Each of the 5 Topics within a course module/unit contains a discussion forum. The forum is led by one or two tutors, who will post an opening discussion question. The discussions are designed for two purposes. First to help deepen your understanding of the academic issues covered in the Topic, by amplifying the material contained in the resources found in the Topic and exchanging experiences between students and with the tutors. Second to help prepare for the assignment – the unit assignment requires you to answer questions relating to the information presented as relevant to the learning objectives, as well as to take a critical approach to the information and to support your answer with references. The discussion forum (which in educational terminology is called 'formative assessment') will allow you to 'practice' all of these aspects. Contribution is not compulsory, but strongly recommended. Our evaluation of experience in Peoples-uni shows that the students who contribute fully to the discussion forums are more likely to pass the assignments!

We will provide feedback about your contributions to the discussions during the semester.

Please note: as in the assignments, it is important that you acknowledge any items you use in the discussions which are taken from the work of others. If you copy and paste from another source, you must acknowledge the source and reference it. It is always better to use your own words anyway!

Try to think of this discussion as a face to face meeting, similar to a tutorial. Be prepared to make an active contribution and offer your ideas but also comment on the messages that other participants have made and the resources you will find in the Topic. You may also identify and present relevant case studies or journal articles to add to the resources we have presented. We suggest that you use the discussions to practice your critical reasoning skills and the referencing of published papers and other resources - both of these are required in order to pass the assignment. Please stay on the topic of the discussion This is a very formal learning space, not the space for social chat or exchanging opinions (the Students' corner is for this purpose). All students and tutors receive copies of all postings as emails – so while taking part, please do not overwhelm our in-boxes, and post short messages. Since this is a discussion, please make sure that you do respond to the comments of other students – the table below gives a quick summary of a completed response – which is what we are looking for: