Studies have shown that after asking students a question, most instructors wait between 0.7 and 1.5 seconds for a response before answering it themselves. However, in an anxious, sound-saturated, fast-paced world, a few minutes of silence is what students really need to reflect, think, and form a response.
In in-person, remote, and online courses, discussion boards are commonly used to facilitate written discussion among students. But, despite wide use, many students see discussion boards as busy work and not valuable to the larger goals of the course. Designing discussion topics that engage all members of the class can be difficult, especially when the specific prompt does not encourage divergent responses from students.
