Courses: Create a Course Discussion

You can create an interactive Discussion for your students. Each Discussion has threaded commenting that allows students to respond to any post by another student. These comments can also be moderated, which will require a Course Admin (the teacher) to approve each post before it is published. Deleted posts will are listed under Moderate Posts in the Course Options in the left column of the Course Profile.

Creating Discussions

To create a discussion, follow these steps:

1. Select the Add Materials dropdown menu and click Add Discussion.
2. Fill out the Discussion form.
   • Enter a Description (optional instructions for the Discussion).
   • To have the Discussion appear in the Upcoming feed, enter a Due Date. If you do not enter a Due Date, the Discussion will remain accessible in the Discussions index or Course Folder.
   • To make the Discussion a graded item, check the Grading checkbox and adjust the grading preferences.
3. Click Create to complete.

Note: Discussions can also be created within course folders, or added to folders after their creation.

Share Discussions

You can share your discussion with other courses. This options are located in the Advanced options at the bottom of the popup window during discussion-creation.

Sharing the discussion will give the discussion a ShareID that other instructors can use to join their classes into the same discussion. You can also automatically share the discussion with your courses and sections.

Note: If you do not see the option to share the discussion under Advanced, it is likely that Grading is enabled. Graded discussions cannot be shared with other courses. You also cannot share discussions after they have been created.

Advanced options

Use Advanced Options to turn on/off the following features:

1. Individually Assign—show the assignment to a member of the course or a grading group.
2. Align—add a common core, state standard, or learning outcome.
3. Lock—prevent students from making additional submissions.
4. Enable Dropbox—provide an area for students to submit work.
5. Visible to students—show the assignment to students.
6. Members can see other responses before participating—allow members to see discussion posts before they create an initial post.