Q&A Forums

Question and answer forums in online courses are an important place for students to communicate both with you and their peers.

Be sure to let students know whether they should respond to each other’s questions around due dates, assignment criteria, identifying locations of resources, etc. Also let students know how long they’ll typically wait to receive a response to their question.

In some courses, it may not be appropriate for students to respond to one another around answers to homework problems, so be sure to let them know that as well. You should also be sure to let students know your personal contact information if students want to ask a question in private.

For those students who do post answers to questions, reply with a thank you note to them. This will also show the other students that they can trust their peer’s answer.

At the end of every semester, review your Q&A forum for places in your course you can revise for clarity, or for extra information you can share with your students ahead of time.