In college courses, teachers assign discussion boards as a way to have students interact with the material and each other. However, this method can be more infuriating than helpful to most. 

Discussion boards are forums where students apply what they learn in class and delve deeper into the content. Teachers do this by assigning students the task of writing a post for the forum and responding to around two of their classmates. Discussion boards are especially favored in asynchronous courses. 

What teachers hope to achieve with this method is a deeper understanding of the course’s content as well as peer discussion. However, many students argue this does neither of the two. 

A discussion board assignment can be tedious and unreasonably time-consuming. Discussion boards can often be classified as busy work, meaning students do it for a few points and it takes time out of their day to do so. In college, time management is a skill that needs to be utilized, and unnecessary work like discussion boards have to be crammed into an already tight schedule.

When posting a discussion board post, students’ classmates are all able to see and respond. No matter the size of the class, this premise can be uncomfortable.

Replying to fellow students is just as tedious and unnecessary. Often, the replies are the same copy and paste comments just to check the assignment of the to-do list. No student with a large workload is going to spend time reading their peers’ work to respond with something “thought-provoking.” In no way is responding to peers’ work furthering any education.

If a teacher is going to use a discussion board for an online class as a way for peer interaction, groups on Zoom would be much more effective. They require actual communication in class and aren’t just two sentence replies in a forum. Instead, students are speaking directly to their classmates. 

If students are in an in-person class, most students find in-class discussions much more engaging than a forum. With in-class discussions, they are able to add their own input and debate conflicts while in the moment, rather than replying to a peer later online. Discussion boards do not promote any actual communication.

Some teachers will input a word count minimum for discussion board forum posts and replies. This tactic is useless as it doesn’t compel the students to try harder than they are. Rather, they are typing as much as they can to hit the minimum target. This is even more apparent in replies, with soulless responses of the same vague filler.

The only useful trait of discussion board assignments is the slight boost in grades, however they frequently only count for five to 10 points. In this case, the boost in grades is only if you’re assigned a discussion board more often than not.

Many students do not take these assignments seriously and most likely aren’t going to gain anything out of them. Discussion boards are not productive and instead waste educational time rather than enhance it. There’s no “deeper understanding” of an assignment you can easily Google.