Forums - Discussions

Create a new Discussion Forum

1. On the Navbar, click Discussions.

2. On the Discussions List page, from the New button drop-down menu, click New Forum.

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1. On the Properties tab, add the Forum details, Title, Description and determine the advanced options.

2. (Optional) Select “Create a new topic in this Forum with the same title, to automatically create 1 Forum topic.

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3. In the Options section, select any of the following check boxes:

• Allow anonymous posts - To enable users to post anonymously.

• A moderator must approve individual posts before they display in the forum - To ensure that posts are approved by a moderator before they display in the forum.

• Users must start a thread before they can read and reply to other threads in each topic - To ensure user participation.

• Display forum descriptions in topics - To provide instructors the option to display a discussion forum description within a discussion topic description.

• In the Restrictions tab, set the parameters of the Forum space:

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  • Hide from Users alter visibility of the forum. Trumps the Start and End date parameters.

  • Availability options specify when learners can access (or view) a forum based on a specific date set. Start date is the earliest time a student can post to the forum, End date is the last time students can post to the forum.

    • Advanced Locking Options

      • Visible with access restricted before start/end. The forum is visible to learners before or after the start or end date, but they cannot access it. Forum is visible on the Discussion tool, but students cannot view the description or topics therein.

      • Visible with submission restricted before start/end. The forum is visible to learners before the start date or after the end date, and can view but cannot post new threads or replies. Students have read-only access.

      • Hidden before start/end. The forum is hidden from learners until the start or end date. Calendar events for Availability Start and Availability End are hidden until the start or end date. Notifications are also not sent until the start or end date.

  • Select Display in Calendar to add the Start and end dates in the course calendar.

  • Release Conditions - restrict the discussion forum to users who meet specific criteria

    • Attach existing - Reuse conditions criteria restrictions used in other assessments

    • Create and Attach - Search and add conditional release criteria

    • Remove All restrictions - delete all preset restrictions on forum

  • Group and Section Restrictions, select this option to restrict the forum discussion space to specific course sections (I.e. LAB, SEM, TUT, sections etc.)

• Click Save and Close.