Discussion Forum Settings

Owned by Stephanie Hossbach (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jan 15, 2020
4 min read

This tutorial will provide detailed information about each of the settings available to you when creating a Discussion Forum. It also includes information about which settings are recommended as well as a screenshot and downloadable pdf copy (at bottom of page) of an example Discussion Forum with all of the standard recommended settings selected.

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Forum Information

Name

This is the title of the forum.

Description

Description can be used to provide students with a question or prompt for the discussion as well as describe any requirements for content and participation.

Example:

View the video “Unit 1 Case Study” in the resources area and describe how you would respond to the patient. Include how would you address her concerns and what you would recommend as her next steps.

Be sure to include citations and/or links for any studies or articles you reference for your peers.

Your initial post is due by Day 2 of the week. Respond to at least 2 peers in a way that advances the conversation by Day 5.

Forum Availability

Available

Select ‘Yes’ to allow students to access to the forum. Select ‘No’ to hide the forum from the students.

Enter Time and Date Restrictions

You can enter dates here to limit the forum availability to a date range. If the date restriction options are checked, students will only have access to the forum during that specified date range. Outside of the range the forum will be hidden.

Forum Settings

 

1. Viewing Threads/Replies

  • Standard View : This is the default and can be used in most cases.

  • Participants must create a thread in order to view other threads in this forum: Requires students to submit their initial post before they can see any other posts in the forum.

Selecting the “Pariticipants must create a thread in order to view other threads” option will prevent students from seeing other students' posts until they create a post of their own. This option will also disable anonymous posts, and the ability for students to edit or delete their own posts.

2. Grade

  • No Grading in Forum: Forum will be ungraded. A column for this discussion will NOT be created in the gradebook.

  • Grade Discussion Forum: This is the most common grading type for Discussion assignments. Recommended Setting

  • Grade Threads: This option allows faculty to grade individual threads within the forum. This is not commonly used.

  • Show Students in “needs grading” status after every __ posts: Set the number of times a student needs to post before the needs grading icon appears in the gradebook colun.

  • Due Date: Add a due date that will appear on the course calendar

  • Associated Rubrics: Add a rubric for the discussion assignment.

Students are able to see the rubrics for discussions by going to the My Grades area of the course and then clicking the “Rubric” link for that particular assignment.

3. Subscribe

Subscribing to a discussion allows users to receive an email message when new posts are added to the discussion.

  • Do not allow subscriptions: Students will not be able to subscribe to the forum.

  • Allow members to subscribe to threads: Students will be able to subscribe to specific threads. They will get an email notification when new replies are added to the thread.

  • Allow members to subscribe to forum: Students will be able to subscribe to the entire forum. They will get an email notification when new threads are posted to the forum. Recommended Setting

    • Include body of post in the email: Students will see the entire post in the email. Recommended Setting

    • Include link to post: Students will only receive a direct link to view the post in Blackboard.

4. Create and Edit

  • Allow Anonymous Posts: This option is not recommended. If it is checked, the instructor will not be able to see who posted the thread or reply.

  • Allow Author to Delete Own Posts: This option is not recommended. If it is checked, two options will be available: “All posts” and “Only Posts with no replies”. If you do select this option, please only use “Only Posts with no replies”, otherwise students will be able to delete other students' replies to their threads.

  • Allow Author to Edit Own Published Posts: This option allows students to edit their posts. This option is not recommended for graded discussions. If checked, students will be able to edit their posts even after they have been graded.

  • Allow Members to Create New Threads: This option allows students to create threads. If you uncheck this option, students will only be able to reply to instructor created threads. Recommended Setting

  • Allow File Attachments: This option allows students to attach files to their posts. Recommended Setting

  • Allow Users to Reply with Quote: This option allows students to quote an existing user's post in their reply. Recommended Setting

  • Force Moderation of Posts: If this option is selected, students do not see their posts immediately after posting.  Instead, the posts are placed in a moderation queue for the course instructor to review or release.

5. Additional Options

  • Allow Post Tagging: Enabling this option allows users to tag posts with their own comments.

  • Allow members to rate posts: If this option is checked, it sets a zero to five star peer rating system in each post. Students can rate postings only once and then are shown the average rating for that post.

Download a pdf copy of this screenshot:

 

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