Category Archives: Discussion Board

Difference between a Forum and a Thread

A “Forum” is an overall category that contains one or more “Threads” or sub-topics.

Create a Discussion Forum

Step 1: Go to the Discussion Board

Step 2: Click on the “Create Forum” button

Create Forum Button

Step 3: Name the forum and give it a brief description

Step 4: Make the forum available or unavailable and add date and time restrictions as necessary

Step 5: Choose the appropriate forum settings (see below)

Step 6: Click on the “Submit”

 

Forum Setting Descriptions

Viewing Threads/Replies:

  • The “Standard View” allows users to view all current threads and reply to a current thread or create a new thread.
  • “Participants must create a thread in order to view other threads in this forum.” forces users to create a new thread before they can view or reply to any other thread.

Grade

  • “No Grading in Forum” does not attach any type of grade to the user’s activity.
  • “Grade Discussion Forum” automatically creates a column in the Grade Center associated with this specific forum. When this option is selected, you must give the points possible and have the option to create a due date. In addition, you can select when the Grade Center will notify you to grade a user’s activity (i.e. after 1 post within the forum). This option will also give you the option to attach a rubric.
  • “Grade Threads” allows you to grade each user based on their response to each individual thread within one forum. They cannot create threads within the forum, only respond to threads you create. This will create several grades for one forum.

Subscribe

  • If you allow users to subscribe to a thread or forum, users will receive an email when there is an additional thread or reply created if they elect to subscribe.
    Subscribe Button

Create and Edit

  • You have several options to allow anonymous posts, allow authors to delete or edit their own post, allow users (members) to create new threads, allow file attachments to a thread or response, or allow users to reply with a quote.
  • “Force Moderation of Posts” requires you to manually allow each individual thread and/or comment before it can be seen by all users. This may be useful in certain scenarios, but can be very time consuming.

Additional Options

  • “Allow Post Tagging” provides users the opportunity to add a tag to each post.
    Tags for a discussion post (dogs, chocolate lab)
  • “Allow Members to Rate Posts” provides users the opportunity to provide a rating for each post (1-5 stars).
    Overall Rating showing 4 stars

 

 

 

Link to Discussions

Step 1: Go to a content area in which the discussion board or forum should be linked in

Step 2: Click on the “Tools” button

Step 3: Select “Discussion Board”

Tools Button and Selecting Discussion Board

Step 4: Select either “Link to Discussion Board Page” OR “Select a Discussion Board Forum” and choose the specific forum to link to

link to the discussion board page

Select a discussion board forum

Step 5: Click on the “Next” button Next button

Step 6: Add a description for the link (not the discussion itself) if needed

(i.e. “This is the link to the Discussion Board” or “This is the link to the Discussion Forum for this module. Click on the “Create Thread” button once in the forum to find the specific questions and directions.”)

Step 7: Click on the “Submit” Graphic of submit button button

Add Discussion Board to Navigation Menu

Step 1: Click on the “+” button in the top left hand side of the screen Graphic of the plus button

Step 2: Select “Tool Link”

Step 3: Give the tool a name

Step 4: Click on the drop down menu and select “Discussion Board”

Step 5: Check the “Available to Users” box  Graphic of check for available to users

Step 6: Click on the “Submit” button

Respond to Discussion Thread or Forum

Helpful hint: When looking at the “Discussion Board” page, you  can see the number of of posts within the forum (Total Posts), the number of posts you haven’t read (Unread Posts), and the total number of people of participating in the forum (Total Participants).

Graphic showing totals for discussions including "Total Posts", "Unread Posts", and "Total Participants"

Step 1: Go into a forum

Step 2: Click on the title of the thread requiring a response OR click on the blue circle with the number of Unread Posts graphic showing total of unread posts

Step 3: Click on the “Reply” button

Step 4: Type the message

Step 5: Click on the “Submit” button

Create a Discussion Thread

Step 1: Go to Discussion Board

Step 2: Go to Discussion Forum

Step 3: Click on the “Create Thread” button

Create Thread Button

Step 4: Enter Subject

Step 5: Enter Message

Step 6: Click on the “Submit” button

Quick Start Orientation

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