I’m always looking for new ways to structure online discussion. I feel like the typical “respond to the prompt and reply to two of your classmates’ posts” can get very tedious and does not support the natural flow of conversation. It also forces students to respond when they might not have much to say on a particular topic.
Today I found this site, and while there is nothing in there that I can use right now, it has some good ideas for when I work on a different type of program in the future.
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/altdiscuss/cover