- Discussions can be used in any course and can be initiated by Course Directors, Course Coordinators, Faculty, or Students assigned to that course.
- If a discussion is set as Public, any user that can open and view the Event Screen can join and comment in the discussion.
- Non-public (or Private) discussions have a defined set of users that can access that discussion.
- The Activity Bell notification option works with Private discussions only.
- In order to reduce the list of participants for a private discussion, schedule discussions from a Small Group Event.
- A Discussion can be deleted by the author of the discussion (except Students) or any other Admin-level user of the system.
Path: Home > Courses > [Select Course] > Discussions > Options > New Discussion
This screen allows you to manage the Discussion settings, which include:
- The title (*) of the discussion, is not a unique field, but you are encouraged to make your discussion name distinctive. TIP: 'Discussion' is not a good name as it is not unique enough to aid in searching.
- Public: If a discussion is public, then any user that can get to the info screen can join the discussion. Non-public (private) discussions have a defined set of users who can access the discussion.
- Graded Discussion: If set to Yes this indicates the Discussion will be graded and this will enable functionality to support grading and pushing scores to the Gradebook.
- Max Points allows you to indicate a numeric value for maximum points awarded when the Graded Discussion dropdown is set to Yes and will be used for calculating Student Scores.
Graded Discussions are not available for Discussions with the Public dropdown set to Yes.
If you have the Public dropdown set to No then it indicates that this is a private discussion. In order to make your Discussion Board available to other users, after clicking Save Record you must select more than one User from the following screen.
Once you add the Users you wish to participate, you will be brought to the Discussion Board you created.
Until you create a Topic, users will not be notified that there is a new discussion. If you want others to participate, you need to create a topic after you have the discussion set up. Once the topic has been added or additional posts have been made, users will receive an alert in their Activity Bell.
In order for a Discussion to include grading functionality, you must have the Graded Discussion dropdown set to Yes and set your Max Points to the appropriate numeric value.
Use the checkmark icon in the top right corner of the Discussion Board screen to grade the Discussion.
- Score: Enter the student's Score in this column based on the Max Points indicated in your Discussion Settings screen.
- Comment: Use the Comment textbox to provide feedback.
- Click the Export to Gradebook option to push Discussion Scores to the Gradebook.
Click Export to Gradebook then select Export Grades to push student scores to the Course Gradebook.
A confirmation will be provided indicating that the request is completed. Click Close to close this confirmation or Open Gradebook to navigate and review scores in the Gradebook screen.
To add a topic select the Create new Topic in the top left corner of the Discussion Board screen.
Enter in the Topic prompt you would like to have your users view to help start the discussion. When done click Submit Reply.
Your topic will now be posted to the Discussion Board and all Users who are participating in the discussion will receive an alert in their Activity Bell.
From here you will be able to view, modify, and manage the content that is posted on this Discussion Board.
When you compose and/or edit a post, you will have the ability to utilize alpha and numeric letters in your posts, as well as 'upload new files' or 'browse your files' to see files you've already uploaded previously.
Hide Deleted: Click here to hide the deleted content.
Reply: Click on the Reply option of a post to continue the conversation under that topic.
Edit: Should a user need to modify their content on the Discussion Board they will be able to click Edit. Additionally, any user with a security level of 70 and up can edit other users' posts.
Show Reply: Click the Show Reply button to see an expanded and/or condensed list of all of the replies made to that particular post.
Delete: Click this icon if you would like to remove your post on the Discussion Board. Additionally, any user with a security level of 70 and up will be able to remove other users' posts.
Adding Content to your post
To Reply to a post and add an embedded link or document click Reply on the post you would like to comment on.
On the Reply pop-up you will have the ability to free text and/or add content through the following Attachment options:
- Upload New Files: Click on this option to locate a file on your computer to upload into the Discussion Board reply post.
- Browse Your Files: Click on this option to add a file to your reply which you have previously used in either another Discussion Board or a previous post.
When you are done with your reply click Save Post.
Any information that you have provided (i.e. text, documents you have uploaded, or content you have embedded) into the reply will display on the Discussion Board.
Note: Administrators with a security level of 70+ will be able to manage, view, edit or delete all posts and replies in a discussion. Additionally, they will be able to view all deleted posts and replies and restore them. See when a post or reply has been edited.
Embed Video in a Discussion Post
To embed a video into a topic or a reply:
- Click on the embed video button as seen below.
- Next, paste the embed code into the Embed Media screen
- Click OK.
- When you are finished adding in the video, click Save at the bottom of the Discussion Post screen.
The video will be embedded in the discussion topic box (as seen below).
You will be able to test that the embedded code in the topic or reply screen by clicking play.
NOTE: If you are having issues with placing in the video, make sure you utilized the video's embedded code - not the regular URL.
This report shows all of the active discussions for the current course.
You can click on any discussion to open it and participate.
Some Discussion Boards are locked down, and you will be given a warning message if you are not allowed access to the Discussion.