This Good Practice Guide provides a long overdue introduction to the use of one of the most widely available and easy to use elearning tools - the discussion board. The Guide provides a wealth of practical advice about how to start using discussion boards effectively in the Higher Education and Further Education Context. Advice is given on how to design meaningful tasks, how to moderate the boards to ensure smooth and effective communication between students and solutions to the question of whether to assess contributions or not and how gets a chapter of its own. The final chapter deals specifically with the use of discussion boards in a Creative Writing context. It is hoped that the guide will inspire and encourage both you and your department to get involved in using discussion boards to enrich the student experience.

The activity in this resource, available for a group or individual, exposes the student to a selection of voices within the discipline who have different perspectives on the use and assessment of online discussion.