DISCUSSIONS

Creating a Forum
Forums house discussions, like a filing cabinet drawer. You must have a forum to create a discussion. A
forum can hold all course discussions, a units discussions, or a single discussion. It depends on how
you want to organize your discussions.
1. Click the
Discussions menu on the course navigation bar.
2. Click the dropdown arrow on the New
menu under the Discussions List tab, and
select New Forum.

3. A new window appears. It defaults to the Properties tab.

a. Under the Properties tab, type a Title for

your forum. This is required.
b. If youd like to create a topic with the same
title as this forum (usually reserved for
forums with one topic), check here.
c. Under Options (optional), you can choose
to either: allow anonymous messages (not
recommended), approve messages
before they are displayed or user must
start a thread before they can read and
reply to others.
d. Scroll down the page.

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Under Availability, you are choosing when this
forum is visible to your students.
1. You can keep the forum visible at all times, or
2. You can choose to hide the forum.
3. You can also give the forum a specific date
range of visibility. If you choose this option,
you must choose to give it a Start Date and
Time and/or an End Date and Time.
4. You can also choose to display this forums
availability on the student calendar on the
Course Home page.

Locking Options keeps the forum visible to

students, but they are unable to participate in it.
It is a read-only feature.
1. Click the Unlock forum radial button to keep
the forum unlocked.
2. You can choose to lock the forum by choosing
Lock forum.
3. As with Availability, you can choose to unlock
the forum between specific dates. If you
choose this option, you must choose to give it
a Start Date and Time and/or an End Date and
Time.
4. You can also choose to display this forums
lock dates on the student calendar on the
Course Home page.

4. If you are finished and would not like to

add restrictions to this forum, click the

appropriate Save button. Note: Save and
Add Topic takes you directly to the Topic
(Discussion) creation page.

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Adding Forum Restrictions
1. If you would like to add restrictions to
your forum, such as, release conditions or
group restrictions, scroll back up to the
top of the page and click the Restrictions
tab.
2. For setting release conditions, please follow the directions in the guide titled Release
Conditions.
3. Restricting this forum to a specific group
will only allow the specific group(s)
chosen to have access to the forum. To
do this, click the checkbox to the left of
Restrict this forum to the following
groups and the click Add Groups.
NOTE: You must have groups already created to implement this feature. See the guide titled Groups to
create your class groups.
4. Now, choose the groups to which you
want this discussion forum restricted and
click Add.

5. You will now see your groups appear on

the Restrictions page. To delete a group,
simply click the X to the right of the group
name.

6. Now, choose the appropriate Save button to save your forum. Note: Save and Add Topic takes
you directly to the Topic (Discussion) creation page.
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Creating Discussion Topics
Discussion Topics are the actual topics that you want your students to respond to and discuss. Each
topic must be housed under a discussion forum.
1. Click the
Discussions menu on the course navigation bar.
2. Click the dropdown arrow on the New

menu under the Discussions List tab and

choose New Topic.

3. A new window appears. It defaults to the Properties tab.

a. Choose the Forum you want to house your

discussion in from the dropdown menu or
create a new forum by clicking New Forum
(required). Remember, all discussion
topics must be housed in a forum.
b. Create a Title for your Discussion Topic
(required).
c. Create a Description for your topic.
Although this is optional, it is where you
will give your students specific directions
on what to do. Be as detailed in your
requirements as possible.
d. Under Options (optional), you can choose
to either allow anonymous messages (not
recommended) or have messages
approved before they are displayed.
e. You can also require a user to complete
his/her own response to the topic before
being able to view his/her classmates
responses.

4. If you scroll down the page, you will see that as with Discussion Forum creation, with Topic

creation, you have the ability to set Availability and Locking Options. Directions for setting up
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these options are found in the Creating a Forum section.
5. If you are finished and would not like to

add Restrictions to this forum, click the

appropriate Save button. NOTE: Save and
Add Topic allows you to add a new topic.
6. Like Forums, you can add restrictions to each Discussion Topic. If you would like to add

restrictions to this Discussion Topic, please refer to the above directions for Adding Forum
Restrictions.
7. You also will have an Assessment tab at the top of the discussion topic page. Access this tab to
identify the value of this discussion topic

A. Since you are currently using Pinpoint as your gradebook provider you are not required to
associate the discussion to a score item. However, if you would like to use the scorebook
available here you can opt make the association. See the Basic Scores guide for further
details.
B. Identify the value of the discussion post here.
C. Optional: You can opt to evaluate each thread from each student separately and have the
system calculate the average to do so select Allow assessment of individual posts and select
the calculation method.

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Assessing Discussions
You can assess users from inside a discussion topic while reading posts or from the Assess Topic page.
Assessing users from within the topic lets you read users posts in context and evaluate them as you
perform other reading-related tasks (approving posts, marking posts as read, replying, and so on).
NOTE: Assessable topics display an
Includes assessment icon beside the topic name on the
Discussions List page. If you select the A moderator must approve individual posts before they display
in the topic setting, you must approve posts in the topic before you can assess them.
Configure a topic for assessment
1.

