In the portion of the course, I learned that it is best to be a facilitator of learning at times as well as facilitating the course content. This portion is describing how crucial the timing and content of instructor responses are to discussion boards. I have experienced that if I give away the "punchline" too early, many of the students who have not responded will give very similar responses. I have since tailored my response to be encouraging and to ask questions to keep the discussion going without giving an outright message of correct vs. not correct right away. I also have been pleasantly surprised at how cohorts have become a community through these discussion boards and this trust spills out in to the live sessions.
