what is a discussion thread

by Tomas Walsh 6 min read

Second, a discussion thread can be defined as one topic under discussion by a group. The thread is a single focused topic, in most cases, and all comments concerning the topic are listed with it. Woman doing a handstand with a computer

Full Answer

How to reply to a discussion thread?

Threaded discussions refer to online postings on a specific topic. In an online course, you professor may have weekly discussion assignments. Each week, there are questions for students to answer. Students are asked to post their answer on the Discussion Forum. Students can read the messages and respond to them.

What's the difference between a discussion thread and topic?

Create a discussion thread Create a discussion thread The Discussions tool is a collaboration area to post, read and reply to threads on different topics, share thoughts about course materials, ask questions, share files, or work with your peers on assignments and homework. Note the following:

How to print discussion threads?

A forum is equivalent to a folder which contains a collection of one or more discussion topics. You post to discussion topics and each post within the topic is called a thread. For example: Forum: Classroom Introductions. Topic 1: Where were you born? Thread 1: Alice: I was born in Germany . Reply to Thread: Bob: I was born in Germany too! Where in Germany were you born, …

What is an online discussion thread?

A discussion board is a “space” where students can further delve into classroom content. It can promote collaboration, and offer individuals room to explore topics, issues, and/or questions. The discussion board is an excellent tool for students who may feel more comfortable expressing their understanding of course content in a written format, as opposed to verbally.

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What is meant by a discussion thread?

Threaded discussions refer to online postings on a specific topic. ... This group of messages with the initial message and responses is called a 'thread'.

How do you write a discussion thread?

Tips for writing a good discussion threadPart 1: State what your thought or recommendation might be. In other words, answer the question, “What do you think?”Part 2: State why you think what you think. ... Part 3: State what you wish you knew or directly solicit the opinion of classmates (in other words, ask a question!)May 13, 2021

How do you respond to a threaded discussion?

Open the threaded discussion.If you have multiple posts in the threaded discussion, click on post you want to reply to.To reply directly to a topic, click. ... To respond to a comment from a student or from someone else, click Show More beside the comment to expand it. ... Type your post in the Visual Editor.More items...

What is a thread in online discussion board?

Within each forum, you will find Posts which are the individual responses by the class members. Thread — A post in a Forum and all replies to that post. Post — Comments submitted by a student or instructor. Reply — Comments submitted in response to another post.

What makes a good discussion response?

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.

How do I start a discussion assignment?

Table of contentsSummarize your key findings.Give your interpretations.Discuss the implications.Acknowledge the limitations.State your recommendations.What to leave out of the discussion.Checklist.Frequently asked questions about the discussion.Mar 21, 2019

What type of formatting would you see on a threaded discussion board?

Most discussion boards use what's called a “threaded discussion,” which means that responses are indented under an initial posting. This type of indentation provides a visual cue to a reader, allowing him to rapidly distinguish the different discussion topics or threads. Write informally but not sloppily.

What is a threaded discussion in canvas?

Threaded Discussions enable infinite nesting or threading of comments, so that students can branch off into various side discussions. This also makes it easier to see who the students are respond to and communicating with in the discussion. The threads can be open and closed for easier viewing as well.

How do you start a discussion reply?

There are three main ways to respond constructively to a post: “No, because...” • “Yes, and…” • “Yes, but...” If you disagree with someone's post, show that you appreciate that your classmate has an opinion, even if it's different from your own.

What is the difference between a discussion board and forum?

A forum is an area of the discussion board where participants discuss a topic or a group of related topics. Within each forum, users can create multiple threads. When your instructor creates a forum, they may or may not let you start threads.

What is the purpose of a discussion forum?

Online forums can be used for many purposes, such as helping students to review material prior to an assignment or exam, engaging students in discussion of course material before coming to class, and reflecting on material that they have read or worked with outside of class.

What is the advantage of using a discussion board?

Discussion boards provide a connection to other humans. They are, in short, a way to “humanize” online learning. Discussion boards help to create a social presence in an online course along with a sense of community. Presence and community, in turn, can foster emotional connections.

How does threaded discussion work?

Threaded discussions allow readers to quickly grasp the overall structure of a conversation, isolate specific points of conversations nested within the threads, and as a result, post new messages to extend discussions in any existing thread or sub-thread without time constraints. With linear threads on the other hand, once the topic shifts to a new point of discussion, users are: 1) less inclined to make posts to revisit and expand on earlier points of discussion in order to avoid fragmenting the linear conversation similar to what occurs with turn-taking in face-to-face conversations; and/or 2) obligated to make a motion to stay on topic or move to change the topic of discussion. Given this advantage, threaded discussion is most useful for facilitating extended conversations or debates involving complex multi-step tasks (e.g., identify major premises → challenge veracity → share evidence → question accuracy, validity, or relevance of presented evidence) – as often found in newsgroups and complicated email chains – as opposed to simple single-step tasks (e.g., posting or share answers to a simple question).

What is a conversation thread?

Conversation threading is a feature used by many email clients, bulletin boards, newsgroups, and Internet forums in which the software aids the user by visually grouping messages with their replies. These groups are called a conversation, topic thread, or simply a thread. A discussion forum, e-mail client or news client is said to have ...

