Thread Management

I read the course material for week 2 on threads and followed the steps given. While doing copy and paste, it took a little longer. A message also popped up saying that, ‘This operation will require copying many styles. Do you want to use normal style instead?’(see screenshot). When I clicked on the normal style, the whole matter was displayed in a minute and the second time when I said no, i.e. copy the style as well, it took more than a minute. But this time, the pictures were displayed and the style of the forum and whole web page was restored to a great extent. In the first case, when the content was pasted without the style of the webpage, there wasn’t any picture. There were 95 pages. In the second case there were 111 pages and the content of the messages was displayed in form of columns. The items in the left side menu were displayed in the left side in first three pages. The fourth page displayed the first message on the right side of the page and so on.

As a student, the profile looks like a lively place to know so many like-minded people. I always loved to get connected with people. It is very intriguing to find what do my classmates do and what are their interests and ambitions. The threads were griping while I read others responding. No one attempted to “bump”(to knock the new position) the thread, which people generally do to keep their post on the top.

I really wish if I could have pagination, i.e. a few items displayed on first   page and rest on next page, so that we don’t have to scroll down till the last post. If I do sorting (clicking on the ‘Thread’) of the messages by alphabetical order, my name would be one among the last and I have to scroll down the page. In case we have 10-12 items per page, then I would simply go on editing page option and go to page 2, to see my thread. Thus, a little more freedom for learners to customize the forum to their own personal choices would make it perfect.

Although, I really liked  sorting the threads by date option. In such case, the newer posts can be located easily. The unread post column also gives an idea of   what are the things new and unread. Search option gives the freedom to search a particular term we are looking for, with an addition of date range, which makes the searching narrow , more effective and quick. I used it many times to see posts created by me or anyone else, I wished to locate.

I have a question regarding the use of option display. When we select the option hidden only or the drafts only from the drop down menu, do the drafts or the hidden posts from other users will be  displayed. I know that, if I make a draft or have a hidden post; it will be displayed to me, but how about other. Will they be able to see my drafts?

As an instructor, it looks like a lot of work! Reading so many posts and then replying to all of them! And you really have to look at a few things like- the participants adhere to the policies and rules, there are no “attacks” on anyone  and everything is in order. As an instructor, you have to keep an eye on the discussion going on and that participants remain on the track. I really liked my instructor’s(Ms. Anne Guptil) reading and commenting on everyone’s profile. She replied one of the threads, I created in Forum: 1:3b The Brain, Technology, and Education. It invoked me to think even deeper on the topic.

In this way as an instructor, the  work is to foster right spirit of sharing & co-operation among the participants of a group of 22-25 people. I have found Anne making efforts so that the forums  gain momentum by posting thought invoking questions and giving positive feedbacks. Additionally, instructors   need to be very vigilant when running a forum because there may be attacks from spammers and hackers.