To motivate students to post insightful contributions, you can make discussions count for a grade.

How to Enable and Grade a Discussion Board 

1. Select the Discussion Settings icon to open a panel with options for your discussion.
2. In the Details & Information section, select Display on Course Content Page and then select Grade Discussion. 
3. More options will appear, such as the due date and maximum points. The maximum points apply to one or more posts made by a student. When you enable grading for a discussion, a column is created automatically in the Gradebook. 
4. Click Save 

Expanding Discussion Board Criteria with Flexible Options 

• Encourage original ideas. You can select Post first to hide discussion activity from students until they respond to the discussion. When you want to use both post first and groups, select Post first before you assign groups. The Post first cannot be turned off once a student replies to a discussion board. 
• Set the participation due date. You can hide the discussion after the due date so students can no longer add responses and replies or edit their previous posts.
• Assign a rubric. After you select Grade discussion, you can create or add an existing rubric so students can view the requirements of the graded work. Rubrics can help you evaluate student submissions based on key criteria that you define. You may associate only one rubric to each discussion.
• Align goals with the discussion. You and your institution can use goals to measure student achievement across programs and curriculums. When you create a discussion, you can align one or multiple goals. Select Align with goals to search for available goals. After you make the discussion visible, students can view the goals so they know your expectations.
• Use groups. You can create discussion groups and grade their contributions.