When I first started teaching online, I didn't see a purpose for anonymous discussion boards. It seemed pointless, but over time I've come to see anonymous postings as one of the most valuable discussion tools at my disposal.
1) They encourage honest questions about the material. Students hate to look stupid, and few things make you feel more stupid than having to publicly ask for help with a problem. Before allowing anonymous postings, I rarely received questions about problems on the website, unless they were direct emails. Since students often had the same questions or types of questions, I found myself typing the same answers over and over again. Once I opened up an anonymous discussion devoted to homework questions, students started posting there and then everyone could benefit from the answers.
2) They encourage honest feedback. This worked two ways. First, when students posted anonymous questions about homework and such, other students could anonymously attempt to answer the question and help their fellow students. They could do this without fear of either being wrong, or of being perceived as a know-it-all. I'm not sure which they feared the most, but I suspect the former. They knew that I would correct their response if it was wrong, and didn't have to worry about being identified. You might be surprised at how many students take the opportunity to try to answer classmates' questions in this way, which helps them understand the material better too. Secondly, I can get honest (and sometimes brutal) feedback about the course itself and about my teaching. I've never had a student do this in an unprofessional or unkind way, although the feedback has not always been the nicest to hear :-).
3) They allow me to play "student". I have sometimes taken advantage of anonymity myself. For example, there are certain parts of the general chemistry material that always engender the same questions or which students frequently have hard time grasping. When we are approaching a lab or assessment that I know will give some of the students trouble, I can seed the field a little by posting a "student" question about it, if someone hasn't done it already. I can then answer the question as myself so the class can benefit from the answer. This isn't totally disingenuous, as I base my "student" post on questions from actual students in the past.
So, if you don't already use them, try giving anonymous discussion boards a try. Of course, in D2L, you can allow anonymous posting, but each poster must check the "author anonymously" check-box before they save their post.
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