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LXD Style Guide

iPD’s Guide for Course Design & Development

Discussions

Standard

The standard with which Michigan Virtual courses need to comply.

The Discussion Board in Brightspace is used to build peer-to-peer discussion assignments.

Alignment

Quality Matters

5.3 C Learning activities provide opportunities for learner-instructor and learner-learner interaction.

National Standards for Quality Online Teaching

C4 The online teacher promotes learner-learner interaction in online groups in order to foster collaboration and promote higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, and/or evaluation.

 

Requirements

What exactly do course developers need to include in order to comply with this standard?

Formative assessments that are meant to be discussions between learners must be created on the Brightspace Discussion Board (not built as assignments). Discussions may not be used in unfacilitated rolling-enrollment courses.

 

Implementation

How can course developers implement this standard? What is the process for doing so?

Manage Discussions:

Use the Forum: Class Discussion Boards

New Topic

Note: The difference between a Topic and a Forum is that the Topic is where the actual discussion among students and the instructor takes place. It consists of the Discussion questions and additional instructions and participants’ posts and replies within the topic’s discussion thread. A Forum can be used as an organizational scheme to house multiple related discussion topics.

Name Topic: (ex: 1.1 Discussion: Title)

Grade Out Of: add total point value and add to grade book, ensuring the point values match

Description: Add the description from the scripting document

Format:

  • # of Points on the first line.
    • Font color MV Blue = 135e6f
    • Normal text, not a heading
  • Any other headings in the Instructions
    • H3 (Heading Level 3)
    • Font color Black (#202122
  • All other paragraph or list fonts should be black color (#202122)
  • Do not copy hard-coded font stylings from other word processors (e.g., Microsoft Word, Google Docs) or from other sources (e.g., webpages) without stripping the fonts via Paste Special (Ctrl+Shift+V) or by first pasting it into a text editor (e.g., NotePad), or by pasting it directly into the full html editor </> in Brightspace and then using the Brightspace HTML editor menu to reformat the text.
  • NOTE: D2L’s default (recommended) font family is Lato, font-size 22.8px for H3 and 19px for paragraphs, font-color = hex value: #202122 with 12% lightness (a variation of Gluon Grey) unless otherwise specified via the color picker or HTML hex code.

Availability Dates & Conditions

Do NOT set any availability dates or release conditions or special access

  • An exception for use of release conditions pertains to SLS approved use of release conditions to hide select assignments from students other than those enrolled in a Group (e.g., PAP group in Sem 2 AP courses; accommodated assignment made available only to those students with special access in relation to approved IEP or 504 accommodations)
  • An exception is the use of Group Restrictions in select level one world language courses where separate discussion topic threads will be offered to middle school and high school groups based on group enrollment

Post & Completion

  • Learners must start a thread before they can view or reply to other threads
  • Posts must be approved before they display in the topic = No (leave unchecked; default setting)

Evaluation & Feedback

  • Add Rubric
  • Evaluate Posts = leave both options unchecked

 

Resources

What resources would help a developer implement this standard appropriately?