Discussions

Overview

A type of social learning, discussions are structured asynchronous exchanges where students actively learn with and from one another, rather than solely from the instructor or course materials.

The purpose of a discussion is to deepen the understanding of course concepts by engaging multiple perspectives, building a learning community, and supporting the co-construction of knowledge.

When to Use

• Applying a concept to a real-world scenario or personal experience
• Exploring multiple valid perspectives on a complex issue
• Building a learning community through peer-to-peer exchange

Structure & Components

A well-built discussion typically includes the following:

Overview: An introduction to the context of the discussion (1-3 sentences), including what students will be discussing in the assignment and why. This bridges the content to the task.

Prepare: If the prompt requires students to complete an activity before posting—such as reading an article, conducting brief research, or reviewing a case study—include a Prepare tab/section that outlines exactly what students should do to prepare.

Prompt: The central question or task. A strong prompt is specific enough to focus the conversation but open enough to invite varied responses. The prompt must align directly with the module outcome(s).

Initial Post Requirements: Clear expectations for the initial post—required elements (e.g., cite a source, reference course material).

Response Requirements: Expectations for peer responses: minimum number of replies, what a substantive reply looks like, using guiding questions or prompts that are specific to the initial post. Replies should also be aligned with the Module Outcome(s). 

Grading Rubric: Criteria used to evaluate quality. Note that some programs have standard Discussion rubrics (consult with the ID).

Content Guidelines

Best Practices

• Ensure the discussion supports one or more module outcomes.
• Connect the prompt to a real-world scenario, current events, authentic problem relevant to the field, and/or students’ personal and/or professional experience.
  • If drawing on students’ experience, ensure it’s likely they have the experience.
• Use open-ended questions (for example, framed around “how,” “why,” “what if,” or “describe”).
• Keep the prompt focused. It should generally call for a 1–3 paragraph response.
• Scope the prompt carefully: too broad leads to surface-level posts; too narrow leaves students with little to say to each other.
• Provide 2–4 specific response criteria questions to structure student responses

Avoid

• A long, bulleted list of questions to answer.
• Requiring a lengthy response. Discussions are not the place for lengthy papers.
• Prompts or questions that lead or presume a correct perspective.
  • For example, “How does remote work improve employee productivity and work-life balance?” steers students toward a preferred answer or conclusion.
  • A more open ended-ended question would be, “To what extent does remote work benefit employees and organizations, and what tradeoffs should be considered?”
• Questions/prompts that have yes/no answers or a single correct answer.
  • “Should colleges require students to take online courses?” simply requires a yes or no response.
• Overloading a single discussion with multiple unrelated concepts.

AI-Resistant Strategies 

• Design prompts that allow students to support multiple defensible viewpoints with evidence.
  • Example: “Find one credible source published within the last two years that addresses the relationship between social media and public opinion. Using both your source and this week’s materials, argue whether social media strengthens or weakens democratic participation.”
• Require direct engagement with module materials (lessons, videos, case studies, datasets, etc.).
  • Example: “Using the interview clip from Lesson 3.2 and the Hernandez case study, identify one communication breakdown and propose an alternative response.”
• Ask students to relate concepts to their own experiences.  
  • Example: “Identify a leadership decision you have observed in a workplace, school, or community setting. Analyze it using this week’s ethical framework.”
• Ask students to explain how they arrived at a conclusion or where they struggled.
  • Example: “What part of this week’s reading most challenged your assumptions, and how did your thinking change?”
• Add a constraint to the discussion prompt/scenario to require prioritization, tradeoff analysis, and justification. 
  • Example: “Your community has received a small grant to address food insecurity, but funding will only support one initiative for the next year. Which approach should be prioritized and why?” instead of “How should a community address food insecurity?”
• Ask students to add conditions and/or criteria to their response. 
  • Example: “Take a position on whether employers should monitor employee productivity while working remotely. In your response, identify at least two conditions or criteria that would make monitoring more or less appropriate. “

Examples

Roles and Responsibilities

Task	SME	ID
Identify the concept or topic	Lead	Consult
Draft the discussion prompt	Collaborate	Collaborate
Define post and response requirements	Collaborate	Collaborate
Write or approve the grading rubric	Consult	Lead
Review for alignment to learning outcomes	Consult	Lead
Review for alignment to Excelsior Discussion standards	Consult	Lead

Technical Specifications

Allow Threaded Replies. When enabled, students can reply directly to a peer’s post rather than only to the original prompt, creating nested conversation threads. This is recommended for discussions where peer dialogue and back-and-forth exchange are central to the learning purpose. For simpler check-in or reflection discussions, threaded replies may not be necessary and can make the discussion harder to follow.

Users Must Post Before Seeing Replies. When enabled, students must submit their initial post before they can read their classmates’ responses. This is strongly recommended for most discussions, as it ensures students engage with the prompt independently before being influenced by peer responses — preserving the authenticity and variety of initial posts. Disable this setting only when the discussion is explicitly designed for students to react to or build on a visible shared prompt or resource.

Group Discussion. When enabled, the discussion is divided among smaller student groups rather than the full class. This is a good option when the course has a large enrollment and whole-class discussion becomes unwieldy, or when the learning design calls for closer peer collaboration within a consistent small group. Note that group discussions require groups to be set up in Canvas in advance, and each group gets its own separate discussion thread.

AI Use Policy

Review Checklist

• Alignment: Does the discussion prompt connect clearly to a module outcome?
• Relevance: Does the prompt highlight the real-world and/or personal relevance/context of the discussion—either in its wording or in the anticipated student response?
• Discussable: Does the prompt invite varied perspectives rather than a single correct answer or predictable response?
• Scope: Is it clear to the student what the desired scope of a good initial post is?
• Evidence: Is it clear to the student what evidence a student should be using to support their response?
• Experience: If the specified argumentative support is personal experience, is it safe to assume that most students would have had the relevant experience the prompt asks them to draw upon?
• Responses: Is it clear what students are supposed to post and what they should consider in their responses to other students’ posts?