Discussion Board

Benefits of Discussion Board:

One of the great benefits of discussion board is people get all the necessary information related to a particular topic in one place. For example, if I am interested to go Hawaii for a trip and looking for relevant information related to the trip, I might be able to get all the necessary information from a discussion board.

I usually do it so often; when I am looking for something specific, in stead of wandering around on the net, I simply go to a discussion forum and read the relevant posting from different users. Few days ago, I was looking for a calling feature that will allow me to call free back home. I found a discussion forum that is dedicated to VoIP discussion only. It was amazing to see how actively people were sharing their knowledge and findings with other people. Finally, I learned many new things about VoIP calling features and found different softwares that allowed me to call back home either free or at a very low cost.

Moreover, I also found discussion board very useful to share ideas and knowledge. This works very well for online courses, where a teacher will work more like a facilitator and students will be teaching each other.

Discussion Board in class settings:

I have been talking about creating a discussion board from the beginning of the class. Discussion board is a part of online learning and could be used as an effective tool for learning. For example, the way we are using blogs to allow students to participate with each other, the same way a discussion board can be used. Forums are more effective sometimes, since there are moderators and administrators to control the board. Therefore, anything a user will write will be on hold for moderators’ approval for posting (the settings can be changed though). Moreover, unlike blog it does not have personal space for every user with sub domains; rather it is a board where discussions take place at the same time and anyone can participate in the discussions at anytime. So for a class setting, a topic can be raised in every week for discussion and students will be allowed to actively participate on it. This way a teacher can also determine the level of participation by students, and compare the quality of postings among students.

The role of discussion board in business-

It is very important to get appropriate feedback when we start a new business. Let me give you a particular example. Recently I have started a web business and developed a community portal. The first step was to buy some software to develop some web features on my website and to buy a domain with space. I was searching at google to find out which hosting company is giving the most attractive deal. However, I wasn’t able to find out the quality of hosting, since companies never sell themselves short. I was well aware of different marketing strategies, and was selective in picking up a hosting company. Finally I found a discussion board, where users have shared their experience with different hosting companies, talked about the good and bad sides, and recommended based on their experience. It really helped me to decide which hosting should be a good fit for my business.

However, we should be very careful while making a decision. If we make a decision based on what other people are saying, it could be misleading. Sometimes, you will find people from the company participating in the discussion board to influence you. They will be acting as users of that product and will give you false feedback. Other than that, I would say discussion board is an excellent place for business people to learn and share their knowledge. It also works as a point where you can meet new people, increase your networking and take the opportunity to flourish your business.