Learners can be asked to post their ideas or opinions in discussion forum and to comment other learner’s posts. In order to enable a good conversation, discussion prompt should be well constructed. Educator should consider e.g. the objective of the discussion, difficulty level of the discussion and the interaction sequence. Educator should also provide detailed instructions about posting and interacting with peers.
Learning management systems such as Canvas offer a possibility to create graded discussions, which allows the educator to assign, follow and grade the discussions.
Graded discussions with Canvas: Graded Discussions: Hybrid & Online Teaching Training Course (uw.edu)