Discussion Board Forum Basics

The Discussion Board is a communication medium for posting and responding to messages. Conversations are grouped in threads that contain a main posting and all related replies.

To open the Discussion Board page, go to the Control Panel, and click Discussion Board under Course Tools.

At the Discussion Board page, an Instructor can

1. Add a new discussion forum, by clicking Add Forum. (The Add Forum page will appear.)
2. Access a forum, by clicking a forum topic link.
3. Modify a forum, by clicking Modify. (The Modify Forum page will appear.)
4. Remove a forum, by clicking Remove. (A confirmation box will appear. Removing a forum is irreversible.)
5. Change the order of forums, by clicking the drop-down list box and selecting a number. (The forums will appear on the Discussion Board in the order selected.)

Discussion Board - Inside a Forum, Managing threads
Forums are used to organize discussions on related topics. Students and Instructors click discussion links to access a forum from the main Discussion Board page. When a discussion is started within a forum it is called a thread.

Double-click on a forum link to access a discussion forum. The forum opens and the discussion threads within the forum appear.
Inside of a forum you have many options.

You can start a new discussion thread, by selecting Add New Thread. The Add Thread page will appear. On the Add Thread page a new subject title and new discussion description may be added.

-You can view all messages, view unread messages by clicking the View all Messages up arrow.
-You can see all the threads and responses, by clicking EXPAND ALL (+).
-You can see only the threads, by clicking COLLAPSE ALL (-).
-Read a message by clicking the link to the message.
-Send an email to the author of a thread by clicking on the name of the person. The email program associated with the local machine is activated and an email will appear with their name in the To: field.
-Archive a Discussion Board thread, by selecting Archives
- Resort the list of messages, by selecting the drop-down arrow and the Default, Author, Date, or Subject Sort By options.
-View Options tool bar by clicking the Show Options tab. The options tool bar contains the Options tab.

The Options tab: To . . . then . . .

Select all threads and messages in the forum
Click Select All.

Unselect the messages selected
Click Unselect All.

Unselect the threads and messages that have been selected and select the threads and messages that have not been selected
Click Invert.

Mark messages as read
Select the threads and messages and click Read.

Mark messages as unread
Select the threads and messages and click Unread.

View multiple threads or messages
Select the threads and messages and click Collect.

Lock a thread or message
Select the thread and messages and click Lock. Participants can view but not reply to a thread that is locked.

Unlock a thread or message
Select the thread and messages and click Unlock.

Remove a thread or message
Select the thread and message and click Remove.

Add New Thread
When a discussion is created within a forum it is called a thread. The Create New Message page is used to start a thread. The new thread will appear in the discussion forum.