The Discussions tool is a collaboration area to post, read and reply to threads on different topics, share thoughts about course materials, ask questions, share files, or work with your peers on assignments and homework.
Use the Discussions tool in your course to encourage users to share thoughts on course material with their peers. You can set up forums and topics for users to ask questions, discuss course content and assignments, and work together in assigned groups and sections.
Once a discussion gets going, new posts can come in very quickly. There are a number of places in Learning Environment that identify new posts to help you keep on top of things:
To see all posts again, click the Clear icon in the search field.
Click on a topic to display the View Topic page. Then, click on a thread to display all replies to the thread, along with the original post.
To | Do this |
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Keep the thread at the top of the list |
Select Pin thread. |
Post anonymously | Select Post as Anonymous. |
Receive updates on the thread via your selected notification method | Select Subscribe to this thread. |
Attach a file |
In the Attachments area, click Browse to locate the file you want to attach, or, if you are using a supported browser, drag and drop your files onto the attachments upload target. You can attach as many files as you want.
Note Internet Explorer 9 and older currently do not support dragging and dropping files from your desktop into Learning Environment. |
Attach an audio recording | In the Attachments area, click Record Audio. Ensure your microphone is set up correctly and click Record. Click Flash Settings to make adjustments to your microphone selection and volume. Click Play to listen to your recording. Click Clear to erase your recording. If you have pre-recorded audio and are using a supported browser, you can drag audio files onto the attachments upload target. |
Attach a video recording | In the Attachments area, click Record Video. Click Allow when the Flash player prompts you to allow camera and microphone access. Click Record. Click Stop when you finish recording. 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. |
Post your thread to more than one topic simultaneously | Click Post to other topics. Click Add Topics, and 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. |
If the topic is moderated, your post will not appear until a moderator approves it. Moderated topics will display Moderated beside the topic name in Discussions List. Inside the topic, all threads track how many Unapproved replies each thread contains. Inside the thread, any posts requiring approval display Approve Post in the subject header.
If a topic is assessible, and has one or more rubrics attached to it, you will see a Rubrics section in the collapsible Discussions area at the top of the topic that contains links to any rubrics associated with the topic. To preview the expectations for the topic, click on the rubric. It will open in a pop-up window.
Note The rubric does not display any personalized feedback or results.
To | Do this |
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Post anonymously | Select Post as Anonymous. |
Receive updates to the thread via your selected notification method | Select Subscribe to this thread. |
Attach a file |
In the Attachments area, click Browse to locate the file you want to attach, or, if you are using a supported browser, drag and drop your files onto the attachments upload target. You can attach as many files as you want.
Note Internet Explorer 9 and older currently do not support dragging and dropping files from your desktop into Learning Environment. |
Attach an audio recording | In the Attachments area, click Record Audio. Ensure your microphone is set up correctly and click Record. Click Flash Settings to make adjustments to your microphone selection and volume. Click Play to listen to your recording. Click Clear to erase your recording. If you have pre-recorded audio and are using a supported browser, you can drag audio files onto the attachments upload target. |
Attach a video recording | In the Attachments area, click Record Video. Click Allow when the Flash player prompts you to allow camera and microphone access. Click Record. Click Stop when you finish recording. 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. |
You can save your thread as a draft instead of publishing it right away. This lets you return to the thread later to edit it before publishing it to the topic.
To save a draft thread, click Save as Draft instead of Post.
To find a saved draft, navigate to the topic where you created the draft and select Drafts from the Filter by tool navigation.
Note Depending on your system configuration, you may not have this option enabled. If you would like the option to save threads as drafts, contact your site administrator or your Desire2Learn Account Manager.
How you rate discussion posts depends on which rating scheme is enabled. You can rate posts using stars or by up voting and down voting.
Note Instructors can set rating schemes on a per-topic basis.
Rate the post by clicking on the number of stars you think the post deserves in the Ratings area of a user's post. You can give a maximum of five stars.
Click the Up icon to increase a post's rating. Click the Down icon to decrease a post's rating.
Click the Up icon to increase a post's rating.
You can view posts in a printable format and send the posts to your printer:
Do one of the following:
Personal settings control the way you view posts inside a topic. These settings apply to all course offerings wherever you access discussions, but do not affect other users.
Display Settings The following display settings are available:
Note Depending on your role, you may not see this setting.