Why is it important to group messages by thread?

Grouping messages by thread makes the process of reviewing large numbers of messages in context to a given discussion topic more time efficient and with less mental effort, thus making more time and mental resources available to further extend and advance discussions within each individual topic/thread.

What is email targeting?

Email allows messages to be targeted at particular members of the audience by using the "To" and "CC" lines. However, some message systems do not have this option. As a result, it can be difficult to determine the intended recipient of a particular message.

How do threads work?

Threads can be displayed in a variety of ways. Early messaging systems (and most modern email clients) will automatically include original message text in a reply, making each individual email into its own copy of the entire thread. Software may also arrange threads of messages within lists, such as an email inbox.

Why is thread fragmentation problematic?

Thread fragmentation can be particularly problematic for systems that allow users to choose different display modes (hierarchical vs. linear). Users of the hierarchical display mode will reply to older messages, confusing users of the linear display mode.

How many characters are in a tweet thread?

Real time feedback. When an author, usually a journalist, posts threads via Twitter, users are able to respond to each 140- or 280-character tweet in the thread, often before the author posts the next message. This allows the author the option of including the feedback as part of subsequent messages.

How to write a discussion thread?

Tips for writing a good discussion thread 1 The Three Part Post (Developed by Dr. Judith Boettcher, Executive Director of the Corporation for Research and Educational Networking) 2 If the discussion question asks you to respond to an open-ended query pertaining to a particular problem, challenge, or idea, a good thread will incorporate three parts:#N#Part 1: State what your thought or recommendation might be. In other words, answer the question, “What do you think?”#N#Part 2: State why you think what you think. Examine your own experiences, beliefs, or knowledge. It is also a good place to provide references, textual quotations, and/or links to materials that reinforce your opinion.#N#Part 3: State what you wish you knew or directly solicit the opinion of classmates (in other words, ask a question!)

Why is a discussion board important?

The discussion board is an excellent tool for students who may feel more comfortable expressing their understanding of course content in a written format , as opposed to verbally. Discussion boards can also be used to further employ the resources of the Internet by allowing students to include hyperlinks to relevant content.

Focused Discussions

Focused discussions include one response and one layer of comment nesting. Focused discussions are relatively short-lived interactions that tend to disappear as the course progresses, such as a weekly forum for questions related to that week's activities.

Threaded Discussions

Threaded discussions include infinite layers of response nesting, allowing commenters to continue responding on a single nested thread. Threaded discussions lend themselves to the refining of complex ideas. Responses and different lines of inquiry that can be quickly navigated due to its hierarchical structure.

Discussions Redesign

If enabled by your institution, Discussions Redesign provides an enhanced experience for course discussions.

What is discussion board?

The Discussion Board provides to you and your students , an asynchronous tool to electronically converse with one another. Asynchronous tools are designed, so that everyone does not have to be available [online] at the same time to participate in the conversation. Each posting is automatically logged and organized. The name given to this organization is threading, and it provides a mechanism to automatically group the postings and all related replies, i.e., follow-up comments.

How to contact Blackboard at USC?

Call our Blackboard Help line 24 hours a day, every day at (213) 740-5555 and choose option 2. Faculty can request help and training from USC’s Enterprise Learning Technologies group by submitting a request to [email protected].

Why are discussion boards used?

Some Internet discussion boards are used to vent frustrations. Discussion boards differ from other forms of Internet communication in that they provide a permanent record of conversations that can be read and discussed by other members. E-mail, for example, provides a personal and private form of communication.

Why is the internet anonymous?

The anonymous nature of the Internet also means that many people are more open with their views than they would be in real life, especially if the topic is a controversial one.

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Overview

Conversation threading is a feature used by many email clients, bulletin boards, newsgroups, and Internet forums in which the software aids the user by visually grouping messages with their replies. These groups are called a conversation, topic thread, or simply a thread. A discussion forum, e-mail client or news clientis said to have a "conversation view", "threaded topics" or a "threaded mode" if m…

Mechanism

Internet email clients compliant with the RFC 822 standard (and its successor RFC 5322) add a unique message identifier in the Message-ID: header field of each message, e.g.
If a user creates message B by replying to message A, the mail client will add the unique message ID of message A in form of the fields
to the header of reply B. RFC 5322 defines the following algorithm for populating these fields:

Advantages

Threaded discussions allow readers to quickly grasp the overall structure of a conversation, isolate specific points of conversations nested within the threads, and as a result, post new messages to extend discussions in any existing thread or sub-thread without time constraints. With linear threads on the other hand, once the topic shifts to a new point of discussion, users are: 1) less inclined to make posts to revisit and expand on earlier points of discussion in order to av…

Disadvantages

Accurate threading of messages requires the email software to identify messages that are replies to other messages.
Some algorithms used for this purpose can be unreliable. For example, email clients that use the subject line to relate messages can be fooled by two unrelated messages that happen to have the same subject line.

Examples

The following messaging software can group and display messages by thread.
• Apple Mail
• Emacs Gnus
• FastMail
• Forte Agent

See also

• Document mode, a contrasting method which only displays the result of the last page update.