Online Discussion

Keeping It Going

Sally Mavor, Leiria College of Portugal, suggests that thematic arrangement of topics could help sustain interest, even for a voluntary discussion board. She offers these ideas--

	strands that could be started by moderators or by members/users/students
	whoever starts a strand/forum could offer some definition of the theme, maybe even background theory [or, perhaps, at least a note on relevance to the course]
	the one who starts a strand [or other designate] could provide summaries on an accompanying web page or archive selected comments

The idea is to keep the questions and answers flowing, yet also to provide for deeper discussions. For a sort of example, she offers the discussions at the International Forum on Education Technology and Society.

* eModerators Digest Number 128, March 24, 2001.

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For a list of some discussion board software and reviews, visit Virginia Montecino's website at George Mason University.

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