Discussions allow interaction within a course or organisation. Discussion forums facilitate asynchronous group discussion and class work, and can be used to encourage students to think critically and share their thoughts before or beyond live teaching.
You can have multiple forums running in a discussion board; they are essentially web pages displaying messages between contributors (students and instructors) about various topics, sometimes including links, images and other file attachments. Users interact by posting questions, answers, and other comments related to the given topic/subject. Each post may have several replies, these are called ‘Threads’. See our page on Learning Activities – Discussion Forums for more pedagogical advice.
Create Discussions
Discussions can be created in a specific content area, or through the discussions tab where all discussions can be accessed.
Use Discussions
As in any discussion you will wish to reply to threads and questions from your students to continue the conversation.
Manage Discussions
Whilst your discussions are mainly managed within the discussion itself, on the Discussions page, you can help students find what they need and keep the area organised.
Discussions for Assessment
It is possible to use Discussions as a formative or summative assessment.
Guide last updated on April 22, 2024
