Discussions are online forums in Blackboard, where you can contribute by posting messages, images, multimedia and/or attach files. You may be asked to create your own discussions and/or participate in existing ones. These may be set up for grading if part of an assessment.
Your instructor can also create a group discussion for you to discuss a topic with a particular group of students in your Blackboard course or Organisation.
How to access Discussions
How to participate in Discussions
How to create a Discussion
How to access Discussions
There are multiple ways to access Discussions:
1. In your course content area alongside other course materials:
2. On the Discussions page, through your course’s navigation bar:
3. From your Blackboard Activity Stream:
4. From the Gradebook, for marked discussions:
How to participate in a Discussion
Once you’ve opened a Discussion by clicking on it, you can see:
- The Discussion topic and question
- Details of due date and marking if applicable
- Number of responses, and a box to enter your own response
- A list of the five most active participants on the right-hand side, with an option to search participants
- All the responses contributed so far
- New responses will be highlighted in purple with a ‘New’ indicator next to them
To see a specific participant’s activity, click on that participant’s name. Use the search box to find participants that don’t appear on the list.
To respond to the discussion topic, enter your response in the box. You can also reply to other participant’s responses. Two levels of replies are allowed for each first-level response:
Your instructor may require you to respond to a discussion before you can see other participants’ responses. If this is the case, when you open a Discussion, you’ll see a prompt to ‘Post a response to see discussion activity‘. Other responses will appear once you’ve posted a response:
How to create a Discussion
If your instructor has set this permission, you can create discussions for your classmate to participate in (please note, your instructor can delete discussions, responses or replies):
On the Discussion page:
- Type a title for your discussion. Once you’ve moved your cursor away from the title line, only your instructor can edit the title.
- Start the discussion with a question or idea, and use the editor to format text, attach files or insert multimedia. You can select the plus icon in the editor for more options, if you’re using a smaller screen.
- Save.
On the main Discussions page, your discussion will appear as ‘Created by student’:
When other course members open your discussion, they can see your name as the ‘Author’:
You may edit or delete your own posts. You can also delete the discussions you’ve created, if no activity has taken place. However, only your instructor can edit your discussion’s title.
Guide last updated on June 19, 2024
