Effectively Responding to a Peer’s Post

Another component that enriches and enlivens the Discussion Board experience is responding to fellow classmates’ posts. In the same way that your own posts should be substantive, response posts should be meaningful and advance the discussion of the issues, ideas, questions that were raised in the initial posts. While you can be supportive of your peers by saying, “I agree” or “Wow, I never thought of that”, these statements alone are not sufficient.
To guide you in drafting acceptable response posts, refer to the options below:
• Validate the post by sharing your experience and stating how it relates to the course material or to the initial post.
• Agree or disagree with the post and explain why you agree or disagree.
• Expand on your classmate’s post to demonstrate that you understand the topic.
• Reply to a question posed by one of your classmates or by the instructor and support your
statements with sources from the text.
• Critically evaluate the post and make a suggestion or respectfully point out an area of the
assignment that was not addressed.
• Ask a probing question or ask your classmate for a clarification or an explanation of a point
made in the post.
• Share an insight or something you learned from reading your peer’s posting or from your other
reading.
• Explain how someone’s post helped you understand the material or made you rethink your own
views.
• Offer an opinion and support it with examples from the text.
• Relate the information in the post to your course assignments and/or research projects.
• Challenge a statement in the post. If you would not let a statement go unchallenged in a
classroom discussion, do not let it go unchallenged on the discussion board.
• Tie ideas together: Discuss how comments other students made relate to your peer’s post.
• Make sure you cite your sources for all references to the textbook and for any other ideas that
are not your own.