According to the course material, asynchronous discussions tend to be "more deliberate and detailed" than typical instructor-led discussion. This isn't always the case -- looking at the discussions for this course, for example, entries typically are very brief and are asking questions of Satrohan. As instructors, we need to consider what aspects of course design encourage asynchronous discussions and when it is important for learning. In this class, we are required to participate in the discussion for at least one module -- that means that there will likely be less participation than if we were required to participate in all modules. Students can start the course at any time -- so we may be more dependent on the instructor for responses than we would be in an online class with fixed start and end dates. So what instructional designs encourage more indepth online discussions? Assigning discussion topics for online discussion? Grading the online discussion and providing a scoring rubric up front?