Create discussions in myCourses
- Jacqueline Kort Mascort (Deactivated)
The Discussions tool is a collaboration area where students can share thoughts on course material with their peers and engage in a class discussion or debate.
To enable Discussions, you must create Forums and Topics. Forums are categories that allow you to organize discussion topics. Topics are individual discussion threads. For example, an instructor in an Educational Psychology course creates a forum called “Learning Theories” and creates several topics within it, such as “Behaviourism,” “Constructivism,” and “Cognitivism,” where students can post messages, start new threads, and reply to each other’s messages.
In this article:
Enable discussions
You must create at least one Forum and one Topic to allow students to post messages in Discussions. To create a discussion:
Select Discussions on your course navigation bar.
Create a Forum:
Select New and select New Forum.
Enter a title.
Select Save and Add Topic.
Create a Topic:
Enter a title for your topic.
(Optional) Enter a Description, for example, a question or discussion prompt for students.
Select Save and Close. Students will now be able to create threads and post messages in Discussions.
Create additional topics
You can create separate topics for each week, unit, or discussion type.
On the main Discussion page, select New and select New Topic.
Select a Forum in which to create the topic.
Enter a title.
Select Save and Close.
Discussion properties
Grades and Description
Grade Out Of
You can decide if the discussion is graded or ungraded. The default setting for discussions topics in Ungraded.
If you want to grade a topic:
Click on Ungraded and add the points that will be allocated to this assessment.
You can associated the topic to a new or existing item in the Grade Book by clicking In Grade Book.
Select or create the grade item and click OK.
Description
In the Description text box you can include all the necessary information for students to participate in the thread. It supports attachments, hyperlinks and enriched formatted text.
Availability, Dates, and Conditions
Start and End Dates
Select one or more of the following:
Select a Start Date and time to open the assignment for submissions. If no Start Date is selected, students will be able to submit their assignments at any time before the End Date. After adding a Start Date, you can choose the visibility of the assignment before the Start Date, by clicking on Visible with access restricted located under the Start Date box. Availability settings include:
Visible with access restricted: Students can view the assignment's name, dates, and restrictions, but cannot see the description or attachments.
Visible with access restricted is the default availability setting.
Visible with submission restricted: Students can view all the details in the assignment, but they are unable to make submissions.
Hidden: Students are unable to see any assignment details.
Add availability dates to Calendar: By checking this box, the assignment will be added to the Calendar
Select an End Date and time to close the assignment to submissions. Students will be able to see the assignment in the Assignments tool, but will not be able to upload submissions after this date. If no End Date is selected, students will be able to submit their assignments at any time after the Start Date and/or Due Date.
Release Conditions
Create and attach Release Conditions to the discussion topic to release it only to students who fulfill specific criteria. See the Release Conditions in myCourses article for more information.
The Release Conditions set are automatically shared to the corresponding grade item. This ensures that the same set of rules apply for both, the grade item and the discussion topic.
If the grade item had Release Conditions before being associated to the desired assignment, the previously existing Release Conditions on the grade item will be removed.
Post and Completion
You can decide how students will participate in the topic. The three options available are:
Default participation: Student's name is displayed when they participate.
Allow learners to hide their name from other learners: Students can participate anonymously.
Learners must start a thread before they can view or reply to other threads: Students have to participate before they have access to the responses given by other students.
You can moderate posts by checking off the box next to Posts must be approved before they display in the topic.
Evaluation and Feedback
Rubrics
If you wish to use a rubric for grading, click Add Rubric to select an existing rubric or create a new one. See the Create Rubrics in myCourses article for more information.
Learning Objectives
You can associate existing learning outcomes with the discussion topic by clicking on Manage Learning Objectives.
Evaluate posts
To evaluate posts two options are available
Allow evaluation of individual posts
This option is only possible when points have been allocated to the discussion topic.Allow learners to rate posts
Students can evaluate their peers with: five-star rating, up vote/down vote rating, and up vote only rating.