Discussion Boards

If you have a topic that is relevant for the class to discuss outside of the classroom environment, using the Discussion Boards feature is ideal. Essentially, you can choose the general areas by creating Forums, and you can enable your students to start threads of discussion, and reapply to one another's posted messages. It is basically a virtual bulletin board.

Students do not have to be logged in at the same time to communicate through the Discussion Boards. It is a wonderful place to post items such as homework questions for the benefit of the whole class, files that are to be reviewed by all fellow students, and to follow up on topics started in class when you ran out of time.

To create a Discussion Forum

1. Control Panel > Discussion Boards (from Course Tools pane)
2. Add Forum
3. Give your Forum a title.
4. Provide a description in the text box.
5. Choose forum settings from the check boxes provided.
6. Click Submit.

To post a thread to a Discussion Forum

1. Click into your Forum from the Discussion Boards page.
2. Add New Thread
3. Enter a subject for your new Thread.
4. Type your message.
5. If neccessary, attach a file.
6. Click Submit.

To reply to a posting to the Discussion Board

1. Click into your Forum from the Discussion Boards page.
2. Click on the subject of a message to which you wish to reply.
3. Click REPLY to the right of the message body.
4. Type your message.
5. If neccessary, attach a file.
6. Click Submit.