Discussion boards can be utilized to help facilitate student interaction, however I believe that there is definitely a line between just keeping students busy and providing opportunities for meaningful conversations. In some of the distance education courses I have taken, professors have provided an overabundance of discussion board assignments. For example, I have taken distance education courses where there have been 15-20 students in the class. When instructors expect learners to provide weekly discussion board posts and ask other participants questions about what they've posted, the number of discussion board posts can become overwhelming. When this occurred in classes that I have taken, I have become quickly disengaged. Between weekly readings and discussion board posts, I often found myself only reading one or two posts. In this regard, I do not believe that discussion boards were helpful to me or provided meaningful interaction between me and my peers.