Beyond exploring or advancing a topic, class discussions reveal student learning and comprehension. How are these aspects of discussion facilitated in an online course? Consider how discussions differ in an in-person class versus online. In-person class discussions often progress spontaneously and the immediacy of a real-time discussion lends itself to less formality. In an online discussion, students have time to carefully consider their comments, add references and citations, and formalize their writing. Similarly, grading online discussions requires an in-depth assessment of students’ logical arguments, content, writing style, and formatting. As an online instructor, one of your primary responsibilities is to monitor and evaluate discussion posts. This week you grade a student discussion post against the grading rubric provided. How do you continue to motivate the student’s efforts while critically assessing the content of his or her discussion post?
For this Discussion, review and study this week’s Learning Resources, including the discussion post and the grading rubric provided for its assessment. Consider how you might comment on the student’s post to improve the student’s future posts. Finally, think about how you might apply the grading criteria in order to complete the grading rubric for this student’s post.
Your discussion should include your comments to the student and a description of your grading process, which should include answers to the following questions:
- As an instructor, what were your concerns while grading the discussion post?
- What criteria were you looking for in order to determine the grade you assigned?
- How did you feel about and what insights did you gain from the grading process?
With these thoughts in mind:
Post by Day 4 a summary of your comments to the student and your grading process. In an attachment, include the student discussion post you corrected, with your comments and corrections in track changes. In the same document, include the completed grading rubric for the discussion post.
Be sure to support your post with specific references to the Learning Resources. If you are using additional articles, be sure to provide full, APA-formatted citations for your references.