About Discussions

The Discussions tool is an asynchronous online forum where students can participate in discussions that you have made available. Students compose and and reply to postings in a threaded format. They can also attach files to their postings, making the Discussions tool an excellent place for students to collaborate on group projects or complete peer reviews.

Examples of how the Discussions tool can be used are listed below:

• Answer commonly asked questions
• Share and/or comment on files
• Post questions, problem sets and/or answers
• Group communication

To access Discussions from your course home page, click the Discussions link in the course navigation bar located near the top of the screen. The Forums and Topics List will open and has six icons that run along the top of the screen: Forums and Topics List, New Forum, New Topic, Copy, Re-Order, and Delete.

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Creating Forums

A D2L discussion board is made up of forums and topics; thus, the first step in setting up your discussion board is creating a new forum. A forum is typically used to group like topics together to keep your dicussion board organized. Much like a category heading, it can provide students with an overall title or theme for the discussion board activity and a description of what the forum will entail.

Please Note: Once you have created a new forum, it will not be visible to students until you have added a topic. Also, any settings that you select for a forum will be inherited by the topics that are associated with the forum.

To create a new forum:

1. Under the Forums & Topics List click New Forum located near the top of the screen. Clicking New Forum will bring you to the Properties screen.

   

2. Enter a Title for your forum.
3. If you would like to skip the step of creating a new topic, you may select Create a new topic in this forum with the same title.
4. If you choose, you can enter a Description for your forum. Descriptions may contain information about the forum such as specific instructions to the students or what the students can expect from topics created in the forum.
5. If you would like, you can choose to Allow anonymous messages to be posted within the forum. Please note that if you select this option, students will be able to post anonymous messages to any topic within the forum.
6. You may also decide whether Messages must be approved before being displayed. Selecting this option requires that you approve all messages before they will be visible to students.
7. Under Availability, you may choose whether or not the forum is visible to students. You may also set Start and End Dates for the forum.
8. Under Locking Options, you may decide whether or not the forum will be locked to students. You may also unlock the forum for a specified date range using the Start and End Date drop down menus.
9. Click Save to save your changes. If you are ready to add Discussion topics to your forum, you may click Save & Add Topic.

Click the Restrictions tab for more Forum options:

• Release Conditions - Click Create and Attach to add release conditions your Discussion forum. For more information regarding conditional release, click here.
• Group Restrictions - To restrict access to specific groups or sections, select Restrict this forum to the following groups. Then click Add Groups to select the groups or sections that should have access to the forum. For more information on how to create groups, click here.

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Creating Topics

Discussion topics are where students will post their messages and read postings from other students. Before you can add any topics, you must have first created a Discussion forum.

To create a new topic:

1. Under the Forums & Topics List click New Topic located near the top of the screen.
2. Clicking New Topic will bring you to the Properties screen.

   

3. Use the Forum drop down menu to select the forum you would like your topic to appear under.
4. Enter a Title for your topic.
5. If you choose, you can enter a Description for your topic. Descriptions may contain information about the topic such as specific instructions to the students.
6. If you would like, you can choose to Allow anonymous messages to be posted within the topic.
7. You may also decide whether Messages must be approved before being displayed. Selecting this option requires that you approve all messages before they will be visible to students.
8. Under Availability, you may choose whether or not the topic is visible to students. You may also set Start and End Dates for the topic.
9. Under Locking Options, you may decide whether or not the topic will be locked to students. You may also unlock the topic for a specified date range using the Start and End Date drop down menus.
10. Click Save to save your changes. If you would like to continue creating Discussion topics, you may click Save and New.

Click the Restrictions tab for more Topic options:

• Release Conditions - Click Create and Attach to add release conditions your Discussion topic. For more information regarding conditional release, click here.
• Group Restrictions - To restrict access to specific groups or sections, select Restrict this topic to the following groups. Then click Add Groups to select the groups or sections that should have access to the topic. For more information on how to create groups, click here.

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Re-Ordering Forums and Topics

To change the order that forums and topics appear in:

1. Under the Forums & Topics List click Re-Order.
2. Use the Sort Order drop down menus to the right of each forum and topic to change the order.
3. Click Save to save your changes.

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Deleting Forums and Topics

*PLEASE NOTE: DELETING FORUMS/TOPICS WILL PERMANENTLY DELETE ANY MESSAGES POSTED BY YOUR STUDENTS TO THAT FORUM/TOPIC AND ANY ASSOCIATED GRADES*

To delete a forum or topic:

1. Under the Forums & Topics List click Delete.
2. Check the box to the left of the forum or topic you would like to delete. Note that selecting a forum will also automatically select any topics within that forum.
3. Click Delete Selected.

   

4. Click Yes on the window that opens to complete the process. If you have deleted all topics within a forum, the forum will no longer be visible to students.

