DISCUSSIONS
Page
The Discussions Tool ..................................................................................................................................... 2
Finding and Reading Messages ..................................................................................................................... 3
Following a discussion forum, thread, or message................................................................................... 3
Subscribe to notifications ..................................................................................................................... 3
Unsubscribe from notifications ............................................................................................................ 4
Managing discussion subscriptions and settings ...................................................................................... 4
Manage subscriptions for forums, threads, or messages ......................................................................... 4
Searching for messages in Discussions ..................................................................................................... 4
Reading messages in Discussions.............................................................................................................. 5
Marking a discussion message as read or unread .................................................................................... 6
Posting a Message..................................................................................................................................... 7
Replying to a Message .............................................................................................................................. 7
Excluding Original Message Text in Your Reply ........................................................................................ 7
Sharing Links in Discussion Posts .............................................................................................................. 8
Discussions List View................................................................................................................................. 9
THE DISCUSSIONS TOOL
View list of all discussion forums and topics in your course.
Manage your subscriptions.
Adjust your personal view of the discussions.
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The Discussions tool is a collaboration area for students. Students can post, read and reply to messages
on different topics, share thoughts about course materials, ask questions, share files, or work with their
peers on assignments and homework.
To access the Discussions tool
Click the Discussions link on your course navigation bar.
FINDING AND READING MESSAGES
Once a discussion gets going, new messages can come in very quickly. To help you keep on top of things,
new messages are identified in a number of places.
On the My Home page below your course title, a notification will appear listing the total number of
unread messages.
On your course homepage, the Updates widget also lists the total number of unread messages for all
discussion topics in your course.
On the main discussions page, the number of unread messages appears beneath each topic.
To see only topics with new messages, select Topics with Unread from the Display drop-down list. If you
have the Discussions List pane visible you can see topics with unread messages in bold.
You can also choose to subscribe to specific discussion forums, threads, or messages and receive an
email notification when there is a new post.
FOLLOWING A DISCUSSION FORUM, THREAD, OR MESSAGE
You can receive email notifications for discussion forums, threads, or messages that you want to follow.
Subscribe to notifications
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You are able to subscribe to discussion forums, topics or individual threads.
In any of the available Discussion tool views, click the Subscribe icon to receive notifications on a forum,
thread, or message. In some views, the icon might be a button.
A gold star means you are subscribed, while a gray star means you are unsubscribed.
Unsubscribe from notifications
Click the Unsubscribe icon to stop receiving notifications. In some views, the icon might be a button.
MANAGING DISCUSSION SUBSCRIPTIONS AND SETTINGS
You can make changes to your subscriptions in the Subscriptions area of Discussions, and also in
Preferences.
Change default frequency of notifications and email address
1. In the My Settings widget (on the My Home page)
2. Click Preferences.
3. Click the Notifications tab.
4. Configure the Email Address and Default Notification Frequency.
MANAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR FORUMS, THREADS, OR MESSAGES
1. Click Subscriptions.
This can appear as a button in some views, but is also part of the
Discussion Areas menu.
2. Make the changes you want to the Notification Frequency setting,
or unsubscribe from any forum, thread or message.
SEARCHING FOR MESSAGES IN DISCUSSIONS
1. Enter the topic you want to search.
2. If the Search For field is not visible at the top of the message list, click Show Search at the top of
the page.
3. Enter the terms you want to find in the Search For field and click Search.
4. To perform an advanced search:
a. Click the Show Search Options link to the right of the Search button.
b. Specify additional search criteria from the options displayed beneath the Search For field.
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c. Click the Search button.
To see all messages again, click Clear Search at the top or bottom of the message list.
READING MESSAGES IN DISCUSSIONS
There are two ways of viewing the messages inside a topic—using the Grid Style message list or the
Reading Style message list.
In the Grid Style message list, a list of messages appears at the top of the page, showing the subject,
author, and date for each message. Click a message’s subject to read the message; the full message
appears either at the bottom of the screen or in a new window, depending on your personal settings.
In the Reading Style message list, the full text of every message is always displayed. Click the Mark Read
link below a message’s header to tell the system when you’ve read a message.
To change your view, go to Settings and choose the preferred view under Message List Style. Save your
changes.
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In either style, use the View drop-down list at the top right of the page to switch between Threaded
view, where messages are grouped with their replies, and one of the Unthreaded views (All Messages,
Unread Only, Flagged Only) where you can sort messages any way you like.
MARKING A DISCUSSION MESSAGE AS READ OR UNREAD
If you are using the Grid Style message list, messages are automatically marked as read when you open
them (depending on your site’s configuration), but if you are using the Reading Style message list or you
print messages to read them you will need to manually mark messages as read to indicate to the system
that the message is no longer new.
In Reading Style view, you can mark each message as read individually or use the Mark All Read button
to mark all messages on the current page as read. Note that a maximum of 20 messages will appear per
page, if there are more than 20 messages in the discussion topic you will need to go to another page to
read/mark messages as read.
In some cases you might also want to manually mark a message as unread—for example, if you open the
message from the Grid Style message list but do not finish reading it.
In Reading Style view, the “Mark as Read” button will change to “Mark as Unread” once you have
marked a message as read. In Grid Style, you can use the icons to make messages as Read or
Unread.
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POSTING A MESSAGE
When composing or replying to a message you must click the Post button in order to submit your
message. The Post button will be located in the bottom right corner of the Compose or Reply window.
Be careful not to click the Cancel or Close button located in the bottom left corner. This will close the
Compose or Reply window and you will lose your work as the system does NOT auto-save or auto-post.
REPLYING TO A MESSAGE
Use the reply button to reply to a message. In Grid Style view, open the message you want to reply to
and click the reply button. In Reading Style, click the Reply link for the message you want to respond to.
Compose your reply and click Post to submit your response.
EXCLUDING ORIGINAL MESSAGE TEXT IN YOUR REPLY
Depending on your settings, when replying to a message the original message may be automatically
included in your response. If you would prefer not to include the original message in your response, you
can turn off this setting. Save your changes.
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SHARING LINKS IN DISCUSSION POSTS
While it’s possible to simply paste a link in to a discussion message, this gives you little control over how
the link is named or where it opens up. Usually, the link will open in the same window, forcing users to
leave the course site. A better way to share links is to use the Quicklink feature.
When composing your message, click the Quicklink button in the HTML editor when you wish to
insert a link.
An Insert a Quicklink window will pop-up. For Category, choose Url. Paste your link address the Url field
and type in what you want your link to be called under Link Caption. To make sure that the link opens in
a new window and doesn’t force users to leave the course site, for Opens In, select New Window .
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Once done, click Insert.
DISCUSSIONS LIST VIEW
It is possible to turn on a side bar with a list of all the discussion for easier navigation between different
discussion topics.
To turn on this list, go to settings and select “Show the discussion topics list” under Display Settings,
then save your changes.
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