Discussion Portlet
Forums allow students and faculty to discuss texts and other topics outside of class. To get to the Discussion, click on “Discussion” in the left navigation bar.
Forum Management
To access administrative functions from the discussion main page, put your cursor over the “Manage” button on the top-left portion of the Discussion page; this will display a drop-down menu, from which you can choose whether you want to create a new category, edit an existing category, reorder the existing categories, or add a new topic.
There are also shortcuts for common actions on the Discussion main page. The green plus sign is the shortcut to create a new topic within a category; the yellow pencil takes you to the Edit Category or Edit Topic page (Category if it’s next to a category, Topic if it’s next to a topic); the trash can will delete the category or topic that it’s next to.
Within the Discussion, there is something of a hierarchy of posting; the Forum itself is the broadest option, and everything goes inside. Within the Discussion portlet are the Categories; within the Categories are Topics; and within the Topics are the threads themselves. Topics are the prompts for students to respond to and threads are the posts that make up the student responses.
Not everyone needs to divide the Discussion into Categories, as for the most part the General category will suffice; however, Categories can come in handy. For example, a professor might have two Categories, Reading Responses and Thought Questions. Topics within Reading Responses would be things like “Week 1: Comment on Marx reading”. Students would post Threads like “I agree with the author” to that topic.
Creating a New Category
To create a new category, select “Add Category” from the Manage menu, which will take you to this page:
Use Label as the name of the category. An optional description may be entered; “Position” indicates where on the main forum page the new category will appear (this can also be changed from the main page); “Permitted Users” controls who can or cannot see the new category (to allow everyone access, do not place any checkmarks in this area).
Editing Categories
The “Edit Category” page (you can reach this from the Manage menu) looks more or less identical to the “Add Category” page except that many of the values are already filled in. Additionally, the “Edit Category” page includes the option of reordering topics or moving them to different categories. To change the order, change the numbers in the boxes (1 is first on the page, 2 is second on the page, etc)
The “Order Categories” (you can reach this from the Manage menu) page looks like this:
The numbers in the boxes next to the categories represent the order in which they appear. (In this case, More Specific Category appears before General; switching the numbers would reverse the order.)
Creating New Topics
Topics are the subjects you set up for your students to respond to. This is likely the most common task you will perform in the Discussion portlet.
To create a new topic within a category, select “Add a Topic” from the Manage menu or click the green plus sign next to the category the topic should be created in, which will take you to this page:
The name of the new topic goes under “Name,” and the description of what the students should write about specifically under “Description.” Use the menu next to “Category:” to choose the Category to put the new topic in, and use the “List This Topic” menu to place the topic where you want to place it. By default, the newest topic will appear first in the list.
Under “Start”, you can choose to delay the posting of a topic; this can be used for discussions that you don’t want to appear until a certain day. Similarly, under “End”, you can choose when you want the topic to close (that is, for people to stop being able to post in the topic). This is used for assignments with a strict deadline. Students will not be able to post to the topic after that date. This is set by default, so if you would like to keep the topic open for posting, select “No End Date” instead.
To view and reply to the threads and messages in the discussion board, click on the title of the topic.
Threads
A thread is the series of posts and replies to that post within a topic. Threads are what students will post in response to your topic. Viewing a thread allows you to see the original post and all the replies to it. Click a topic’s name to see the threads it contains.
To use the Topic View page
To add a thread, click on the “Add a Thread” link next to “Open Discussion”.
To subscribe to the topic, click on the link “Subscribe to Topic”; this allows you to receive updates whenever a reply is posted to the topic. Each user (student or faculty) must click this link for each topic he or she wants to receive emails about when updated. There is not currently a way to “force subscribe” all students to a given topic.
To view when the last reply was posted, look at the date and time under the “Last Message” column.
To preview how selected threads will look printed out, check the checkboxes next to the threads, then click on “See Selected Threads in Print View”. Checking all threads within a given topic and clicking this link is particularly handy for printing all student responses in preparation for a class meeting or writing student evaluations.
To delete selected threads, check the checkboxes next to the threads, then click on “Delete Selected Threads”.
To view who started the topic, look under the “Author” column.
To view the number of threads posted, look at the number under the “Replies” column.
To see how many people have viewed the topic, look at the number under the “Views” column.
Viewing a thread allows you to see the original post and all the replies to it. Click a topic’s name to see the threads it contains.
To use the Thread View page
To reply within a thread, click “Reply” to the specific message you want to reply to. To see only one message at a time, select “Single Message View”. If you have administrative permissions, you can also edit or delete posts within a thread. Students are able to edit and delete their own posts only.
