Using the Discussion Board Discussions are organised into weekly forums and assessment forums. We encourage you to post your weekly task responses, queries or concerns here, but it is not compulsory. These threads connect you to your tutor - but just as importantly - to other students. We strongly believe that learning is a shared experience and the Discussion Board is our group space. General course and assessment questions should be posted here (not emailed to your tutor!). We also believe that all questions and statements are important and warrant a considered reply. In other words, there is no such thing as a silly question or concern! The teaching staff in this course have an active online presence and aim to respond to questions within 48 working hours. Students are welcome to reply to other student's post and we support dialogue between students. Warning! Exclamation mark in a circle Note: posts on the Discussion Board are not marked and participation is not compulsory. Keep the following in mind when posting on the Discussion Board This is a public forum. Be polite and considerate of others as you would want them to be polite and considerate of you. Respect is the key word here. The PQP approach (praise – question – polish) is useful when posting on a discussion board, particularly when you want to comment on someone else’s work. Warning! Exclamation mark in a circle Also see these Rules of Engagement for Online Communication PQP approach. Praise Find something that was interesting, useful or informative about the post. Show that you have found something to approve of. Question Raise a question about the content or presentation. Try to make this constructive, but interested in what was being said or done. Polish Offer suggestions as to how the post could have been improved. What might have been an alternative way to approach the topic? What could have enhanced the final product?