrase or two (even in response to another student) is hardly adequate in the eyes of most professors.