Can discussion board postings be assessed?'

Should we assess discussion board postings? The common response from staff is that if the students know that something ‘extra’ is not assessed, they will not do it. Sadly, this is often the case.

Discussion board work that we might want to assess probably falls under group work. Can we assess group work? How should we assess group work? This is in itself a very complex issue, under much research. In some circumstances, for example in the role play group assignment described above, it easy to make an assessment of an individual’s contribution (or non-contribution) to the group. Where a module is already assessed partially on contribution to seminars, then the discussion board can provide an additional vehicle for students to make their views heard. However in the kind of e-learning that many on-campus universities are involved in there is no rush to try and assess discussion board activity, but rather to use it as an enhancement to the learnng and teaching experience.

Last Modified: 2 August 2010