Your online course provides a discussion board as a communication tool. This feature is designed for asynchronous use, meaning users do not have to be available at the same time to have a conversation. An additional advantage of the discussion board is that conversations are logged and organized by forums that contain threads and all related replies.
The first step in setting up an online discussion is to create a forum. We recommend creating a new forum for each new discussion topic.
Watch a video on how to create a discussion board.
- Log into your course site.
- Click the Discussions link in the course menu.
- Click the Create Forum button.
- Next, type a name and description for your forum.
- Under Forum Availability, you may choose to make the forum available right away by selecting Yes. You may also set a date restriction, if desired. Typically, we recommend that you leave a forum available to students once they have access to it.
- Under Forum Settings, we recommend that you check the following options:
Allow author to edit own published posts
Allow members to create new threads
Allow members to subscribe to forum > Include body of post in email
You may choose to check other options depending on your preferences. Please note that typically it is not recommended that you check Allow anonymous posts. It is best to have the author take responsibility for their statements.
- Click the Submit button.