   

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Composing a Message

To compose a message in a Discussion topic:

1. Click the name of the topic you would like to compose a message for.
2. Click Compose.

   

3. If you would like, you may enter a Subject.
4. Enter your Message.
5. You may also choose to Pin your message to the top of the message list for the topic. This means that the message will always be displayed at the top of the list of messages for all users, regardless of any sorting done to the message list.
6. If you would like to add an attachment to your messages, click the Add a File button.
7. If you would like to post your message to more than one Discussion topic, click Show message posting options and then click the Add Topics button. This will allow you to select the other topics you would like to post to.
8. Click Post located near the bottom of the screen to post your message to the Discussion topic.

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Replying to a Message

To reply to a message in a Discussion topic:

1. Click the name of the topic you would like to reply to a message in.
2. If you are viewing a Grid Style message list, click the subject of the message you would like to reply to. If you are viewing a Reading Style message list, click Reply located under the name of the individual who posted the original message.
3. Click Reply, located just above the message. 
4. If you choose, you can edit the Subject.
5. Enter your Message.
6. If you would like to add an attachment to your message, click the Add a File button.
7. Click Post located near the bottom of the screen to post your reply to the Discussion topic.

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Discussion Settings

To change the settings for Discussions, click Settings located along the left side of your screen.

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Assessing Discussions

Grading Discussions

1. To access and grade topic discussions; grade items must exist in GRADES. The grade items should be titled similar to the discussion topic(s), as this will allow for greater organization.
2. The same is true when using Groups in discussions.
3. To set up the graded discussion score to transfer to GRADES, click on the pencil icon in the Forums & Topics List page:
4. This will open the discussion topic, select the Assessment tab:
5. Select the Group Discussion Grade Item from the drop down menu that is associated with this Discussion Topic:

After the Discussion topic and Grade item have been set up to transfer to the gradebook, you can begin to assess the Discussion topic:

1. From the Forums & Topics List, click on the title of the Discussion you would like to access.
2. Click Settings.
3. Change the Message List Style to 'Reading Style', and Save. This will allow for effective reading and grading.
   • Mark Read
   • Reply
   • Assess

   

   Discussion messages are now listed in reading style, from here you have several options:

4. You will now notice, in the Forums & Topics List, there is a Assess Topic icon to the right of your topic. Click on the icon to begin assessing your topic. The main Assess Topic page will open. You can assess the topic using the Users tab or the Assessment tab. Click on Topic Score in the Users tab and the students name in the Assessment tab.
   

   

5. The View Topic Score window will open:

   

1. Enter the Topic Score in the blank topic score box.
2. Click the  box next to Graded
3. Click Save

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Rating Discussions

Some of your courses may use message Ratings. To make discussion messages available for Rating, make adjustments to the Discussion Settings:

The Settings page will open, here is where you may make changes to include Rating Discussions.

• Click on the box next to Message Ratings.
• Click Save.

If you can rate messages, when you view a message a row of five orange stars is displayed to the right of the message.

Click the number of stars you think the message deserves. Your rating is anonymous.

Each message's Average Rating is displayed as a row of five blue stars. The filled-in stars indicate the average rating.

You can search by average rating to find the highest rated messages. In a big discussion, this is a good way to find the best messages.

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Flagging a Message

Flagging messages is a good way to mark a message if you want to read it agin later or monitor replies.

To Flag or UnFlag a message:

Click the flag icon next to the message's subject to change from Not Flagged to Flagged

Click the flag icon again to UnFlag the message

You can quickly find your flagged messages by selecting "Flagged Only" from the Search Options drop-down list:

1. Click on the topic from the Forums and Topics List
2. Select 'Show Search Options'
3. The search window will open

• Click on the empty box next to 'Flag', to enter a green check mark
• Select 'Flagged' from the drop-down list menu
• Click on 'Search'

Only Flagged messages will be displayed. To show all messages again, follow the same steps to uncheck the box next to 'Flag', then click Search.

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Copying Messages

Messages don't have to stay in the topics they are initially posted to. If you think a message belongs in a different topic, you can move it by copying it and choosing the option to delete the original message. If a message is applicable to more than one topic, you can copy it into as many other topics as you want.

To copy or move a message

1. Do one of the following:
   • If you are using the Grid Style message list, open the message and click Copy on the top tool menu.
   • If you are using the Reading Style message list, click More Actions beneath the message header, then click Copy on the action bar above the message.
2. Select the forum and topic you want to copy the message into.
3. Select any additional options you want:
   • To copy any replies made to the message, select Copy Message replies.
   • To move the message from the current topic into the selected one, select Delete original message after copy completes.

    

   Caution: If you choose to delete the original message and do not choose to copy replies, any replies made to the message are deleted.

4. Click Copy.

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Instructor Resources

The following links contain information that you may find useful. The information ranges from assessing online discussions to best practices:

• Ragan, L. Best Practices in Online Teaching-During Teaching-Assess Messages in Online Discussions
• Murray, B. "Reinventing class discussion online" Monitor on Psychology, volume 31, no. 4 (April 2000)
• Grading Online Discussions
• Examples of rubrics: Example 1 (pdf)  and Example 2

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