online learning

The first order of business when talking about discussion forums in online classes is to ask, what do we want a discussion to accomplish?

I like to think of a syllabus as an invitation, a here's the what, when, why, and what-you-can-bring kind of document. I would prefer my syllabus to be legible (read: interesting), so that students will not only read the whole thing, but they'll remember what it said.