[ARCHIVED] minimum word count for discussion board

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ssheffield2
Community Novice

Can I mandate a minimum word count as a response to a discussion board? 

I have my students write answers to questions and they have to post before seeing other replies, but many students try to just put in a "." and then get access to other student's work. How can I stop this from happening in the first place? 

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James
Community Champion

 @ssheffield2 ,

No, you cannot mandate a minimum word count.

What you can do is make sure that students cannot edit or delete their posts and then don't give them any credit if they pull that kind of stunt. Be sure that you communicate that kind of behavior won't be accepted and then stick to it. After a while, they'll stop (or accept 0's for it). They're going to try to claim technical issues, etc., but maintain your ground.

Word counts are as meaningless as a dot. If someone is going to put a dot, they could just as easily use the Lorem Ipsum generator to generate as many words as you demand to get around it.

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