What Makes a Post “Substantive”?

Dallas Christian College
John E. Wasem, Adjunct Professor

In order to help you understand what I would consider an acceptable substantive post in our weekly discussion forums, it is important that you note the following guidelines describing a substantial post.

• Add value to the discussion (e.g. provide new ideas, link what someone is saying to experience or to readings, ask a “hard”, thought-provoking question)
• Avoid simply repeating, agreeing with, or answering "yes" or "no" to peers’ comments  (i.e. "me too" comments; agreeing with what someone has just said; a simple affirmation or statement of support; or just reiterating what someone has said does not count toward your minimum requirement of postings per week – one in response to the question of the week and two in response to posts of fellow students and/or the professor). I will do my best to always edit a post and indicate that it was READ, but you will notice that such posts will not receive a % grade. You will note a statement such as the following below a non-substantial post:

(READ by John Wasem - original submission Tuesday, March 1, 2011, 11:58 AM)

Such posts as described above are good courtesy and desirable because they add to the esprit de corps of the online class. These posts contribute to the discussion, but they are not substantive.

• Challenge comments in class, including those of the instructor (ask a hard question, present an alternative perspective from experience, from the readings, engage in properly toned debate)
• Constructively disagree
• Ask insightful questions (questions which expand the discussion, demonstrate integration of the concepts of the class with experience, invite our thinking to new levels of understanding)
• Answer other people’s questions (this is fairly self explanatory)
• Exemplify/illustrate the primary point with real-life events, when possible (here is where real life comes to play . . .sharing your experiences and learning together from these experiences)
• Make comments that are relevant to the course content and objectives (keeping on task with the topic of the week and to the course objectives)
• Integrate or apply relevant readings to the discussion (citations are appropriate when you borrow the ideas of another or build off of these ideas; integrating and discussing the readings is an important part of your responding.)
• Always do a spellcheck of your forum posts and when appropriate add the reference(s) to properly cite your post.

Notice, I have not dictated word count as a way of judging substantial contributions. However, as a rule of thumb, plan to write a minimum of 150-200 words (not including quotations) for your primary post each week. The other posts for a given week should generally tend to be 100-150 words. Although class standards usually require a minimum of three posts, you should take careful note of the requirements in each class—some require more postings per week. If the number of substantial posts in a given week’s discussion forum exceeds the minimum expectation, then you may receive between 0.5 to 2.0 additional percentage points on your discussion forum grade of that week.