Tim Robinson: If our students think that the discussion posting is useless and not at all entertaining. It likely means that it is useless and not at all entertaining. We know this because we often feel the same way when we have to make contrived discussions posts. It’s not that our jobs are about entertaining students, but we do need to do what we can do make it at least tolerable.
If we can expand our understanding of the tool to get beyond just ‘discussions’ but see it as a platform for other creative ways to explore a topic, we’ll find a much richer level of learning. We can, maybe, even have some fun with it.
Online discussions can be awesome or a pain. I think we've all experienced that. Here's a way to help ensure that they are awesome.
some ideas on how to make online discussions more engaging - an important issue for many online courses!