Discussion Board

Discussion Board Expectations

Discussion board conversations foster learning by giving an opportunity to dive deeper into the
course content. It will also give you a chance to "see" what others think and to provide and
receive feedback from one another.  This will help you achieve the course learning outcomes.
Before You Post on the Discussion Board
 Actively read/view (and take notes!) the material on the topic (textbook; Power Point;
outside resources, etc.). You will need this background information to make significant
contributions.
 Ask questions as needed regarding the background information or the task.
 Create a brief outline of what you want to say before you start typing out your response.
 Review what others have already contributed.
Posting on a Discussion Board!
 Participate early so others are able to read and respond to your contribution.
 Be sure to respond directly to the prompt/question for that Discussion Board.
 When stating a viewpoint, back it up with theory and research- make it SCHOLARLY!
Citations from the book and outside resources should be used. Use APA style for in-text
citations and include the entire reference all sources with the exception of our textbook.
Include References at the end of the post.
 Organize your response so it is easy for the reader to follow. Use bold, larger font,
highlighting, and so forth to bring attention to key points.
 Add to what others have already said- remember it's a conversation not an individual
assignment on the topic. No one wants to read the same thing over and over.
 Use writing skills that you would use in a research paper and proofread your work before
you submit it. (Suggestion- write your response in a Word document and then copy and
paste it so you don’t lose your work if there is an internet connection problem)
Feedback to Peers/Second Response:
 The purpose of the second response is to further the conversation, helping all members of
the class to explore the content more deeply and achieve the course learning outcomes.
 Second Responses should add to, clarify, or constructively challenge.  They should also
be specific in nature. You can respond to questions I pose to you or to your classmates,
not just ones that are specific to your post. You can provide scholarly feedback to your
peers or generate a new, supported idea. Make sure to incorporate scholarly
information into your feedback and include References at the end!

The Professor's Role
 You can expect that I will be reading ALL posts.
 I will provide feedback to your first post, if it is posted before the deadline.
 At the “end” of each conversation, I will be posting a summary of the conversation.
 Using the provided rubric, I will be entering discussion board grades throughout the
session or semester.

Examples of “A” initial responses:
Example 1: Posted by D.C.

Resilience is an important concept in psychology because negative and even traumatic events
can occur in almost everyone’s life, so how well we can recover from them and how to help
those who cannot do this well is very important to look at. I read an article about psychological
resilience in older versus younger adults entitled “Psychological resilience in young and older
adults” by Gooding et al. (2001). This article was the first to compare resilience in younger and
older adult groups together and was seeking to find out which group of individuals is more
resilient overall and in three sub-categories (emotional regulation, problem-solving, and social
support).
The goal of the study was to see if resilience differed between older (over 65) and
younger adults (18 to 25) overall and “whether depression, hopelessness and perceptions of ill
health would differentially predict resilience” because these can differ drastically between these
two groups (p. 262). The study consisted of 60 older adults (35 females and 25 males) and 60
younger adults (52 females and 8 males) given in a cross-sectional questionnaire method. They
use the following four questionnaires: the Geriatric Depression Scale, the Beck Hopelessness
Scale, the Resilience Appraisal Scale, and The Medical Outcomes Study 36‐Item Short‐Form
Health Survey which were designed to test different aspects of resilience among both groups (p.
263 and 264).
The results showed that older adults had higher resilience in the emotional regulation and
problem-solving categories, but younger adults had higher resilience in the social support
category. Secondly, they found that “poor general health perceptions and low energy levels
predicted lower resilience overall, but greater levels of mental ill health predicted higher
resilience overall”. Thirdly, they found that as “hopelessness inversely predicted resilience”
meaning that as hopelessness went down, resilience went up (p.265 and 266). Statistical analyses
of the questionnaires were completed, such as using MANOVA, to lead to numeric and
measurable results.
The study showed that older people have a stronger resilience with regards to the
emotional regulation and problem-solving sub-categories, but younger adults have a stronger
resilience with regards to the social support sub-category possibly due to a higher quality of life
for older individuals (p.268). More positive ratings overall means a higher resilience, in general.
They also showed that ill health in older people is associated with higher resilience showing that
resilience and ill health are not associated and that one does not directly affect the other. It was
also found that high levels of hopelessness and not mainly depression and ill health resulting in
low resilience because of possible negative thinking leading to it for both groups.