Discussion Group Best Practices
From The Communities That Care WIKI
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Discussion Group Best Practices
Best practices are those ways of doing things that can described, shared and widely practiced and, over time, become a standard (norm) for consistently achieving the results we want.
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Tips for Online Discussion Participation
- Always use upper and lower case when typing in a response other than for emphasis. ALL CAPS in the online environment is the equivalent of shouting.
- Check the discussion daily if your system doesn't notify you of postings. This will keep the discussion fresh and help you keep up with the threads and contribute.
- Be well informed on the topic for discussion. If content has been provided, review and consider it prior to joining the discussion.
- There are no bad ideas. Keep discussions at the professional, not personal, level.
- Offer differing views, explanations, facts and logic that may help to inform the discussion.
- When there is disagreement, do so with respect and focus on the ideas not the person offering the ideas.
- Provide links to supporting information where possible e.g., online reports, websites, resources.
- Keep your posts (messages) concise. Avoid lengthy, rambling posts. If you find your post is getting too long, review and distill it into 1-3 key elements before posting.
- Make your own unique contribution to the discussion, speaking from personal experience when you can and explain relevance to the topic.
- Based on The eLearning Guild's Learning Solutions e-Magazine; Threaded Discussion Tips for Dummies by Clarence J. Bouchat
- Return to Best Practices
