DISCUSSION BOARD INSTRUCTIONS
The purpose of the Discussion Board is to replicate the kind of discussion you would have in a traditional classroom setting.DB Forums 1-4will take place over 7 days (Module/Week 1). The idea for these 4 forums is for you to incorporate a mix of personal experiences/perception and correlate that information with your reading/ academic research. Please avoid long quotes from scripture and other sources. A good rule of thumb is to have a minimum of 400 words of your own writing in addition to quotes from God’s Word/external resources/course readings.
For each Discussion Board Forum, you will post a minimum of 3 times.
All original threads must be no less than 400 words.This parameter helps to promote writing that is both thorough and yet concise enough to permit other students to read all the postings. Your thoughts and opinions need to be substantiated by research and literature. The purpose of this is to encourage you to contribute more content to the course. First-person voice is allowed. Each posting includes (but is not limited to) the degree to which the student:
• Brings clarity to issues being discussed;
• Raises new and novel (yet relevant) points;
• Relates issues to course material, biblical principles, and/or experience; and
• Rationally defends her/his position.
Note that replies such as“I like what you said,”“That’s a good comment,”and “I disagree with your comment,” in and of themselves, do not count as a complete reply. Rather, stating reasons that support the opinion, adding additional ideas/thoughts, or providing alternative ideas/thoughts count as a reply. Courtesy in any disagreement is expected; thus, personal attacks or calling an idea “stupid” are not acceptable and will count againstyour grade.Likewise, replies tothreadsmust be no less than 200 words. Similar to the original threads, A good rule of thumb for replies is to have 200 words of your own writing in addition to quotes from God’s Word/external resources/course readings.
One of the goals of Discussion BoardForum assignments is to encourage student community learning; thus, not every posting will have a response from the instructor. Rather, the instructor will post in a way that adds to the conversation, asks a pertinent question, or summarizes some of the key points made by students.
For a detailed description of how the posts are graded, see the Discussion Board Forum Grading Rubric
