Participating in Threaded Discussions

Explanation | Accessing | Reading/Replying | Adding Attachments

Group Discussion Boards

Explanation

Your online course provides a discussion board as a communication tool. This feature is designed for asynchronous use, meaning users do not have to be available at the same time to have a conversation. An additional advantage of the discussion board is that conversations are logged and organized by forums that contain threads and all related replies.

Accessing the Discussion Board

To access the discussion board, click Discussion Board from the course navigation bar. Some courses may have the Discussion Board inside the Communication area.

Reading & Replying to Messages

All threaded discussions take place in forums. To enter a forum, click the name of the one you want to enter

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You will see "threads" of discussion. To see all of the responses within a thread, you may need to click Expand All. To view a thread, click on the message subject. (Clicking on the name of the person will let you send an email, but only to that person--it won't be posted to the discussion board)

You can easily advance through the messages in a discussion board by clicking "Next Message." To reply to a message, click the "reply" button on the bottom right of the message being displayed.

A page will appear in which you can type your reply. The message you are replying to is displayed at the bottom. Type your reply and click the Submit button at the lower right of the page.

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Adding Attachments

Your instructor will establish the ability to add attachments to the messages you post to the discussion board. To add an attachment, follow these steps:

1. Enter the discussion board and choose the forum to which you want to post a message.
   
2. Click the Add New Thread button or click Reply to a message.
   
3. Type the subject and message in the text boxes provided.
   
4. Click the Browse button to locate the file you want to attach.
   
5. Click the Submit button to the lower right of the page.

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Group Pages Discussion Boards

Your online course provides group discussion boards in addition to the general discussion board. Group discussion boards work the same way as the general course discussion board with the exception that only members in a group may view their discussion. Your instructor will inform you if he or she wants to use this function and will assign you to a group
To access a Group Discussion Board:

1. Click the Communication button. Then click Group Pages.
   
   
   
2. Click on the name of your group. You will only be able to access the group pages for the group(s) your instructor has assigned to you.
   
3. Click Group Discussion Board.

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