Discussion boards are an outlet where your thoughts and ideas can be shared with your fellow classmates, colleagues and/or with your students. Discussion boards encourage critical thinking and is very valuable when it comes to online courses. I have experienced online courses that do not incorporate a collaborate session, so in order to have that interaction with the teacher and peers a discussion board was established for weekly discussions. These discussion posts can help with establishing communication to help further understand what may be in review for that specific subject. I believe that discussion boards are of vital importance when there is lack of a collaborate meeting or to further elaborate on that collaborate meeting. I am not teaching in a classroom at the moment but I am sure that discussion boards would be very beneficial. Creating an online discussion, on Diigo for example, can allow for students to access it and participate in the discussion when they are not in school. Discussion boards should be used as an outlet to further the understanding of the subject being discussed not as busy work.