Guide to writing a discussion post

Guide to writing a discussion post

A key part of on-line learning with Peoples-uni is participating in the discussion forum. 

You can consider the discussions as a 'formative assessment' – helping you prepare for assignments. For that purpose, all discussion posts are rated by a tutor according to these criteria:

• Did you refer to the Resources in that section of the module?
• Did you demonstrate a critical approach?
• Did you quote references?
• Was this a substantial contribution to the discussion?

Only students who have made substantial contributions to the discussion forums in a module are allowed to submit an assignment to gain academic credit for the module.

Try to think of this discussion as a face to face meeting, similar to a tutorial. But rather than the teacher standing at the front of the class 'lecturing', it is more a shared discussion to compare experiences and learn together (even the tutors learn each time). 

Lets look at what makes a good discussion contribution:

Talking about your own experience and comparing it to other students – if you are experiencing similar situations, why do you think that is? If it is different, then why?

• Reflections on your learning

• Using your own words

• Openness about learning process – eg, saying when you do not understand something or you find something confusing

• Reading other students comments and responding – eg, commenting on when someone’s experience is similar or different from yours, or commenting on how the health system or the environment is different in your country therefore impacting on health differently

• Supporting colleagues to learn by asking further questions – eg, if you read a comment made by a colleague but they have not talked about the quality of the information you may like to ask – where did you find that information? What do you think of the quality? In our country we do not have good quality information on (example topic) because of (reason – eg record keeping, poor attendance at health centres, no laboratory conformation of diagnosis etc etc) – how is it in your country?

• Posting comments early in the topic (during first week)

• Not copying text from other authors/websites/journal articles - it is best to summarise in your own words - do not worry about your language or not describing it correctly - that is why the tutor is there to facilitate, and you will learn more this way

• Providing references to the information you provide

Lets look at an example of a good discussion post that has many of the above points:

Hi, I'm Apio and I work as a community nurse in Lira, Uganda.  I found the resources difficult to understand. I liked the video on using Pubmed, but I found it very difficult to do the task of searching the web for research articles - I kept having too many articles and couldn’t find a way to target the search.  I used the terms 'maternal health', and then tried these words 'maternal mortality' and Uganda....can anybody help? Jason - I noticed that you were also searching for maternal mortality but in Nigeria – what words did you use to limit your search? There is one article that I found that is based in Kenya (reference), and looks at malaria in pregnancy.  The study was comparing outcomes for women on ITP (intermittent treatment in Pregnancy) with other women who were not on treatment.  It shows that ITP is effective at reducing malaria in pregnancy. I dont know much about the health system in Kenya, so I'm not sure how it's different to Uganda, and this might mean we would have different results here. I think that if there is different access to antenatal care (eg in some areas where I live, women have to pay to attend antenatal care, and also if it is harvesting season then they don’t have time to attend). I would like to know more about the geographical area in Kenya where this study was done and also, and what the health system is like there so I can compare it to where I live – this information wasn’t available in the research paper. The reference is.......

Template for a discussion post

There is no one layout for a discussion post – but here are a few examples of ways you can structure your discussion post:

1) Asking a question about the resources (useful anytime during the topic, but especially at the beginning – do not worry about saying you don’t understand)

• Brief introduction/Background about yourself (remember there are lots of students and so it is better to keep this brief – remind people of your country/your job/volunteer role or a project you’re working on that is relevant to the discussion topic etc

• Talk about how you felt reading the learning resources: was there anything you didn’t understand? Can you ask others for their views or if having the same problem? What did you find interesting and why? Has it made you think differently about your own country situation? How?

2) Responding to the discussion question

• Brief introduction

• Answer to question – reflect on your own experience

• Talk about your colleagues experience and how the same /different

• Ask questions of other students

• Providing the reference(s)

How to prepare for a discussion post

• Start by looking at the questions the tutor has asked. Do you want to answer all of them or just one (it is okay not to answer all questions – it is better to post a response to one than to none)

• If you are answering several questions – think about your layout. Can you use bullet points/numbers to keep each question separate? Or does it make sense to use headings?

• Next read all the discussion posts already on the forum – make notes as you read them – is there anything your colleague has written that you agree with? Why? Is your experience the same or different? Have you got any other questions to ask of your fellow students?

• When you are making a statement that is a piece of knowledge you read in the resources, an opinion from an author, a theory, some data etc then you should acknowledge the author

• Did you look at any other internet based or paper documents that you want to reference so that other colleagues can also read

• It is okay to say that you searched for data and could not find anything – that is a valid point. You can then think about why there is no data available.

Lets now do a task to prepare us for writing a discussion post. You can use the resources in topic 1 of the Foundations in Public Health module to do this task.

The first thing you need to do, before you write your discussion post, is read the learning outcomes for the topic. You can assess your starting knowledge against each learning outcome, using the study plan.

Next you need to read the resource materials for that topic. When you read the materials you should make notes and think about how the resources relate to your own experience in your country. To help you when writing notes, you can think about these questions. You can also download a blank table for you to use in note taking to help you.

• Have I had any experience in this area? Either as a citizen, as a family member, a health worker, a volunteer or other

• Now read the resources (remember you can download all resources at the beginning of a module if you have poor or intermittent internet connection)

• As you read each resource you can make notes by asking yourself

• What was the main information in this resource (limit your self to 3 brief sentences – bullet points are helpful)

• Is there any experience I have had that matches the information in the resource, or is it different, how?

• Is there anything I don’t understand? What questions do I have? Where can I find the answers?

• Now read all the posts on the discussion forum.

• Note down your thoughts about other student posts – is their experience the same as yours or different? Have they made any points that you are unsure about and want further clarification – perhaps they have not stated where they found the information. You may have found some different research that shows the opposite

If you are referencing either one of the topic resources or another research paper or website you have read, you need to write the reference after you make the statement.