Inside a Discussion Forum

  • 0
  • May 15, 2017

Please see our updated documentation here: https://engagesupport.s3.amazonaws.com/current/studentfaculty.forums.creating_a_forum_post.html

Forums may appear a little differently based on the type of forum being administered. The following example depicts a standard forum for general use.

In this example, the discussion forum prompt is at the top of the screen. Underneath it is a button allowing individuals to add a new discussion topic, following by the discussion threads themselves. Threads are organized by those that have been updated most recently and include the following information: title, thread originator, number of replies, number of comments unread, and information on the last post.

The top area of the forum shows the topic(s) of the discussion forum. A grading rubric for your posts and replies is also sometimes displayed.

The Discussion column contains participants’ original posts to the discussion forum. This may also be referred to as a parent topic. Click the name of the original post to access that particular discussion.

The Started by column indicates the participant that started that particular parent topic discussion. You will see both a picture and name, dependent upon that user’s profile settings. Click the participant’s name to access his or her user profile.

The Replies column indicates the number of total replies within the discussion. This includes replies to the parent topic, as well as replies to other replies within the discussion. Click the number to access the discussion.

The Unread column will only appear if your instructor has enabled read tracking on this forum. This column indicates the number of posts you have not yet read within that particular discussion. Click the number to access the discussion.

The Last post column indicates the last participant to post within that particular forum, as well as the date and time that they posted. Clicking the name will take you to his or her user profile; clicking the date and time will direct you to that specific post.

Please note that subscription and track reading settings (if enabled) will appear in the Administration block on the side of your course. You can also subscribe to an individual forum thread by clicking the grey dot in the column next to Last Post. Similarly, you can unsubscribe from a thread by selecting the mail icon in the same column.