The Discussion Board

By INSPIRE Staff

The unique aspect of NASA INSPIRE is our Online Learning Community (OLC). Our community members have been selected because of their desire to learn more about STEM related topics and how they relate to NASA careers, and the pursuit of those occupations. The OLC offers many opportunities to learn; from fun, educational activities to Live Chats with NASA experts. But in order to have a community, members must be able to communicate with each other in open discourse. For this, we have the Discussion Board.


The Discussion Board (DB) is YOUR place to communicate with your fellow members. It is structured for peer-to-peer interaction, whether it is seeking help and helping others with INSPIRE and school activities, or just having fun discussing topics of an interest to you. Knowing how the DB is set up will help you find exactly where to post your ideas.


The Discussion Board is divided into several Forums to help focus conversations. Each Forum contains several Topics, which further clarify the interactions. Topics are subdivided into Threads, which is where the conversation takes place. While Forums and Topics are created by INSPIRE staff, Threads may be started by anyone. Any student may post to any Thread (with the exception of some created for specific activity groups), so some rules are in order to ensure everyone feels welcome and invited. When you joined INSPIRE, you signed on to the following rules:

• Stay on topic. Other readers expect the posts they see here to deal with the topic at hand.
• No personal attacks. Criticism of decision-making and operational management, including the names of the individuals involved, is legitimate. Criticism on a purely personal level is not.
• No profanity. No spam. No sexually explicit or discriminatory material.
• Comments about politics and politicians must, like everything else, be on-topic and free from personal attacks.
• Because of security concerns and NASA’s legal obligation no commercial goods or services can be endorsed on the discussion board/chats

I also would like to add a couple of very important reminders.

• Peer to peer help and advice may be found and given on the Discussion Board. However to communicate with INSPIRE staff please email nasainspire@okstate.edu.
• All DB comments will be moderated by INSPIRE staff and may be removed at any time. Abuse of these rules may result in removal from the community. 

You will now see these posted at the head of the DB. We will enforce these rules.
Once again please note that the Discussion Board is intended for peer-to-peer interaction. Unless indicated in the Topic description, you can expect to find answers and comments from your fellow INSPIRE community members. Inspire staff will monitor the Threads and may add a comment or two, but this is YOUR conversation. To ask questions for INSPIRE staff, email to nasainspire@okstate.edu.


We appreciate all of you and hope to provide an exciting place to find other students like yourselves. Your help and cooperation will ensure everyone feels welcome to contribute to our community.