Near the beginning of the course, students choose one of six general philosophical frameworks that most closely matches their own beliefs. From that point on, all the students in each framework spend time working as a group to investigate their common beliefs and the possible reasons for those beliefs. While e-mail correspondence is used extensively both within groups and for discussions involving the entire class, we found that these framework groups needed a more archival forum in which to work asychronously. HyperNews works well in providing a structured organization for the framework discussion. The group HyperNews areas are accessible to the entire class for the entire term.
Students are free to engage in undirected discussion as they see fit.
We have found, however, that discussion is most effectively stimulated by prompting students to use their group HyperNews areas to complete specific tasks. For instance they might be asked to post an argument concerning a course text in their HyperNews area and then to analyze and comment on an argument left by another student. Students are also directed to use these HyperNews areas to collaborate with group members in developing essays. Since these group HyperNews areas are public, comments can also be elicited from other groups. The foundation of a HyperNews discussion is the Base Article.