On the navbar, click

Discussions.

2.

From the context menu of the topic you want to configure for assessment, click

3.

In the Assessment tab, configure your topic for assessment by doing any the following:

Edit Topic.

Use the Score Item drop-down list to attach an existing grade item or click the New Score
Item link to create a new grade item.

Give the topic a Score Out Of to evaluate users on.

Click the Add Rubric button to attach an existing rubric or click the Create Rubric in New
Window link to create a new rubric for the topic.

Select the Allow assessment of individual posts check box, then select your calculation
method to allow assessment of individual posts in the topic.

Assess a Discussion by Topic

1. Access the discussion topic you would like to evaluate and select the dropdown context menu to
locate the Assess option. Select Assess Topic.

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2. On the Discussion Assessment page, select Topic Score beside the user you want to evaluate.

3. You will be presented with a pop-up box which will provide you with details associated with the
discussion and the user.

4. Scroll down to find the score and feedback options.

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A. Post: At the bottom of this pop-up box you will find the posts provided by the author where you
can read and evaluate.
B. Feedback: Here you will find the HTML Editor present where you can provide multiple mediums of
feedback (i.e. image, video text)
C. Publish: You can opt to publish immediately by selecting the publish checkbox however, you can
also simply save and opt to publish all student evaluations together. To publish all evaluations at the
same time return to the discussions assessment area and select Publish All Scores to Scores.

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Assess Individual Student within a Topic
You can assess all discussion contributions for an individual student for a thread from Assess Student.
This opens the topic scoring window with the students contributions and a field to score them.

1. Access the discussion topic you would like to evaluate.

2. Click the students post within the topic and select the dropdown context menu and select
Assess Student.
Engaging in a Discussion
1. To engage in a discussion select the discussion topic.

2. Select Start a Thread to add a comment to the discussion.

3. You will be presented with an HTML Editor where you can comment using images, videos and
written text. When you completed your thread, select Post.

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4. Your discussion thread will now be presented and indicate the most recent reply to the thread in
addition to the number of replies, views and unread replies.

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Other Posting Options
Set any of the following posting options below then click Post. NOTE: If the topic is moderated, your
post will not appear until a moderator approves it.

To keep the thread at the top of the list, select Pin Thread.
To receive updates on the thread using your selected notification method, select Subscribe to
this thread.
To attach a file, in the Attachments area, click Browse to locate the file you want to attach.
To attach an audio recording, in the Attachments area, click Record Audio > Record. To make
adjustments to your microphone selection and volume, click Flash Settings. To listen to your
recording, click Play. To erase your recording, click Clear. If you have pre-recorded audio and are
using a supported browser, you can drag audio files onto the attachments upload target.
To attach a video recording, in the Attachments area, click Record Video > Allow > Record.
When you finish recording, click Stop. Click Clear to erase your recording or Add to add the
recording. If you have pre-recorded video and are using a supported browser, you can drag
video files onto the attachments upload target.
To post your thread to more than one topic, click Post to other topics. Click Add Topics. Select
the topics you would like your thread to appear in. To post in every topic simultaneously, select
the Select All check box, then click Add Topics.

Reading Posts
There are two ways to view posts inside a topic: using Grid View or Reading View. See Changing Discussions
settings to learn how to.
Grid View: A list of posts appears at the top of the
page, showing the subject, author, and date for each
post. Click on a subject line to read the post; the full
text appears in the preview pane or in a new window,
depending on your personal settings.

Reading View: The full text of every post always

displays once you click on a thread.

To change discussion settings default view, do one of

the following:
On the Discussions List page, click Settings.
Click
Edit Course on the navbar,
click Discussions, then click Settings on the
Discussions List page.

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Delete Discussion Forums & Topics
1. On the Discussions List page,
click Delete from the context menu
of the forum or topic you want to
delete.
2. Choose one of the following:
Select all. This gives you the ability
to delete multiple items. NOTE:
You can bulk delete but you have to
restore forums and topics
individually.
Select individual forums or topics
you want to delete.
3. Click Delete.
Restore deleted discussions
If the forum you restore contains one or more topics, you will be given the option to also restore the
forum's associated topics.
1. On the navbar, click Discussions.
2. To restore a deleted forum or topic, on the Discussions List page, from the More Actions
button, click Restore. Click Restore beside the forum or topic you want to restore.

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CLASSROOM USES

Keep a running list of student-submitted questions while studying a unit/topic; allow fellow students
to answer/respond

Set up discussion forum for a collaborative group project, to allow members to post and continue
discussion in and outside of class

Provide a discussion area for homework collaboration, allowing students to ask one another questions
and respond about take-home tasks

Allow students to reflect during a class presentation or video

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