I agree with your discussion approach. By asking open ended questions, it prompts the student to think, research, and respond. I love it when a student's apologizes for writing too much on his or her post.

I too find that student's do not provide alot of information on their discussion posts. I find (sometimes) that when I reply to a student's post with additional questions ("how did you feel" or  "what would you do"), they tend to write a little more. I try to establish a connection (show interest) in what they are writing/communicating.  Sometimes it draws them out of their "shyness" and they share more information.

@kellywilkinson :  Hi Kelly, at the beginning of a course, I post an announcement explaining professionalism and the expectations for the class.  I also provide an explaination of plagirism and an example on how to cite.  Luckily the school where I teach offer a writing lab for student to help with their writing skills.  There have been times where a student plagiarized their work and I have to reach out to them. Of course they denied it but after I provided an example of their work and an example from the website, the  wording was exactly the same.  If thise cases,… >>>

 I post time management Tip at the beginning of each class to help students be successful in the course. Some student respond and thank me for the tips because they tend to be procrastinators. What I find amazing is when a student reaches out to me for tips in helping them to better manage thier time and when I ask if they read my "Helpful Tips" in the student lounge, they respond "no".  In addition to time management tips, I post information on test strategies, study tips, and effective communication (text messaging language). 

Some students will respond how they appreciate the… >>>

@lcoble : Hi Lisa, I agree with you. I continually communicate to my class the importance of time managment and how it can cause stress, irritation, and frustrations and yet, some of them still submit work late.  Our courses are 5 weeks and each week I do an outreach to the students who are missing Assignments and/or tests. I might not hear back from a student until Week 4 wanting to submit prior weeks work. My thought is, you haven't submitted any work from Week 1 -3 (about 4 items each week) and now he/she wants to submit work. Why put yourself through that!!!!