Reply Settings Use this setting to automatically include the original post by default when composing a reply.
Note Depending on your role, you may not see this setting.
Org unit settings apply to all users and all forums and topics in your course.
Default Rating Scheme Use this setting to automatically display your selected rating scheme in the Rate Posts drop-down list available when creating and editing topics. See Rating discussion posts [5] for more information.
If you want to return to a post at a later time, or if you want to monitor replies to a post, you should flag the post. Select Flag Post or Remove Flag from the context menu of the post to add or remove a flag. To quickly find your flagged posts, click Flagged from the Filter by tool navigation.
When you click on a thread, it automatically marks all of its posts as read.
In some cases you might want to manually mark some posts as unread—for example, if you open a thread but do not finish reading it.
Do one of the following:
You can make changes to your subscriptions in Notifications [28] and in the Subscriptions area of Discussions.
Note You must be subscribed to at least one forum, topic, or thread to view this option.
You can receive email, minibar, and SMS notifications for discussion forums, topics, and threads that you subscribe to. Ensure your Notifications settings [28] are set up properly.
Note If you do not have an email address set up in your user profile to receive instant and summary notifications, click the Add an email address in a new window link in the Customize Notifications pop-up window. Click the Enable email notifications link, then set your email preferences in the Email Settings pop-up window. Click Save.
Note If you do not have an email address set up in your user profile to receive instant and summary notifications, click the Add an email address in a new window link in the Customize Notifications pop-up window. Click the Enable email notifications link, then set your email preferences in the Email Settings pop-up window. Click Save.
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.
Note You cannot evaluate anonymous posts.
Note If you select Forum is visible for a specific date range, select the Has Start Date and Has End Date check boxes to set your availability. You can also have dates Display in Calendar.
Note You cannot evaluate anonymous posts.
Notes
You can change the rating scheme at any time. Reverting back to a previous used scheme will restore its former ratings.
Users need the permissions Rate Posts and See Average Post Ratings to enable post rating. Contact your administrator for more information.
Note If you select Topic is visible for a specific date range, select the Has Start Date and Has End Date check boxes to set your availability. You can also have dates Display in Calendar.
As an instructor, you can restrict access to forums and topics in four ways:
Any restrictions you place on a forum also apply to all topics within the forum.
Hidden topics do not display on the Discussions List page, except to users with permission to see hidden forums and topics or to manage discussions. By hiding topics, you can control which topics users can access at different times throughout the course. For example, you can create weekly discussion topics for users to reflect on the material covered in each week of the course and make each topic available for one week only.
You can specify start and end dates for when a forum or topic is visible so you can set up visibility ahead of time to match your course’s calendar.
Tip Instead of scheduling a topic to disappear as soon as you want the discussion to end, consider locking the topic at that point and keeping it visible for another few days. This allows users to review the discussion after it closes so that they don’t miss the last posts added.
Locking a topic prevents users from creating new posts or modifying existing posts, essentially making the conversation “read only”. Users with permission can modify the contents of a locked topic. Locking a topic is an effective way of closing a conversation while allowing users to refer back to posts.
You can specify start and end dates for when a forum or topic unlocks so you can set things up ahead of time to match your course’s calendar.
Tip Consider locking a topic to end a conversation, then using a pinned summary post inside the topic. When users access the topic, your summary appears at the top.
Release conditions enable you to specify requirements that users must satisfy before they can access a discussion forum or topic.
For example, you can require that users view a content topic or submit an assignment to a dropbox folder before accessing a discussion topic. Or, you might create an extra-help discussion topic for users who fail a particular quiz.
You can restrict a forum or topic so that it is only accessible to members of a specific group or section. This enables you to:
Note You must create groups or sections before you can set group or section restrictions.
To remove a group or section’s access, click the Remove icon beside the group or section, then click Save.
To open the forum or topic to everyone again, clear the Restrict this forum to the following groups and sections check box or Restrict this topic to the following groups and sections check box, then click Save.
To open a forum or topic to everyone, clear the check box in the Restricted column and click Save.
You can automatically create a discussion topic for each group in a selected category. Topics get their names from the group categories and groups they associate with.
You can evaluate users' individual posts and have Learning Environment automatically calculate a topic score for each user, or you can assign a topic score directly to each user. If you choose to assess individual posts, you can specify how you want the system to calculate each user’s overall topic score in the Posts section of the Assessment tab when you edit a topic.
