Discussion boards often become places of mock interaction, extra essays, or drivel. The presenter will discuss her deep hatred for discussion boards, how this drove her to identify what caused discussion boards to go wrong, and discuss her current experiments with discussion board assignments.

Establish pain points in general discussion board structure and typical assignments; Discuss the purpose and goals for discussion boards; Discuss possible solutions and adaptation as well as the presenter's current innovations.

Discussion boards are often either a cause of frustration or ignored by instructors of online or hybrid classes. This causes them to often become places of mock interaction, extra essays, or drivel. However, in online classes especially, this becomes one of the few points where classroom interaction can be imitated. The presenter will briefly discuss her deep hatred for discussion boards and the barriers that keep true interaction from occurring. She will also touch on how this drove her to identify what caused discussion boards to go wrong and how online, text-based communities create discourse. Finally, she will discuss her current experiments with discussion board assignments. As more and more students transition to online courses, perfecting methods of encouraging online discussion and comradely will become increasingly more important.