I was never a fan of online discussion boards. Granted, I liked them better than talking about topics in person, but I never learned much (if anything) from these discussion boards. Most of my online classes just wanted me to provide two substantial replies to peers. The worst were the ones who had stricter (and in my opinion, dumb) rules.

For example, at the college I’m currently adjuncting at, it is required for students to post two substantial replies, on three different days, for a total of six replies. If it’s all done on one day, they don’t get the points. I get it, the college is using this as a way to mark participation. But as a student, I felt that it was a stupid rule, and I spent as little effort on it as possible – but always ended up with full points. Here’s how I did it.

1. Do it all on one day

Yes, I know. For the college I’m adjuncting at, if I was a student, I would need to post on three separate days, two posts each day. And technically, I don’t post all of them in one day. I just write them all in one day.

When I was a student and there was a rule like this, I would post my initial discussion post (I’ll have an article on how to do that here soon) and watch for six other people to post theirs. Then, I would give myself about 20 minutes to go through them all, and write my six discussion replies in a Word document. My replies were now done. The easiest part was next, logging on for two minutes each day, and copy/pasting the correct number of replies each day. This saved me far more time and energy than if I would log on three different days, pick two posts each day to respond to, craft replies, and then post them.

Doing all of my writing in one day made my life so much easier. (If only discussion boards would allow future scheduling of responses!)

2. Make a positive comment

I also disliked writing replies, because what was I going to say to add to the conversation? The initial question was to provide details of a microbe, the person I’m replying to already did that. What would I even need to reply? Eventually, I came up with a formula that worked.

Find something positive/interesting that the student wrote about and re-iterate it. For example: “That’s fascinating that Taq polymerase is an enzyme from Thermus aquaticus – it has revolutionized the biotech scene!”

Or, you can find something common in your post and theirs and point it out. For example: “I also agree that the trolley car scenario is a stupid and pointless argument to have, for reasons a and b that I also mentioned in my initial post!”

This can be a sentence or two, and is really easy to pull out from the other student’s post, whether it’s new information or something you also mentioned in your discussion.

3. Ask a question

The point above is a really great way to get a quick reply written. However, professors grade on substantial replies, and just agreeing and posting is not going to get you a full grade.

This is where asking a question comes in. Instead of a few sentences that essentially say: “I agree with you”, a question makes it look like you are far more invested than you probably are.

For example: “If Taq polymerase is an essential biotech enzyme found in a microbe, do you think there are other microbes out there, that could be just as essential to science research, just waiting to be discovered?” The answer: well, duh. But, your professor will just see you engaging in the other student’s post, and asking questions about it, and will mark it as substantial. You don’t have to ask revolutionized questions, you just have to make it a plausible question related to the student’s initial post.

Or, you could make a criticism of their post. For example, in a discussion about WHO researchers excluding women from STI treatment in a third world country and how that relates to the Bible, one of my students commented that since Eve came from Adam, the Bible supports that women shouldn’t be treated, that they come from man, so just taking care of the men is the answer. I couldn’t help myself by pointing out an error in their logic and then they doubled down (which surprised me). They said it’s not what they believe to be true, but it’s what the Bible says. I didn’t write them a full blog post about how that was an inaccurate statement, but I did point out a couple of things, and how Eve being made from Adam had nothing to do with what they extrapolated from that Bible verse. You likely won’t come across as crazy a scenario like this, but you are able to criticize their post, in lieu of asking a question.

Bonus Points: Add a source

If you want to impress your professor, add a source to your reply. This one potentially does involve more effort (the previous two points will get you a substantial reply), but it does show your professor that you put a lot of work into your reply (regardless of whether you did or didn’t). Sometimes, you can cite the source you used in your initial post, or you can cite the class textbook, or after a quick google search for interesting facts about the microbe the other student posted, you cite a NCBI article. It doesn’t have to be super involved on your part, but adding in a citation really helps your professor mark your reply as substantial.

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I hated writing discussion replies as a student, and even as a professor now, I still am not a fan of them. I now get why colleges have these participation rules for online courses, but I still think they’re dumb. Especially since I know how much effort I put in for these replies (even though it looked like I did far more work for them). But, my biggest hack was getting all of my responses done at once, and just logging in throughout the week to mark off my participation days. By making a positive comment, asking a question, and potentially including a reference, you can easily (and relatively quickly) get your substantive discussion replies written in just a few minutes – and (as I’m on the other side of the Learning Management System now) your professor truly doesn’t know how much time you spent on it.

Discussion replies don’t have to be difficult, time consuming, or super frustrating. You don’t even have to put a ton of thought into it! Just follow the formula outlined above, and you’ll be good! I’ll write another post on how to do an initial discussion post (which sometimes, gets scrutinized more than the replies).

Let me know if you have any comments/questions below or you can contact me here! I love hearing from you!

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