Discussions

Discussions are an easy way to engage students in your courses.  They broaden communication and foster strong connections amount the group.  

Where to Add a Discussion

You can create discussions in two locations within a course. You can create them on the Course Content page just like any other item by clicking the plus button anywhere on the page. Then click Create and scroll down and find Discussion option under Participation and Engagement.

You can also create them directly on the Discussion page by selecting the New Discussion Button

Customize Discussions

You can make discussions available for everyone or ask students to participate in group discussions. Visit the "Groups" topic to learn more about groups.

• Enter a meaningful title to help students find the right discussion. If you don't add a title, "New Discussion" and the date will be the title.
• Include guidelines and expectations. You can use the options in the editor to format text, attach files, and embed multimedia. 
• Show or hide the discussion. New discussions are hidden from students by default. You can create all your content ahead of time and choose what you want students to see based on your schedule. You can also set availability conditions based on date, time, and performance on other items in the course gradebook. 

Discussion Settings

Select the gear icon next to Discussion Settings to customize your discussion

By default, all discussions appear to students on the Course Content page. You can deselect the option if you want students to only view the discussion from the Discussions page. 

• You can select Post first to hide discussion activity from students until they respond to the discussion. When you want to use both post first and groups, select Post first before you assign groups. 
• Select Prevent editing if you don't want students to be able to edit their discussions after posting them. 
• Allow anonymous responses and replies. You can make discussion posts anonymous if you'd like students to feel more free to share their thoughts without judgment. You can turn anonymous posts on and off. Any posts made while anonymous keep their anonymity if anonymous posts are later turned off. You can't grade anonymous discussions. 
• Grade discussion. To motivate students to post insightful contributions, you can make the discussion count for a grade.
• Align goals with the discussion. You and your institution can use goals to measure student achievement across programs and curriculums. When you create a discussion, you can align one or multiple goals. Select Goals & Standards to search for available goals. After you make the discussion visible, students can view the goals so they know your expectations. Visit the "Goals" topic to learn about how to align goals with course content.
• Add groups. You can assign students to discussion groups so fewer people are involved. You can also assign a specific topic to each group.

Graded Discussions

When you choose to grade a discussion, more options appear in the settings, such as the due date and maximum points. The maximum points apply to one or more posts made by a student. When you enable grading for a discussion, a column is created automatically in the gradebook.

Graded discussions have a Grades & Participation tab that tracks your progress with grading.

Respond to a Discussion

You can respond to a discussion from the activity stream or within a course from the Course Content page or discussions page.  New responses and replies are highlighted to see what has changed since you last visited the Discussion.

Additional Resources:

For more advance Discussion features visit Blackboard, https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Instructor/Ultra/Interact/Discussions