About the Discussions Tool
The Discussions tool provides an area for collaboration and communication. It allows students and instructors to post, read, and reply to messages on different topics, share thoughts about course materials, ask questions, share files, and work with peers or colleagues.
Discussions consist of forums, topics, threads, and posts. Forums are used to organize your discussion topics into categories. Your course can have multiple forums and topics. Topics are where students post and read messages, and they cannot exist outside of forums.
Anatomy of a Discussion
Forums organize related topics into categories. Topics are created for users to read and respond to. Students create a new thread to post their response to a topic. Posts are responses to Threads within a Topic
Why Use the Discussions Tool?
You can use the Discussions tool to:
- Create collaborative spaces for groups to work on group assignments
- Pose a question for the class to debate
- Encourage students to share thoughts on course material
- Set up spaces for students to ask questions
- Discuss the answers to an assignment
What Tools Interact with Discussions?
Discussions interact with a variety of tools. These tools include:
- Content: Discussion topics are seamlessly integrated within the Content tool, allowing students to participate in discussions without ever having to leave Content. You are able to edit and modify the majority of the properties in a discussion topic from the Content tool.
- Grades
- Groups
- Rubrics
- Class Progress
Instructor Tips & Best Practices for Discussions
Get Started with the Discussions Tool
Create your Discussion
- Create a Discussion Forum
- Create an Open or Group Discussion Topic
- Add a Discussion to a Content Module
Add Restrictions
- Set Visibility for a Discussion Forum or Topic
- Set Availability and Due Dates for a Discussion Forum or Topic
- Lock a Discussion Forum or Topic
- Set Release Conditions for a Discussion Topic
- Restrict a Single Forum or Topic to Specific Groups or Sections
- Restrict Multiple Forums or Topics to Specific Groups or Sections
- Automatically Create Restricted Topics for Groups or Sections
Add Assessment Options
- Associate a Discussion Topic with a Grade Item
- Add a Rubric to a Discussion
- Configure Assessment of Individual Posts
Manage Discussions
Copy, Edit, and Delete
- Reorder, Edit, and Delete Discussion Forums or Topics
- Restore Deleted Discussion Forums, Topics, Threads, and Posts
- Copy a Discussion Thread with Replies
View, Moderate, and Respond
- View Individual Discussion Topic Posts
- Moderate Discussion Posts and Threads
- Respond to a Discussion Topic by Posting a Thread
- Respond to a Discussion Thread by Posting a Reply
- View and Post to Group Discussion Topics
- Post to a Group Discussion Topic
Assess Discussions
- Assess Students in Discussion Threads
- Assign Scores to Students from the Assess Topic Page
- Evaluate a Discussion Post with a Rubric
- See our Rubrics page for information about creating and managing Rubrics
- Display Rubric Scores on the Assess Topic Page
- Use the Quick Eval Tool to Assess Discussions
Preferences, Subscriptions, and Notifications
- Subscribe to a Discussion
- Unsubscribe from Notifications
- Manage Discussion Subscriptions
- Discussions Tool Settings
- Updates Widget