Once the critical thinking activity is designed, but before opening the discussion to students, the instructor should develop a list of criteria for assessing the effectiveness of the student's contributions to the online discussion. In other words, what answers would the instructor expect to see. Depending on the activity, 2 or 3 main opinions might be expected. Along with the opinions what supporting evidence is expected for each opinion? What other expectations are there; good grammar, complete sentences? Did the student answer all of the proposed questions?

Paul and Elder list several standards for assessing thinking: clarity, precision, accuracy, relevance, depth, breadth,and logic. (1) The four questions by Wolcott and Lynch that were used as a guideline for the responses in online discussions provide even more information for guiding criteria.

was an opinion stated? was there a basis for the opinion?

did the student think their opinion was correct and if so why?

did they consider other points of view?

did they determine that one opinion was better than another? (2)