• How does a discussion forum work?
• Create a forum
• Create a topic
• Instruction videos
  • Video on how to create a discussion forum
  • Video on how to create a topic in a discussion forum

Allow students to easily work together and communicate via Brightspace discussion forums. Create a discussion forum for a course to enable students to discuss a relevant topic online. You can reach the Discussions homepage by:

• Clicking on Course Tools.
• Clicking on Discussions.

A forum can consist out of multiple topics just like a course can contain multiple forums. Integrate the discussions in your course by linking to it in Content.

You can allow your students to discuss a specific topic or place them in groups and have them exchange ideas in a more private setting. Starting a discussion works the same for both cases: you first have to create a forum and subsequently add one or multiple topics.

A topic is a place where students can place and read messages. They can create one or multiple threads within a topic. Threads are main messages to which others can reply with a post. A student is able to both create a thread and post a reply. As the teacher (who is the moderator of the discussion) you are able to modify or delete all the posts made by students. You can also subscribe to forums, topics, and/or threads to receive messages when there are any new posts or updates.

Topics can be found within a forum and are usually named after the subject up for discussion. A forum can include multiple topics (for instance: a forum with the title Democracy vs. Dictatorship can contain a topic called Arguments in favour of democracy/dictatorship, and a topic Arguments against democracy/dictatorship).

• Go to Course Tools in the navbar of your course
• Click Discussions
• Click New and after that click New Forum.
  

• Give your forum a title.
• Do you want to immediately create a topic with the same name? Check the ‘Create a new topic…’ box.
• Add a description (and/or video or link) in the HTML editor.

The following boxes can be checked below Options:

• Check Allow anonymous posts if you want to enable anonymous posting. Students will not see the names associated with a message. Messages will only be anonymous for students but the moderator (you) can still see the names.
• Check Users must start a thread before… if you want every student to first post a thread before they can read the other posts and/or post replies.
• Check A moderator must approve… if you want to approve every message before it is posted.
• Check Display forum description in topics if you want the description of the forum to be visible in every topic. Topics can also have their own description. 

• Click on New and after that on New Topic.

• Select a forum under "Forum" or click on Create Forum to create a new forum. 
• Add a title.
• Add a description.
• The following boxes can be checked in the Post&Completion section:
  • Check Default Participation if you want everyone to freely participate in the discussion.
  • Check Allow learners to hide their name... if you want to enable anonymous posting. Students will not see the names associated with a message. Messages will only be anonymous for students but the moderator (you) can still see the names.
  • Check Learners must start a thread before… if you want every student to first post a thread before they can read the other posts and/or post replies.
  • Check Post must be approved… if you want to approve every message before it is posted.

If you want to set some release conditions or manage access and restrictions you can do that in the Availability Date & Conditions:

1. Choose start date and date.
2. Add Release Conditions.
3. Manage Group and Section Restrictions.
4. Tick Restrict topic if you want only students from the selected group to view this topic and all of its threads.
5. Tick Restrict topic and separate the threads if you want only students from the selected group to view this topic but only allow them to see threads from their group/section.

In the Evaluation & Feedback you can choose to evaluate posts:

1. Assign points to the topic (otherwise this option will not be available).
2. Click allow evaluation of individual posts.
3. Choose between the different calculation methods.
4. Tick this box if you want to include evaluated posts in the topic score calculation as zero.

In the Evaluation & Feedback section you can also choose whether or not students can rate posts:

1. Five-star Rating Scheme if students can rate posts on a five-star rating scheme;
2. Up Vote/Down vote Rating Scheme for a voting system;
3. Up Vote Only Rating Scheme for a voting system with only up-votes.