Course Communication Tools

Journal: a journal is best used for individual journaling, where a student responds daily/weekly/etc. and only the instructor can see or comment on the entries. A journal is automatically created for every student, and viewing who has posted something is very easy (for grading purposes).

Wiki: a wiki is best used for a collaborative effort between students and/or instructor. Examples include group papers, group projects, etc. Students can create new pages, comment on any page, and edit pages. Wikipedia is a great example of a wiki. All of the changes made to the wiki can be tracked and restored. Pages are organized along the side alphabetically, and this could be used to organize the pages by topic, student, group name, date, etc.

Discussion board: the discussion board is best used for discussion and/or conversation. Usually a question or topic is posted by the instructor as a forum. The instructor and/or the students can create and respond to threads within the forum. Multiple forums and threads can be created, if desired. It can be used to simulate in-class discussion.

Blog: a blog is great for weekly public reflection, where students can make entries as instructed by their professor. Blogs can be based on their continued experience of the course as a whole, or on a specific theme of the course, or any other topic which the instructor chooses. This (and the discussion board) can possibly tie into gen-ed requirements for writing and critical thinking. It resembles writing a reflection paper, but in a shorter form and more informal setting. Other students can view and comment, but cannot edit (unless the teacher allows it, in which case it is made more like a wiki). Entries are organized in a “running list” format, reverse-chronologically, with the newest entries on top.