[ARCHIVED] minimum word count for discussion board

[ssheffield2]

Can I mandate a minimum word count as a response to a discussion board? 

I have my students write answers to questions and they have to post before seeing other replies, but many students try to just put in a "." and then get access to other student's work. How can I stop this from happening in the first place? 

[James · Accepted solution]

 @ssheffield2 ,

No, you cannot mandate a minimum word count.

What you can do is make sure that students cannot edit or delete their posts and then don't give them any credit if they pull that kind of stunt. Be sure that you communicate that kind of behavior won't be accepted and then stick to it. After a while, they'll stop (or accept 0's for it). They're going to try to claim technical issues, etc., but maintain your ground.

Word counts are as meaningless as a dot. If someone is going to put a dot, they could just as easily use the Lorem Ipsum generator to generate as many words as you demand to get around it.

[lph]

This is great advice. Adding a rubric has helped my high school students. There is a row in the rubric stating the number of sentences or paragraphs. 

[giordar]

I have this same ongoing frustration and it is always followed by some excuse of technical, confusion, or (most recent) puppy jumped on keyboard. However, a minimum word count may at least thwart the random "a" to simply get access and avoid 80% of the same ol' excuses that I get.

In the meantime, I do the same that you suggested. Maintain a hard-line. They get zeros for blank or nonsense submissions.

[carolparedes111]

Is there any way to add a setting to the discussion post assignments to require a minimum word count?  Yes they could make a bogus Lorem Ipsum generator but they can't claim that is their dog or cat walking on their keyboard.  

I would rather not have to argue with students who claim technical difficulties because they have screamed that they are offended and we are calling them liars when I know they are not telling the truth.  I have a MS in Information Security and Programming with 35 years in technology.  Canvas is a wonderfully accurate software application when used properly. We have edit turned off and some still post just a "." to read the posts of other students.  Some have even commented on the post of others before editing their "." to something else giving us a time stamp showing they are not being truthful and they still argue.  Sadly, these are graduate students.   

If Canvas can add a setting to require a certain number of words in the post that would prevent a lot of students from cheating and blaming your software on the issue. 

[dspiel]

One would think that it would be easy to do since it shows the word count in the lower right corner above the cancel/reply button. Then the speedgrader shows the word count as well. I'm actually shocked this hasn't been added already.... in addition to being able to state you have to make one post and x number of replies. WebCT and Angel had the feature more than 10 years ago.