Are sections the best thing to use for large student numbers in discussions?

[ilana]

Hi,

We are a small college but our numbers are growing rapidly. I have a new course starting with a larger number of students than we have had previously and i am wondering what is best practise for managing discussions.

Our discussions are all marked as complete/incomplete and i am concerned that having a large number of students in the discussions will make it tedious for students to read through all the replies (and hard for the teachers too!).

What would others suggest would be the best way to manage this?

The solution i have considered so far is that i will split the students into 2 sections. Then each discussion will be duplicated with one allocated to section A and one allocated to section B. The only thing is that we would then have double the number of discussions.

I am open to any suggestions and feedback.

Thanks!

[kona · Accepted solution]

 @ilana , what about groups? You could put them in two different groups and then you'd only need one discussion - just apply the group setting to that discussion and students would only see the discussion happening in their group.

[ilana]

Thank you!