Discussion forum on TESU

[mt_1994]

I’m Guys Im doing my cornerstone at TESU.  On the discussion forum I misspelled a word.  Not necessarily misspelled but missed a letter in a word.  I was supposed to present but I wrote out preset.  Will this affect my grade?

[davewill]

I’m Guys Im doing my cornerstone at TESU.  On the discussion forum I misspelled a word.  Not necessarily misspelled but missed a letter in a word.  I was supposed to present but I wrote out preset.  Will this affect my grade?

Assuming the rest of the post fulfills the assignment, I wouldn't think so.

[LevelUP]

Usually, they give 100% grades for forum posts. 

I wouldn't think a small grammar or spelling mistake would affect the grade. 

Let us know if you ever receive less than 100% on a forum post and why you got a lower grade.

[origamishuttle]

Usually, they give 100% grades for forum posts. 

This is assuming that your posts are substantive, include properly researched APA-style citations/references, and there are more than the minimum number of posts? Or are you suggesting that they give 100% without meeting the rubric?

[davewill]

Usually, they give 100% grades for forum posts. 

This is assuming that your posts are substantive, include properly researched APA-style citations/references, and there are more than the minimum number of posts? Or are you suggesting that they give 100% without meeting the rubric?

The forum post assignments are usually much simpler than that, like a paragraph or two responding to a prompt, followed by two posts responding to other student's posts. It's very much a participation grade. The hardest one I ever did was for the A.I. class where they asked a question on decomposing logical expressions. I chose to respond with the outline of a proof (not a formal proof which would have been much harder) because I had just finished Discrete Math and knew the answer. Most of the posts kind of waved their hand at it, and some were simply wrong, but I think everyone got credit.

[bjcheung77]

Depending on the professor, some will subtract points for everything including grammar and spelling mistakes. I wouldn't dwell on this and continue working on your assignments and other requirements of the degree. Some professors will give 100% for forum post as long as the discussions have enough content and back/forth feedback to fellow students posts, but not all professors will give you that 100% - even though you've completed more than the requested requirements as they're really nitpicky. I've seen students get as low as 60% on one or more of their discussions and duplicate reasons why from the professor (it was more a copy/paste of the same reasoning behind the points).

Update: OP, I've noticed you haven't a thread/post with your degree plan and/or spreadsheet. Do you need assistance with planning out the remainder of your courses or do you have that already planned out? Are you doing the 16 credits at TESU for residency or are you paying the residency waiver fee?

[LevelUP]

Usually, they give 100% grades for forum posts. 

This is assuming that your posts are substantive, include properly researched APA-style citations/references, and there are more than the minimum number of posts? Or are you suggesting that they give 100% without meeting the rubric?

I hate to talk in absolutes, as some professors may have different requirements. Check the professor's introduction forum to see if there are any specific requirements for the course. 

But in my experience with 6 courses taken with TESU:

• There are no APA reference requirements listed in the rubric (I did APA for capstones only)
  
• 1 minimum post is required. 2 responses are the minimum.
  

So, for example, on the PLA-100, my forum posts were only 150 words. I did that entire course of 4 assignments, 4 forum posts in less than 5 hours total. 

In the other courses, I was doing 300-word forum posts. The main thing is, "you address all elements of the discussion activity." 

For the forum responses, I did 2 sentences for each one. Pretty general stuff like, "good point about xyz", and "restate something they said."

I got 100% score on all my forum posts despite always doing the minimum and giving generic responses.

The forum post assignments are usually much simpler than that, like a paragraph or two responding to a prompt, followed by two posts responding to other student's posts. It's very much a participation grade.

I agree it's a participation grade for most professors as they likely don't spend much time looking at them. 

I've seen students get as low as 60% on one or more of their discussions and duplicate reasons why from the professor (it was more a copy/paste of the same reasoning behind the points).

That would suck to not get a 100%. I would avoid professors that don't give easy A's.

Also, if you do get a low grade, ask the professor if you can correct or redo it. Worth a try.  I got less than 100% because I made a mistake and responded to the Instructions for one of the forums instead of responding to a classmate. 

I PM'ed the professor, and the professor raised the grade to 100% after I corrected the mistake.

[davewill]

Funny enough, the hard part is often the responses to the other students as so many procrastinate until the 11th hour, and the response due date was the same as the initial post due date. I sometimes had to log in late on Sunday, just to have two other students to respond to.

[frankc]

Yeah, I recently started my first discussion forum and was surprised to see that nobody is using APA or referencing their sources. I noticed that the rubric didn't mention anything about using APA or referencing for the discussion forum. I remembered of doing discussion forums at Excelsior where the rubric clearly stated that we were required to use references for each discussion forum.

[origamishuttle]

• There are no APA reference requirements listed in the rubric (I did APA for capstones only)
  
• 1 minimum post is required. 2 responses are the minimum.
  

The rubric does mention references:
"...your response is factually correct and substantive, with relevant references and examples and a clear connection to the readings."

And some professors interpret this as meaning three substantive replies is minimum:
"...meet or exceed minimum requirement for replying to classmates..."

I've had points knocked off for both. Once because I made mistakes in my APA references. One week I spent 11 hours total on discussion, including three substantive responses (original, researched, referenced, carefully written), all submitted on time, and I got a 75. That's a whole point off the final grade! Discussion posts may be the hardest part of the course for me. I really wish I could figure out how it's so easy for others.