We recommend three key considerations before you create a discussion forum as follows:

1. Purpose: 

Ensure the discussion forum has a clear purpose which is evident to students. Make clear why and how students should engage in the forum and be explicit how it relates to the learning outcomes. To further demonstrate its purpose, the forum should ideally be created within the context of the relevant topic/week within the module unit (in Brightspace) and linked to module content.

2. Prompt/Guiding Questions:  

Always provide students with a prompt that encourages them to reply or post to the forum, this will be required at the beginning of the forum to encourage responses.  Prompts can be in the form of audio, video or text and would usually be linked to existing learning materials or content (for example; ‘watch this video’ or ‘read this case study’ and respond to the thread with your view on x). Aim to provide guiding questions or prompts that require higher-order thinking (analysis, comparison, application etc). 

3. Instruction: 

Provide clear instructions on how students are expected to engage with the forum i.e. how often and how to respond (for example; reply to an existing thread or start a new thread etc).  Outline the duration of the discussion forum (consider applying start and end dates in Brightspace), specify the timeframe for students to reply to others and add new posts. Outline how the discussion will work and how you as the module coordinator or tutor will contribute or lead the discussion (clearly stating if you will maintain a presence in the forum and how often you will check-in to reply and summarise posts).