Offering an online discussion board to your students is giving them a valuable learning tool. This forum allows you to post discussion topics and questions and it allows the students to do the same. They can use it to further discuss interesting points and see the viewpoints of others in the class on the subject.
If a student is reading a novel and has an immediate question regarding the origins of the novel, the time period it is based in or the history of the author, the question and answer board allows them to post a question and get an answer quickly. The teacher or the students can answer. It can also connect with the discussion board if a question asked begins an in-depth conversation.
Though reading quizzes can be considered elementary, they are an effective way to ensure that all students are keeping up with the class reading requirements. If everyone in the class is keeping up the discussions, the class as a whole will be able to get more from their reading by viewing it not only through their own eyes, but through the eyes and opinions of their classmates who are also fully engaged in the readings.
Assigning essays to students that require them to explore the novels they have read or to compare and contrast novels from the course will allow the students to go more in depth with their reading. You can also assign them scholarly essays to read that pertain to the novels. These readings enhance the novels by looking deeper into aspects of each novel like theme, symbols, author and the time period the novel was written in. Asking students to read these, then write an essay using them and the novel, will give them a better understanding of the reading. It will also give you a way of evaluating the students' progress in the course.