Group Discussion Guidelines

The purpose of the group discussions in NUTR 150 is to broaden your knowledge and learn from others by sharing ideas,
information, insights, and even opinions that are based on reliable nutrition information. You will have multiple posts in your
small group discussions that will help your classmates’ make new connections in the course and further the learning process.

Post early and often

 What good is a discussion if everyone posts last minute, leaving little time for additional comments and thoughts?
Posting early allows the topic to be discussed between you and your classmates thoroughly.

 Post multiple times. Even though group discussions are online, it can be like a comfortable classroom setting. When you
discuss something, you listen to others and respond with further insights, examples, or questions. Likewise, in the group
discussions you’ll read other student’s comments and respond to them.

Support Posts with Reliable Nutrition Information

 Nowadays there is a plethora of nutrition information that is circulating around us. Often the information shared is
hearsay, opinion, or testimonial which is not based on sound scientific practice. In NUTR 150 we want to avoid sharing
this type of information, by always supporting our thoughts and ideas with outside references.

 Support your thoughts and ideas with reliable nutrition information. Each discussion post should be supported by a
reference (e.g. research study, book, web article, conference or devotional talks, scriptures, and/or video).

 A “reference” means that you’ll include the full reference information (title, author, page number, and/or publication
information) or the direct internet link/URL for the source(s) that confirms or corroborates the information that you
shared in your post.

Expand the Conversation

 Each post should help to expand or encourage the conversation. This can be done in a variety of ways:
o Respond to a thread or someone’s post by sharing more details on the subject.
o Respond to a thread or someone’s post by giving another viewpoint, opinion, or idea on the subject.
o Explain why you agree or disagree, and add some examples to support this.
o Relate your personal or work experiences to the topic at hand.
o Make connections between the topics at hand and the readings in the text.
 Regardless of how you expand the conversation, as mentioned above, you’ll need to make sure you support each post
with reliable nutrition information by including a reference.
 Note – Just agreeing with a student’s comment is validating to that student and can be included in your post; however,
it adds little to the actual discussion and is not worth points. Therefore, make sure you share more than just these
affirming type comments in each of your posts.

Write clearly and concisely

 Proof read your comments before posting them. Check for punctuation or grammatical errors which could change the
meaning.

Be respectful
 We all come from different backgrounds and understandings. Your opinion and ideas may differ from another student’s.
Make sure you discuss your differing ideas while showing respect for others.