DISCUSSION RESPONSE GUIDELINES

Due to the nature of an online course, each person must post to ALL of the discussion questions. The discussion questions and responses will be used as a form of class participation and interaction.

To begin the Discussion Forum, click on the “Discussion” button on the left when logged into Canvas. You will be responding to ALL questions posted by your classmates.
You must respond to the questions in detail AND
You must respond in a thoughtful, considerate, RESPECTFUL, and detailed manner to your classmates’ questions.
There will be 10 discussion forums that you must contribute to during the session. These discussions will take place between 5/31 and 6/10. They are asynchronous, but must be monitored by the discussion facilitators throughout the day. Facilitators must check on the discussions several times between 12:30PM and 10:00PM to answer/reply/engage with their classmates.
Facilitators may receive up to 70 points for their discussion forum.
Each student may receive up to 30 total points for the completion of all postings provided with thorough thought and detail. If a portion of the postings are completed by the due date or if any responses are vague and lack detail, then the student will receive that portion of the points.
Each student led discussion forum is due by 12:30PM on the assigned day. All responses are due by 10:00PM each day. The forum will close everyday at 11:00. Any responses after 10:00PM will NOT be counted. The forum will remain open until 11:00 to allow the facilitators to answer questions or respond to responses. If you miss the 10:00PM deadline, you CANNOT make that post up.
You must have TWO citations per discussion board forum and response using APA format.

Response Categories (based on Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2002))

Responses will be graded based on the following categories. If your responses do not fall into one of more of these categories you will NOT receive any points for that post.

Social Presence is the ability of participants in an online course to project their personal characteristics into the online community of learning - to present themselves as "real people." Your posts will be evaluated with the following criteria:

Points	Social Presence Criteria
.25	The post projects your personal characteristics into the community of learning – present yourself as a “real person”
.25	“Affective” – the expression of emotion, feelings and mood
.25	“Interactive” – evidence that you are reading, attending, understanding, and thinking about other’s responses
.25	“Cohesive” – responses that build and sustain a sense of belongingness, group commitment, or common goals and objectives

It is important to establish a community of learning in an online course. One way to facilitate this is to provide social reinforcement to your fellow students. When you agree or disagree with what another student writes, you are providing such feedback. When you respond with an expression of emotion, that can also demonstrate social presence. Responses which provide this type of feedback will receive points, depending on the quality, extent, and frequency they occur. For example, a student who says "I agree" may get a point the first time, but no points subsequently.

Cognitive Presence is the extent to which students are able to construct and confirm meaning through sustained discourse (discussion) in a community of inquiry. Cognitive presence can be demonstrated by introducing factual, conceptual, and theoretical knowledge into the discussion. The value of such a response will depend upon the source, clarity, accuracy and comprehensiveness of the knowledge and will be evaluated with the following criteria:

Points	Cognitive Presence Criteria
0	Unrated response. The post added no academic value to the discussion. No new information is presented.
.25	The post contains at least one usable fact or piece of information. However, the fact or information is available from materials.
.5	The post contains at least one usable fact or piece of information. However, the fact or information is not available from the materials.
.75	The post makes a substantial academic contribution. Material is included that is not available just by reading the material and some issue or concept is clarified.
1	The post contains documented information that contributes greatly to the understanding of some issue under discussion. The new information is explained and applied such that the reader gains new insight into the material being studied.

One final note about your discussion posts... USE A DESCRIPTIVE 'SUBJECT' title - create a subject title which describes the issue or point you are trying to make. Examples of unacceptable subject titles: Re, Response to Alice, Alice, I Agree, Another idea, etc. I should be able to tell what you are writing about just by reading the subject title of your post.

Your discussion questions and discussion responses are graded on a point system. If you remember the following general guidelines, it will help you earn additional points on your discussion responses:

1. Teach us something

2. Make us think

3. Help us feel that we are a community of learning

4. Document your information

Discussion Rubric

Points	Interpretations	Grading Criteria
1	Excellent	The response is accurate, original, relevant, teaches us something new, and is well written. Four point responses adds something to the course and stimulates additional thought about the issue under discussion.
.75	Above Average	The response lacks at least one of the above qualities, but is above average in quality. A three point response makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the issue being discussed.
.5	Average	The response lacks two or three of the required qualities. Responses are based upon personal opinion or personal experience.
.25	Minimal	The response presents little or no new information. However, one point responses may provide important social presence and contribute to the atmosphere.
0	Unacceptable	The comment adds no value to the discussion
No penalty	Excellent Subject	The subject field conveys the main point of the response. The reader clearly understands the main point of the comment before.
1 point penalty	Minimal Subject	The subject field provides key word(s) only. The reader knows the general areas that the response deals with.
2 point penalty	Subject field is unacceptable	The subject field provides little or no information about the response.

I will decide the grade requirements for each discussion separately, based on the overall quality of the questions and responses posted by all of the participants. Your best strategy is to create thought-provoking questions and post as many high quality responses as you can in each discussion. If you are not earning discussion grades that are as high as you would like, you have many opportunities to work harder in future discussion forums. Please note, the number of quality points I award for your discussion questions and responses IS NOT NEGOTIABLE.