The Discussion Board is one of the primary means of engagement between students and instructors. Online Educational Services recommends that you keep it simple for students as well as yourself. The first step you will need to take requires that you:
1. Go to the class where you want to add the Discussion Board.
2. The Course Menu is the column on the left.
3. 
Select the Discussion Board link
4. The Discussion Board page is where you are going to begin creating your Discussion Forums.
5. Click on Create Forum.
6. 
The purpose of a Discussion Forum is to provide students with an opportunity share what they have learned from their reading as well as drawing from their own experience. In order to keep students from giving similar responses it is important to keep your questions open ended. Consider using videos, images, music, etc. as a spring board to encourage critical thinking and encouraging more interaction between students.
7. A key using the Discussion Board successfully is to give your discussion the same dates to open up as you do your folders. Having all Discussions open will confuse students and encourage students give their opinions instead of basing on what they learned in the text book.
8. The settings for your discussions are important and should not be overlooked.
a. Standard View allows students to read their classmates posts before they post. (Standard View can encourage students to use classmates work instead of doing their own research)
b. “Participants must create a thread in order to view other threads in this forum.” This setting requires students make their post first before they can read others postings. To stop plagiarism and cheating this would be the setting to choose.
c. For participation purposes, it is always a good idea to select Grade Discussion Forum. (Always a good idea to use a rubric for discussions so your students know what you are looking for in a discussion post)
d. Points
e. For the rest of the settings the default checks will meet your needs.
f. Submit at the bottom.