Forum topics

Now that you have your forum in place, it's time to start adding the questions and comments that will make it into a lively social discussion area. To do this, you need to start using topics.

Topics are exactly that... topics. They are issues that people want to discuss. A forum that works, remember, will usually be one where the group members have an extrinsic necessity (for example, part of their job role) or an intrinsic desire to engage with it (useful information to gain, important decisions to be made, fun, and laughter to be had).

Forum discussion frameworks

A forum can be made up of many different topics with a wide range issues. The best discussion frameworks are those which lead to some sort of outcome or conclusion. Some generically useful discussion frameworks include:

• Comparing: For example, "What are the similarities and differences between food we eat today and food they ate in Tudor England?".

• Detecting differences: For example, "What different reactions are...