Creating a Discussion Forum

1.  Click Discussions on the Course Navigation Bar (Navbar).

2.  Click New.

3.  Click New Forum.

4.  Enter a Title (Required).

5.  Modify any optional settings as you see fit.  Below you'll find descriptions of these settings.

• Checkbox - Create a new topic in this forum with the same title:  If checked then the system will create a topic with the same name.

• Description:  Provides a description of the forum.  This will only be visible if the forum contains a topic.

• Options:

  • Allow Anonymous posts:  If checked then the authors name will be hidden.

  • A moderator must approve individual posts before they display in the forum:  If checked then the instructor will need to approve all replies to this topic.

  • User must start a thread before they can read and reply to other threads in each topic:  If checked then a student will need to make a reply to the topic first before they can read their fellow classmates replies.  This is a good way to ensure that students are replying with their own ideas and not just copying items from other users.

  • Display forum description in topics:  If checked then the forum description will appear in topics along with the topic description.

• Availability:

  • Visibility:  These options/dates determine whether or not the forum and subsequently the topics it contains are visible to students.

  • Locking Options:  These options determine if students can interact with the forum/topic.  If the form is unlocked it means that students can post replies.  If the forum is locked then students can view the form and responses but can no longer reply.

• Restrictions Tab:  Additional options can be configured on the Restrictions tab.

  • Release Conditions:  Apply release conditions do set specific conditions that students need to meet before they can view the forum.  An example would be that they should take Week 1 quiz before they can view week 1 discussion.

  • Group and Section Restrictions:  You can restrict forums/topics to specific group/section enrollment.

Creating a Discussion Topic

1. Click Discussions on the Course Navigation Bar (Navbar).

2.  Click New.

3.  Click New Topic.

4.  Click Choose a Forum and select the form where you'd like this topic to reside (required).

5.  Enter a Title for the Topic (Required)

6.  Enter the Topic Description.  This is typically where you would add the Prompt that you want your students to respond to.

7. Modify any of the other settings below the description that you want.  All of these are optional but you can find descriptions of them below.

• Description:  Provides a description of the forum.  This will only be visible if the forum contains a topic.

• Options:

  • Allow Anonymous posts:  If checked then the authors name will be hidden.

  • A moderator must approve individual posts before they display in the forum:  If checked then the instructor will need to approve all replies to this topic.

  • User must start a thread before they can read and reply to other threads in each topic: If checked then a student will need to make a reply to the topic first before they can read their fellow classmates replies. This is a good way to ensure that students are replying with their own ideas and not just copying items from other users.

8.  Click Restrictions to review the restriction options.

9.  Modify any of these settings that you see fit.

• Hide from Users:  Select this option if you want to force this topic to be hidden from your students.

• Availability:

  • Start and End Dates:  These options/dates determine whether or not the forum and subsequently the topics it contains are visible to students.

  • Locking Options:  These options determine if students can interact with the forum/topic.  If the form is unlocked it means that students can post replies.  If the forum is locked then students can view the form and responses but can no longer reply.

• Release Conditions

  • These options allow you to set specific conditions that must be met before a student has access to this item.  For example, you could setup a release condition so that only students who have completed an attempt on a quiz can see this item.

• Group and Section Restrictions

  • This allows you to more easily setup a release condition based on group or section enrollment.

10.  Click the Assessment tab to review the assessment settings.

11.  Modify any assessment setting that you see fit.

• Grade item:  Here you can select the grade item or create a new grade item for this discussion.

• Score Out OF:  Enter the amount of points this discussion will be worth.  It's worth noting that typically you'll want this to match the maximum points you entered for the associated gradebook item.

• Rubrics:  Here you can create and attach a rubric that you will used to grade this discussion. Please note that this is a specific tool in D2L and would be considered different than simply uploading a word document rubric for students to reference. 

• Allow assessment of Individual Posts: This option allows you to assess each specific post made by a user. If selected, the total amount of points for the discussion would be calculated based on all posts made by the user.

Moderating Discussions

If a topic requires message approval, when messages are posted they are only visible to users with permission to approve messages. To make these messages visible to all users, they must be manually approved. (Messages posted by users with permission to approve messages are automatically approved.) Message approval can be turned on or off from the Properties tab when creating or editing a Forum or Topic.

If a message is not appropriate for the topic and you do not want to approve it, you can do any of the following:

• Leave the message unapproved
• Delete the message

Finding messages that require approval

You can find unapproved messages in the following ways:

1. On the Discussions List, the number of unapproved messages is displayed beneath the number of posts for each topic. Click the number to jump directly to the unapproved posts.
   
2. To see only topics that contain unapproved messages, select “Unapproved” from the Filter by: option at the top of the page.
   
3. In the message list inside a topic, unapproved messages are indicated by the Message Requires Approval icon. To see only messages that require approval, select “Unapproved” from the top left of the thread.
   

Approving messages

If you are using the Reading Style message list:

1. Click the Approve link below the message header.
   

Unapproved a previously approved message

In the Reading Style message list:

1. Click the context menu (drop-down) beside the message header and select Unapprove.