Getting past the minimums
How do you all get students to do more than the minimum work in a forum. If it says to post two comments by Monday there are many who wait until Monday and just post two. They expect that gives them an "A" when in reality it was the minimum.
Set the standard high at the beginning. If they post only two and really do not get into "discussion", give them a deduction and let them know why. They big push is on communication. You may even want to remind students what the expectations are in the discussion thread.....you can see if students are reading then!
I agree Shelly - within the first week of my online course I send out an announcement with my expectations and requirements for full credit in the dialogs.
My requirements include for Full credit they must post every other day, have substancial posts, and their main posts should reference a resource to support their dialog.
I will then deduct points based on a rubric my school has based on how often they responded, how thorough the response was, etc.
Also it is important to know that some students will always only do the minimum and seek only to pass, other students will desperately want to know what they need to do to get an A and then will go out and do at.
The key is just to let everyone know up front all the grading criteria, what is expected to get full credit, what is expected to get minimal credit etc.
This is a topic that comes up each quarter. I let the students know that completing the minimum makes them eligible to receive points, it doesn't guarantee them full points. I also remind them in the weekly announcement what the minimum requirements are and try to reinforce the points structure 3 or 4 times throughout the quarter
