In your discussion board assignments, I have asked you to respond to three of the topics posted by "Film Instructor and then to respond to the comments of two group members who responded to the same "Film Instructor" topics that your responded to. This is the process that I use to evaluate your work:

1. When I begin my evaluation, I enter the discussion board and click the "collapse all" button so that I see only the discussion threads begun by "Film Instructor," as shown below:

   

2. I then use my mouse to click the "Show Options" tab so that I can select only the responses that I want to read at one time:

   

3. I then click the "+" sign in front of the first discussion thread, titled "Preference" to expand the discussion thread so that I can see who responded to the "Film Instructor" topic:

   

4. After the discussion thread expands, I notice that 7 different class members have responded. I also notice that two responses also contain discussion threads, indicated by the "+" sign. I then click the plus sign in front of the first discussion thread and expand that discussion thread to see who responded.

   

   I learned that Jennifer responded to "Film Instructor." Then Linda responded to Jennifer's response, etc. I see that they continued their discussion, which is what I am hoping will happen throughout all the discussion forums.

5. I then click the check box in front of the discussion responses in the "Preferences" discussion thread and then click the "Collect" button. All of the discussion responses in that thread will appear on the screen for me to read and evaluate.

   

6. Remember that the assignment for all discussion board assignments this semester has been to respond to three topics posted by "Film Instructor" and then to the responses of at least two other students who also responded to the same "Film Instructor" topic that you responded to.

   I actually post all of those topics under the name "Film Instructor," but I don't use my own name because later I will return to the discussion forum and add my own comments just as I would if I were in the classroom and making a final statement before the class ends. I like for the discussion to precede unimpeded by my ideas (other than the ones that I present in the Assignments area), but I do like to provide some comments later in the discussion period or at the end of the discussion.

   In the samples above, you can see that Jennifer and Linda both responded to "Film Instructor" in the same discussion thread and also responded to each other in that same discussion thread. They are on their way to making an A in the discussion activity, provided that they also write thoughtful, perceptive comments.