There are five possible calculation methods that you can select when configuring a topic for assessment.
Note A Rubrics section displays in the collapsible Description area of the topic, containing links to any rubrics you associate with the topic. Clicking on a rubric link will open the rubric in a pop-up window, allowing users to preview the expectations for the topic.
You can assess users from inside the 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, etc.). When assessing users from the Assess Topic page, you can see topic scores for all users and view all of a user’s posts together on one screen. Assessable topics display a Can be assessed icon beside the topic name in the Discussions List.
Note If a topic uses post approval, you must approve a post before you can assess it.
To assess | Do this | |
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Individual posts |
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The topic as a whole |
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Tip If the Score column is empty on the Assess Topic page, click the Manage Columns button, select the Score Value and Percentage check boxes, and click Save.
Tip In either tab, you can search for specific users by typing all or part of a user’s name or user ID in the Search For field and clicking Search. You can also filter the view to display members of a specific group or section by selecting from the View By drop-down list and clicking Apply.
Note If a user’s posts display across multiple pages, be sure to save each page before navigating to another page of posts. Any new post scores entered are lost if you change pages without saving.
You can also enter comments in the Feedback field.
When you link a topic’s score to a grade item in your grade book, your users’ scores automatically transfer to the grade book. This enables you to factor the topic score into users’ final grades for the course. It also enables you to display the result to users since users cannot view their topic score directly through the Discussions tool, but can view their grades in the grade book.
Note You can only link numeric grade items to discussion topics.
You assess topics linked to grade items in the same way you assess stand-alone topics, by assigning a score to each post or to each user for the topic overall. However, you must publish the score to the grade book in order for Learning Environment to update the grade item. This prevents the display of inaccurate grades before you finish assessing users.
When you publish the topic score, Learning Environment updates the grade item in the grade book. Any additional changes you make to a user’s score automatically release to the grade book.
Tip You can publish a user’s score by selecting the Published check box.
Associate a topic with learning objectives to measure a user's mastery of skills, abilities, and knowledge. You can use a rubric to evaluate a user's success at meeting the learning objective. See Evaluating discussion topic activities [37] for information about assessing learning objectives linked to discussion topics.
If you have permissions to edit a discussion topic's associated learning objectives and assessments, click Edit Learning Objective or Edit Assessment from the context menu of the learning objective or assessment you want to modify.
Editing a discussion forum gives you the ability to change the forum name, availability and locking options, release conditions, and group and section restrictions. Editing a discussion topic gives you the ability to reassign the topic to a different forum, rename the topic, and change the availability and locking options, restrictions, assessment options, and associated learning objectives.
Copying a forum creates a new forum with the same properties as the original. You can copy the forum’s topics and any pinned threads within those topics. Copying a forum does not copy any normal, unpinned threads inside the forum’s topics; however you can copy or move individual threads from existing topics once you create the new topics.
Copying a topic creates a new topic with the same properties as the original. Links to grade items or competency activities are not copied. You can choose to copy pinned threads along with the topic. Copying a topic does not copy any normal, unpinned threads inside the topic; however you can copy or move individual threads from inside the existing topic after you create the new topic. See Copying or moving a discussion thread or post for more information.
If you want to copy topics into another course offering, see Copying course components between org units [39]. If you want to move a topic from one forum to another, click Edit Topic from the context menu of the topic you want to move, then select the desired forum from the Forum drop-down list in the Properties tab.
Discussion threads and posts can be moved to topics other than the original topic they are posted to. If you think a thread or post belongs in a different topic, you can move it by copying it and choosing the option to delete the original thread or post. If a thread or post is applicable to more than one topic, you can copy it into as many other topics as you want.
Important If you choose to delete the original thread post and do not choose to copy its replies, the system will delete any replies made to the thread.
Important If you choose to delete the original post and do not choose to copy its replies, the system will delete any replies made to the post.
Click Delete Thread from the context menu of the thread you want to delete.
Important When you delete a post, the system also deletes any replies to that post.
Click Delete Post from the context menu of the post you want to delete.
Reorder forums and topics when you want to change the order in which they appear to users, based on your course and teaching preferences.
You must have the Delete and Restore Forums and Topics permission enabled to restore deleted topics and forums.
Note If the forum you restore contains one or more topics, you will be given the option to also restore the forum's associated topics.
