The purpose of the threaded discussions available for students enrolled in this course are to facilitate sharing of thoughts, ideas, resources, and information related to EDF 6481.

To begin participating in threaded discussions you should first read the brief description and instructions for posting and replying to threaded discussions below. Following this brief description you will find links to each discussion under each week's heading along with the due dates for posting and replying.

Thread:
A thread is a directory or sequence of "posts." You can also think of it as a sequence of responses to an initial message posting. This enables you to follow or join an individual discussion in a newsgroup from among the many that may be there. A thread is usually shown graphically as an initial message and successive messages are "hung off" the original message. Each thread must have one original post and can have an unlimited number of reply posts. Any registered users can contribute to any thread. There is no restriction on the number of posts in any given thread.

Post:
A post is any message or comment that has been submitted. There are two kinds of posts: original posts and reply posts. An original post begins a new discussion and acts as an anchor for a new "thread." A reply post is submitted in response to an existing post.

Participation:
It's easy to participate in a Threaded Discussion. Threaded Discussions allow you to share ideas and discuss topics of interest with other class members. All assignments that require you to post to a threaded discussion will also require you to read all of your peers' posts and reply to at least three of them. Although you may complete your participation in a single visit, it is wise to frequently check back to the thread to see if others (peers and/or instructor) have replied to your post with a query for you to answer.

Posting to the threaded discussion:

1. Click on the Threaded Discussion link in the directions of the assignment.
2. Read the topic of discussion and click on the word Add Message near the top right of the discussion page.
3. Fill in the Subject box with the topic of the week or your own catchy phrase.
4. Fill in the Message body box with the ideas you wish to share.
5. Click on Submit button at the bottom of the screen, when you have everything filled out.

Responding to an existing message:

1. After reading an existing message, click on the Reply button at the top of the screen.
2. Fill in that form, and Click on the "Submit" button at the bottom of the form.

You may link directly to all of the threaded discussion links by logging into elearning and using the Discussions link at the top of the course home page. Please remember that participating in threaded discussions and posting messages to the course listserv are two different things.

Troubleshooting Tip:

I strongly suggest that you use your word processor to construct your original post for each threaded discussion. This will allow you to spell check your assignment as well as save and keep a copy of it in case technical difficulties arise and your post does not get submitted successfully the first time.

WEEK 1:

• Go to the Threaded Discussion Icebreaker

WEEK 2:

• Go to the 'Parents who abduct.." Threaded Discussion

WEEK 3:

• Go to the Research Topic Threaded Discussion

WEEK 4:

• None
  

WEEK 5:

• None

WEEK 6:

• None

WEEK 7:

• None

WEEK 8:

• None

WEEK 9:

• None
  

WEEK 10:

• None

WEEK 11:

• None

WEEK 12:

• None

WEEK 13:

• None

WEEK 14:

• None

WEEK 15:

• None