The longer explanation:

Write a minimum of five short comments on others’ reflections and on others’ comments. Short comments need to be a minimum of 150 words, so there is actually some depth. Your job here will not be to simply conform to or oppose your colleague’s writing, but to provide your personal view on it, with the view of furthering discussion. The following may help you

  •        Do you agree/disagree with what someone wrote?
  •        How can you push their thinking?
  •        How does what they said tie into real world examples?
  •        What unresolved questions does this post leave?

Across all comments, one thing I want you to consider is why you view a topic differently than someone else. What are the underlying assumptions that both of you may bring to the conversation? What other life experiences may make you see the same topic differently?  In short, try to engage not just with a conversation, but with the underlying reasons why you may have differences of opinions.

For grading your commenting, default to common sense: are you adding value to the discussion, or are you simply going through the motions? My grading is done in a commonsense manner; if you add value, I will grade it well

Things that are likely to get you a good grade:

  • Having a back-and-forth with other class participants will go a long way to showing the quality of your comments. Generally, when the quality of these back-and-forths is excellent, a good grade is received by all. Contributing to a constructive discussion is not only helpful to you but to others as well!
  • Posting a well-reasoned response to someone else’s point of view, which acknowledges their views and builds on this, potentially by disagreeing with them. If you disagree though, be clear about what parts of the point of view you disagree with.
  • Having an insightful back-and-forth with other commenters, rather than posting a one-off comment
  • Integrating viewpoints from class

Things that are not helpful to getting a good grade

  • Being unprofessional
  • Ignoring existing comments
  • Arguing for the sake of arguing
  • Posting 15 comments and hoping one of them is good.  Remember, quality over quantity

Last modified: Wednesday, 26 October 2022, 10:22 AM