The Discussion Board is a communication tool that can be used to enhance a course Web site. Instructors create forums on specific topics in the Discussion Board. For example, an Instructor may create a Mid-Term Review forum, where Students may go ask and answer questions about the Mid-Term exam. Students may access forums by clicking on the appropriate link in the Discussion Board. When a forum is accessed a page appears which lists the different threads in the forum. A thread is a message that is posted to a forum. Participants can post new threads in a forum and reply to threads that have already been posted.
Note: Students are able to create new threads on the Discussion Board. If allowed by the Instructor a Student can create a forum, otherwise Students will only be able to add threads to existing topics.
Follow the steps below to open the Discussion Board Forum page.
Step 1 Click Discussion Board on the course menu.
Step 2 Click a forum to open it and view the contents within.
The table below details the functions available on the Discussion Board Forum page.
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To . . . |
click . . . |
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start a new thread |
Add New Thread. The Create New Message page will appear. On the Create New Message page a new subject title and discussion description may be added. |
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view all messages |
the View all Messages up arrow. All messages appear. |
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view unread messages |
the View Unread Messages down arrow. All unread messages will be shown. |
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see all the threads and responses |
the Expand All plus icon. All threads and responses will appear. |
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see only the first message in each thread |
the Collapse All minus icon. The topic threads will appear. |
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read a message |
a message link. A new Discussion Board page will appear. Depending on their course role, users may modify, remove, or reply to a message. |
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view the tool bar |
Options tab. The Options tool bar will appear. |
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view messages that have been archived by the Instructor |
Click Here for Archives. A page will appear with the threads that have been archived from this forum. Archived messages must be made available by the Instructor. |
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resort the list of messages |
the Sort by: drop-down list and select one of the following options: · Default: sort messages by the earliest date. · Author: sort messages by the author. · Date: sort messages by the earliest date. This is the default. · Subject: sort messages by the subject. |
The table below describes the functions available on the Options tab. Click Show Options to access these functions. To select multiple threads in a forum, choose the check box next to each thread that will be included.
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To . . . |
then . . . |
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select all threads and messages in the forum |
click Select All. |
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unselect the selections |
click Unselect All. |
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unselect the threads and messages that have been selected and select the threads and messages that have not been selected |
click Invert. |
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mark messages as read |
select the threads and messages, then click Read. |
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mark messages as unread |
select the threads and messages, then click Unread. |
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view multiple threads or messages |
select the threads and messages, then click Collect. |
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lock a thread or message |
select the thread and messages, then click Lock. |