Class Discussion Boards

This is a tour of Manhattan’s Class Discussion Board

Module.

You’ll find that although thereare lots of different ‘modules’

within Manhattan, they have much in common. If you know how to send an

e-mail message, you know how to send a message in

any of Manhattan’s modules.

Let’s take a moment to learnsome of the basics of Manhattan.

A Manhattan classroom consistsof up to 13 separate areas called ‘modules’.

Each module provides adifferent way of communicating.

An important aspect of the onlineclassroom is the ability to

freely exchange messages and ideasin an open forum.

Within Manhattan, these fivemodules provide that

ability, each with a slightlydifferent focus.

We’ll concentrate on the Class Discussion Board module.

Keep in mind that a Manhattanclassroom might not haveall 13 modules available.

Your teacher may choose to not usethe Anonymous Discussion,

Team Discussions, orStudent Lounge, for example.

The Class Discussion Board is an example of a discussion forum. Anyone, student or

teacher, can post a message here that isseen by everyone in the class. A red star on a

module’s button meansthere is one or more unread

messages posted.

Click!

Class Discussionmessages are organized

into topics.

This discussion currentlyhas five topics.

Our book study classdiscussion board will post

only five topics.

There are two types of messages in Manhattan’s

discussion groups...

…there are topics...

…and there are messages thatpeople have added to the original topics, “replies”.

You’ll get a standardscreen for composing

a new message.

Use this “New Topic” buttononly when you want to

start a new topic for discussion.

Avoid using the “New Topic”button when you want

to reply to an existing topic.

To reply toan existing topic,start by reading

a message in the topic.

Click!

Here’s the topicwe’re reading.

Either of these commands willadd a message to the topic

providing you with a standardcomposition window.

You will learn the difference betweenthese two options shortly. For now

let’s return to the topics listing.

Click

The numbers in this columnrefer to the number of

replies posted to each topic,with one (1) being theoriginal topic posted.

This topic has four repliesplus the original posting

for a total of five (5) messages.

Continuing with Manhattan basics…

The red star next to the ‘5’ indicatesthat you have not read at least oneof the four replies to this message.

If you click on the +sign next to a topic,

the topic is ‘expanded’ to show all of the

messages/replies associatedwith that topic.

Click!

After ‘expanding’ the topic,we can see the subjects ofall four replies to the topic.

Note that the‘+’ is now

a ‘-’ symbol. Clicking on a‘-’ symbol

‘collapses’ thetopic again.

Click!

Click!

All topics are collapsed.Let’s expand all the topics!

Click!

Click!

These topics don’t have ‘+ ‘or ‘-’ symbolsbecause they each

have only one message...the original topic.

All the topics areexpanded once again.

You can use these buttons to quickly‘expand’ or ‘collapse’ all

of the topics at once.

Click!

Click!

All topics arecollapsed.

All topics are expandedonce again.

The “Gather”command works

as it does elsewhere inManhattan.

Notice that ‘unread’ isthe default choice in

the ‘Gather’ list.

In order to ‘gather’all of your unread

messages….

You can tell fromthe red stars that

most of thesemessages are unread.

Click!

All of the ‘unread’ messagesare displayed on one page.

Use your web browser’sscrollbar to move around.

Click toReturn!

In a ‘gathered’ viewdifferent topics are separated byan alternate colored background.

This makes is it easier to distinguishdifferent topic headings.

This view provides much of the samefunctionality as the default module view.

You can read and reply to any ofthe gathered messages.

Notice that the red stars are gone! We just opened all of the unread messages!

By ‘gathering’ messages,even if you may not have read them, all are essentially marked as opened.

You also can use the ‘gather’ feature to view all of the messages

posted by any one personon the same page.

Click on the drop-down arrow.

Select the name fromthe drop-down listto gather messagesfrom that person.

Then clickthe Gather button.

The green ‘G’is also for ‘Gather’

...but not bythe person who posted.

Click on the ‘G’ togather messages

for a specific ‘Topic’.

Click!

Now we’ve gathered all of themessages for this one topic.

Click toreturn.

Remember,by ‘gathering’ messages,all red stars are removed,

meaning messages are marked ashaving been opened, whetheryou actually read them or not.

Click!

Let’s take a look at howto respond to a topic.

First, open the topic which you wish to respond.

Let’s start with the first topic.

You have two choiceswhen responding to a message.

“Add New Message”and

“Reply”

Let’s try them bothto see how they differ...

We’ll look at “Add New Message”

first.

Click!

Using“Add New Message”

brings up a blank message

form.

The technique forcomposing a

discussion messageis the same as thatfor a Post Office

message.

The Subject(required)

The Message(optional)

Attachments(optional)

Let’s go back withoutsending a message.

Click!

Now let’s see howthe Reply button

is different...

Click!

When you click “Reply”, the original ‘Subject’ field and the original Messageare included in your reply.

You’re free to delete anything (or everything) asyou compose your message.

Click!

Let’s not bother sending a message

right now.

Click!

Let’s add a newmessage

to this topic.

Start by readingthe topic...

Click!

Now that we’re in the correct topic,we can add a new message.

Click!

Type the message and send it.

Click!

The message is sent, andwe’re back to the message

we were reading.

Click!

There’s our new message, addedto the end of the topic!

Now let’s start a completelynew topic.

Click!

Type it, and send it!

Click!Remember,the subjectfield must

not be blank.

There’s our new topic!DO NOT CREAT NEW TOPICS

IN THE BOOK STUDY!

Let’s take a few minutes to learnabout some other icons that are usedin the Manhattan Virtual Classroom.

Throughout Manhattan, Red Stars are usedto mark messages

you haven’t yet read.

Paperclips mark messages that have one or more files attached.

Clicking on a question mark gives moreinformation about the message.

If you are the author of the message,you can click here to find whenothers have read your message.

A Red Star in this columnsignifies that the postingis a new or unread Topic.

A Red Star in this columnsignifies that there

are unread replies tothe Topic posting.

As you can see from the Red Stars this topic has been read but

some of the ‘replies’ to the topic have not been read.

Click “+” to expand the topic.

Here is the particular reply that is new or unread

within this topic.

Click the reply to read it.

Once you have read the message,click the return button.

Notice that the red stars aregone from this posting – both from

the Topic and the Replies.

This little guy haschanged too!

The “sleepy” Topics areonce again hidden.

Let’s exit the module and wait for a new message.

Click Here

Click Here

There is a new message asindicated by the Red Star!

Wow! That was fast!

Remember...

A message can either be a Topic, ora contribution to a Topic.

Your class probably will NOT useall of Manhattan’s discussion

modules.

Sending a discussion messageis just like sending a Post Office message,

except there’s no need to select the recipients.

End of Module Presentation

Created: Educational Technology Center@ Western New England College

Modified: December 18, 2008 by Naomi L. Arnold