Blackboard: Journal, Blog, Wiki, or Discussion Forum?

discussion forum icon image

We received an excellent question from a faculty member:

"I want to set up a discussion forum where students can post an analysis of current events and classmates can comment.

There would be five discussion forum assignments during the semester. What would be the best way to set it up? Blog? Discussion Group? Or Journal?"

So I started digging around a bit. First, I came up with a nice little text intro briefly explaining each of the 4 tools.

Then, I found this fantastic chart from Florida State University showing all the functionality of each with a handy table chart: Which tool is best for my course? Blogs, Discussion Boards, or Journals?

Finally, here's a very nice piece explaining the difference between blogs, wikis, and discussion forums with a serious eye on pedagogy and on teaching goals.

It seems like we have kind of broken down some of the primary Blackboard communication tools here, so...