Discussion Forums

How to use discussion forums + how to add course-wide and content specific discussion forums

How to Participate in Discussions

The Discussion page is accessible for learners in the LMS via the 'chat bubble icon' in the header menu.

Here, learners can browse discussion topics, and find instructions on how to use the discussion forums.

To create a new post inside a discussion, select 'Add a Post'. Select their post type, topic (discussion) area, title and type their question or idea.

Course Wide Discussions vs Content-Specific Discussions

There are 2 types of discussions you can create: course-wide discussions and content-specific discussions.

Course-Wide Discussions Course-wide discussions are added in the advanced settings, and are only available in the ‘Discussion’ page of the LMS. By default, all courses include a page named Discussion with a course-wide discussion topic named “General”.

Course-wide discussion topics are useful for offering administrative assistance, technical help, or other topics that are useful for learners throughout the duration of the course.

Content-Specific Discussions Content-specific discussions are created on the unit page using the discussion component. These discussions are available for learners on the Course Unit page where it is published, and on the discussions page. Content-specific discussions are useful for discussing course topics at the moment learners are covering it.

How to Create Course-Wide Discussion Topics

1) Open up your Course in Studio 2) From your Course Outline, select Settings > Advanced Settings. 3) Scroll down to the Discussion Topic Mapping

By default it will look like this:

4) Copy 3 lines for the General Topic and paste them above the closing brace character. 5) Add a comma after the first closing brace. 6) Replace the second “General” with the name of your new Discussion topic. Then, give the discussion a unique ID

7) Select to save 8) Scroll back to Discussion topic Mapping to make sure your changes were saved correctly.

Entries that do not contain all of the required punctuation characters revert to the previous value when you save.

How to Create Content-Specific Discussion Topics

1) Open your course in Studio 2) From the course outline open the Unit in which you wish to add your discussion. 3) Select to add the Discussion Component then select to edit.

4) Select to 'edit' your discussion component. 5) Change the display name (visible on the Unit Page) 6) Modify the text for 'Category' and 'Subcategory' (visible on the Discussions Page)

7) Select to Save, Publish and View Live 8) View your Discussion on the Discussions page in Learner View.