Using online discussions in your course is a great way to promote student engagement and interaction. Below you will find additional tips and resources.

Tips for setting up online discussions

Encourage/require students to interact with each other in meaningful ways. Instead of having all students respond to the same initial question or prompt, encourage them to add to the discussion in a meaningful way. This allows the discussion to develop more naturally, prevents all students from simply answering the same question, and allows for student choice.
Require students to support their posts with resources such as: referencing course content, finding a new online resource, referencing a journal article, etc. Adding this requirement can encourage longer/richer posts and prevents students from simply sharing their opinions.
Leave your discussion open for 48-96 hours so that students have time to read other's posts, process information, write thorough/well developed posts, and revisit the discussion at a later time to interact again.
Instead of requiring a minimum number of posts, require that students participate every day in order to earn full credit. This will promote multiple interactions spread throughout the discussion instead of many posts on the first and last days of the discussion.

Additional Resources

Use (or edit to meet your needs) the Online Discussion Guidelines and Netiquette document. This document provides students with background/rationale for having online discussions, contains general guidelines/requirements, and includes Netiquette guidelines.
Canvas Instructor Guide: How do I create a discussion as an instructor?
Canvas Student Guide: How do I reply to a discussion as as student?