Discussions

The Discussion Board is a way of creating online conversations among contributors, based on a topic or question that has been set by the owner of the site. Discussion boards are available on Class or Group sites. You can also add one to your My Public Site. Once they have been installed, they are accessed through the Discussion Board link on the Site Navigation Bar.

About Discussion Boards

• In a Class, the Teacher can use the Discussion board to facilitate online discussion among students (as a homework assignment, for example). The teacher can post an article or video and require that students post a comment on the video. Teachers can also request that students reply to each other's comments. To add a comment, the student replies to the original question or post.
• Group committee members can use Discussion boards on various topics to discuss the planning of events.

• Discussions can be sorted by status, such as Unanswered, Answered, Recent, etc.

Student contributions are only seen by those with Teacher/Owner or Contributor/Student access levels. Parents with Read Only access cannot view the student contributions.  

Add or Remove a Discussion Board

In order for the Discussion page to appear on a site, the Discussion checkbox must be enabled in the Create Site Wizard. To add one at the time the site is created, see Create a Class or Group Site. You can also add a Discussion Board, by editing the site with the Manage Site easy button.

Add a Discussion Board

To add a discussion board:

• Click the SETTINGS link on the right side of the page (for the site you manage).
• In the Settings menu, select Site features.
• In the Manage Site wizard, select the Discussion checkbox in the Setup tab.

• Click the Update button to save your changes and add the discussion board.

Remove a Discussion Board

To remove a discussion board:

• Click the SETTINGS link on the right side of the page (for the site you manage).
• In the Settings menu, select Site features.
• In the Manage Site wizard, clear (deselect) the Discussion checkbox in the Setup tab.
• Click the Update button to save your changes and remove the discussion board.

• Enter a title for your topic in the Subject field.
• Enter your comments or questions in the Body.
• If this is a question, you'd like others to answer, select the I am asking a question and want to get answers from other members checkbox. This will list your topic under the Unanswered questions tab on the Discussion page. Once the question is answered, it will display under the Answered questions tab.
• Click the Save button to start the discussion.

Reply to a Discussion Topic

• Click the title of the topic you wish to reply to. You will be directed to the topic page.

• Click inside the Add a reply field and type your reply.
• When you are done, click the Reply button.

Add an Alert to a Discussion

Stay in touch with discussions you've participated in by setting up an alert. See Alerts for more.