Discussion Forums

Use forums to organize your discussion topics into categories. Your course can have multiple forums and topics, but you must create a forum before you can create a topic since all topics belong to forums.

Step By Step Instruction To Create A Discussion Forum

1. On the navigation bar, click Quick Tools.

2. From the drop down menu, choose Discussions.

3. On the discussion list page, click on the blue New Button

4. From the drop down list, choose New Forum.

5. Enter a title for your new forum.

6. Enter a description for your new forum.

7. In the Options section, select any of the following check boxes:

• Allow anonymous posts – To enable users to post anonymously.
• A moderator must approve individual posts before they display in the forum – To ensure that posts are approved by a moderator before they display in the forum.
• Users must start a thread before they can read and reply to other threads in each topic – To ensure user participation.
• Display forum descriptions in topics – To provide instructors the option to display a discussion forum description within a discussion topic description.

8.  Click Save and Add Topic or go to the Restrictions tab next to the properties tab above the New Forum Details.

9. In the Restrictions tab, set the following options:

• Availability: options specify when learners can access (or view) a forum based on a specific date set by you. For example, you can set a date to make a discussion forum available to learners after the end date for finishing a course module.
  • Locking Options specify if learners can post or reply to a forum based on a specific date set by you. For example, you can set a date to lock a discussion forum after making it available, giving learners time to read and understand the discussion forum, but not post replies. You can also set a date to unlock the forum several days later, allowing learners to post their well thought out replies.
    • Visible with access restricted before start/end. The forum is visible to learners before or after the start or end date, but they cannot access it.
    • Visible with submission restricted before start/end. The forum is visible to learners before or after the start or end date and they can access it, but they cannot post new threads or replies. This effectively makes a discussion read-only.
    • Hidden before start/end. The forum is hidden from learners until the start or end date. Calendar events for Availability Start and Availability End are hidden until the start or end date. Notifications are also not sent until the start or end date.
• Display In Calendar
• Release Conditions
• Group and Section Restrictions

10.  Click Save and Add Topic or Save and Close.

Step By Step Instructions To Create A Discussion Topic Immediately After Creating A Forum

1.  After clicking Save and Add Topic, you will be brought to the Discussion Topic creation page.

Discussion Topics

Your course can have multiple forums and topics, but you must create a forum before you can create a topic since all topics belong to forums.

Step By Step Instructions To Create A Discussion Topic

Note: If you chose Save and Add Topic after creating a discussion forum, skip to step 5, second bullet point.

1. On the navigation bar, click Quick Tools.

2. From the drop down menu, click Discussions.

3. On the Discussions List page, click the arrow next to the Forum title.

Note: Another option is to click the New button and then choose New Topic from the drop down list but this will require you to choose the forum to add the newly created topic to.

4. From the drop down list, choose Add Topic.

5. Type in a Title for the discussion topic.

Note: Forum name will be located under the Topic Title box. 

6. Type in the number of points the discussion will be graded out of and click the In Grade Book.

7. From the drop down list, click Edit or Link to Existing.

Note:  There are two options to link an assignment to the grade book.  You can Create and link to a new grade item (8A and 9A) or Link to an existing grade item (8B and 9B).

8A. Click Create and link to a new grade item and then click the Choose Grade Category.

9A. The category option will appear, click the drop down list, and choose the category that corresponds.

or

8B – Click Link to an existing grade item.

9B – From the drop down menu, find and select the corresponding grade book item.

10. Write the description or instructions for the discussion topic, embed a video, or upload files. 

Note:  For steps 11 through 13, click on the teal numbered circles in the image to learn more about that step.

11. On the right hand side of the screen, click the Availability Dates & Conditions title to expand the following options:

• Availability:  Set a start and End Date and time, restrict access, and choose to display in the calendar.
• Release Conditions:  Set release conditions if you’d like.
• Group and Section Restrictions:  When this option is enabled, only members of the specified groups or sections will have access to this topic.

12. On the right hand side of the screen, click the Post & Completion title to expand the following options:

• Default Participation
• Allow learners to hide their name from other learners.
• Learners must start a thread before they can view or reply to other threads.  Note: Most common option chosen.
• Posts must be approved before they display in the topic.  Note: Approval is completed by the instructor.

13. On the right hand side of the screen, click the Evaluation & Feedback title to expand the following options:

• Rubrics:  Click the Add Rubric button and select a rubric that has been previously created in the Rubrics Tool or choose Create Rubric in New Window if you’d like to create a new rubric for this discussion topic.
• Manage Learning Objectives:  If you have set up Course Learning Objectives (CLO) for your course, you can select which CLOs correlate with this discussion post.  
• Evaluate Posts: Choose whether you want to Allow Evaluation of Individual Posts. By selecting this option allows instructors to assess EACH post in the topic. Each user’s topic score is calculated using the method selected from the Calculation drop-down list.  Note: The instructor must give a grade to each individual post for the grades to publish to the grade book.

14. Click the Save and Close button.

Delete Discussion Forums or Topics

You can delete entire discussion forums or just the topics within a forum.

Step By Step Instructions To Delete A Discussion Forum or Topic

1.   On the navigation bar, click Quick Tools.
2.  From the drop down list, choose the Discussions tool.
3. On the Discussions List page, find the forum or topic you want to delete.
4. Next to the forum or topic title, click the arrow.
5. Select Delete from the drop down list.

Step By Step Instruction To Link A Discussion

1. On the navigation bar, click Quick Tools.

2. From the drop down menu, click Discussions.

3. On the Discussions List page, click the arrow next to the Forum title.

Note: Another option is to click the New button and then choose New Topic from the drop down list but this will require you to choose the forum to add the newly created topic to.

4. From the drop down list, choose Add Topic.

5. Type in a Title for the discussion topic.

Note: Forum name will be located under the Topic Title box. 

6. Type in the number of points the discussion will be graded out of and click the In Grade Book.

7. From the drop down list, click Edit or Link to Existing.

Note:  There are two options to link an assignment to the grade book.  You can Create and link to a new grade item (8A and 9A) or Link to an existing grade item (8B and 9B).

8A. Click Create and link to a new grade item and then click the Choose Grade Category.

9A. The category option will appear, click the drop down list, and choose the category that corresponds.

or

8B – Click Link to an existing grade item.

9B – From the drop down menu, find and select the corresponding grade book item.

10. When complete, click Save and Close.

Assess A Discussion Topics

You can assess discussion topics where you can see the students’ initial threads/posts and all of their replies.

Step By Step Instructions To Assess A Discussion Topic

1. Go to Quick Tools on the navigation bar.

2. From the drop down list, select Discussions.

3. Click the arrow button next to the Discussion Topic Title you want to grade.

4. From the drop down list, select Assess Topic.

Note:  On the right side of the discussion topic, the number of threads, posts, and which learner posted most recently will be viewable.

5. Select the Assessments tab.

6. Click on a learners’ name to be brought to the assessment grading page.

7. On the right side of the discussion topic assessment screen, is the option to grade via rubric.  Expand the rubric criteria by clicking the arrow.

Note:  If no rubric was added, type in the grade for the discussion topic in the OverallGrade box and then click the publish button at the bottom of the screen.

8. Use the rubric and toggle the slider to the level/grade for each criteria.

Optional:  Add individual feedback to each criteria instead of or in addition to the overall feedback.

9. Overall Feedback will automatically calculate if a rubric was used to grade the submission.  If no rubric was used, type in the overall grade.

Optional:  Add in an overall feedback message to the learners.

10. Click the Publish button to publish the learner’s score to the grade book.