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D2L Discussion
Boards |
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Discussion boards (also are known as
bulletin boards, hence their nickname "BBs") are online pages
for posting messages to other people - in this case, your classmates - and reading
their responses. You are not all online at the same time
(so they are not like a chat room or instant messaging). Instead, you post messages
anytime in the week that you want, before the week's deadline whenever you
want--and
read them whenever you want--like you would add a message on a corkboard or
refrigerator.
The discussion boards are a great way to see
what other people think of the assignment and to share your opinions and
questions with each other. They also are fairly easy to use once
you learn. To keep it easy, you'll need to practice; otherwise you
may forget and have to learn all over. You can keep them easy and
fun (and get full attendance credit) by doing them every week.
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Basics of Using the Discussion Boards
What do you have to do? You
generally must attend one to two discussion boards per week, with each one
requiring two messages of 200+
w. each (which makes a weekly grand total of 400+ to 800+ w. per week). In these
discussion boards, you will use "prompts" (questions) to write one message each
week - about the readings and about general matters concerning our course.
The other message each week will be responses to other students. Full
instructions are on the discussion board web site.
How do you sign up? If you have
registered for the course, you are already signed up. If you are not
registered for the course but want to be a part of this term's discussion
boards, please email me with a request for me to add you.
What is the due date for each week's discussion
boards? It is Thursday midnight. In actual
practice, I accept whatever discussion-board messages and email homework I find
when I look at them. I look at them once a week sometime between Fri. noon
and Sunday evening.
How long is discussion-board class supposed to take?
Our discussion boards replace Friday classes.
The total time they take each week is supposed to be about 50 minutes.
Because I am unable to determine your BB attendance time by the clock, I
have a minimum word count of 200+ words per message (400+ words per week).
If your BBs take you longer than 50 min./wk., then write and skim-read faster.
How do you start?
(1) Start by going to the IHCC D2L web site and sign
in: The web site is at
https://inverhills.ims.mnscu.edu/shared/login/index.htm
To sign in, you'll need your Tech ID # (e.g.,
00001234) and your IHCC password. If you do not know what these are, there
are instructions on the sign-in page to help you.
(2) After you've signed in, find the name of our
class and click on it.
(3) Once you are in our class's D2L web site,
click on "Discussions" (just below the IHCC logo and name).
(4) Then read the starting messages in "USING
THESE DISCUSSION BOARDS."
(5) Once you've read the starting messages, scroll
down on the beginning "Discussions" page to "Week 1" to get started.
How can you
make up discussion boards?
Please write discussion board
(bulletin board or "BB") make ups by following these three steps:
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Add the messages you need (the
ones you are missing) to the
real BBs in the week(s) you need to add them.
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Then copy just your own messages
(not other people's), box and all (or as much of the box as you can get copied:
i.e., all the info in the box). (Why? This is
so I can see that you have put each message on the BBs before sending them to
me.)
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You must copy BOTH MESSAGES in a
given week and Set, even if you have credit for one of them, as I do not keep
track of which message you have finished and which one you have not.
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Then paste each message into an
email to me. Be sure you have labeled each separate message by Week Number
and Set A or Set B.
More Specific Instructions for
Using the Discussion Boards
For more specific instructions, see
Specific D2L Instructions.
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