To restore a deleted post, you must have permission See Deleted Posts enabled and you must have the Display deleted posts option enabled on the Settings page.
Click the Restore Thread link in the thread you want to restore.
Click the Restore Post link in the post you want to restore.
Note If the post you restore is a reply to another post, and the other post was also deleted, both posts restore.
Click Edit from the context menu of the forum or topic you want to add post approval to and select A moderator must approve individual posts before they display in the forum in the Properties tab to ensure that you have the ability to approve posts activated.
If a topic requires post approval, posts only appear to users with permission to approve them. You must manually approve these posts to make them visible to all users. Users with permission to approve posts in a topic can create posts automatically without requiring their approval.
You can enable and disable post approval from the Properties tab when creating or editing a forum or topic. Once you enable post approval, Moderated appears beside the forum or topic name.
If a post is not appropriate for the topic and you do not want to approve it, you can do any of the following:
Click Approve Thread from the context menu of the thread to approve all posts in the thread.
Click the Approve Post link inside the post you want to approve, or click Approve Post from the context menu of the post.
Click Unapprove Thread from the context menu of the thread you want to unapprove.
Click Unapprove Post from the context menu of the post you want to unapprove.
You can find unapproved posts in the following ways:
Editing a post allows you to change the subject or text, add or remove attachments, or change whether the post is pinned. You cannot make a post anonymous or change the name of the author. Users who edit a post appear in a list in the post’s history log.
Identify edited posts by the Last Edited icon in the post header.
Note In order to edit other users' posts, you must have the Edit Any Post permission enabled for your role.
Statistics give you an overview of user activity in your discussion topics and forums. You can use this information to determine which topics stimulate conversation and which do not, or which students post frequently and which hang back. As the semester unfolds, you can use statistics to pinpoint topics in need of conversation-starters and to follow the participation levels of different users. You can send email reminders to users who have not been participating or ask overly vocal users to slow down and give others a chance to contribute. When the semester ends, statistics help you identify the topics that were most effective and the ones you might want to omit or modify for the next course.
Notes
Click View Topic Statistics or View Forum Statistics from the context menu of the forum or topic you want to view.
On the Discussions List page, click Statistics from the tool navigation.
You can export statistics to a CSV file and then import the data into a spreadsheet application to perform further analysis.
When a post is edited, the post history log records all previous versions of the post, its editors, and when it was approved or unapproved.
Click View Post History from the context menu of the post.
Links:
[1] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/accessing-discussions
[2] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/finding-reading-discussion-posts-threads
[3] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/creating-replying-to-discussion-threads
[4] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/saving-draft-discussion-thread
[5] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/rating-discussion-posts
[6] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/printing-discussion-threads-posts
[7] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/changing-discussions-settings
[8] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/flagging-discussion-post
[9] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/marking-discussion-threads-posts-read-unread
[10] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/managing-discussion-subscriptions
[11] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/subscribing-unsubscribing-to-discussion-forums-topics-threads
[12] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/creating-discussion-forums-topics
[13] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/discussion-forum-topic-restrictions
[14] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/topic-assessment
[15] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/topic-objectives
[16] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/editing-discussion-forum-topic
[17] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/copying-discussion-forum-topic-thread-post
[18] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/deleting-discussion-forums-topics-threads-posts
[19] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/reordering-discussion-forums-topics
[20] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/restoring-deleted-discussion-forum-topic-thread-post
[21] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/adding-post-approval-to-discussion-forums-topics
[22] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/approving-unapproving-discussion-threads-posts
[23] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/editing-other-users-discussion-posts
[24] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/viewing-discussion-statistics
[25] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/exporting-discussion-statistics
[26] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/viewing-discussion-post-history
[27] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/taxonomy/term/3
[28] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/setting-your-notifications
[29] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/taxonomy/term/2
[30] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/setting-release-conditions-discussion-forum-topic
[31] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/hiding-discussion-forum-topic
[32] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/locking-discussion-forum-topic
[33] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/setting-group-section-restrictions-discussion-forum-topic
[34] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/creating-analytic-rubrics
[35] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/creating-holistic-rubrics
[36] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/topic-assessment#calculation_methods
[37] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/evaluating-discussion-topic-activities
[38] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/adding-associations-between-competency-structure-elements#associate_learning_objective_with_activity
[39] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/copying-course-components-between-org-units