1 Document origin: Learning Technologies Team

© Durham University 2016

Discussion boards Creating and using discussion boards in duo

Introduction Discussion Boards in duo allow students and instructors to interact any time using text, images,

video and uploaded files. Some ways to use Discussion Boards are: FAQs; items to discuss in

class; student discussion forums; space where students can display and comment on their

work; student collection of resources and news items.

Creating discussion forums All duo modules include a whole-site Discussion Board. If you create

Groups on your duo site, you can also ensure that a Discussion Board is

attached to each Group.

1. On your duo site, go to Control Panel > Course Tools

2. Click Discussion Board

3. The whole-site Discussion Board will appear (the default title is the Course ID of the duo module), along with any Discussion Boards associated with Groups

Tip: If Discussion Boards do not appear for your Groups, you will

need to edit the Groups (via Control Panel > Users and Groups > Groups).

4. Click the title of the Discussion Board you would like to use

5. One Forum will appear

6. Hover over the Forum name and click the chevron next to it

7. Click Edit

2 Document origin: Learning Technologies Team

© Durham University 2016

9. Name: rename the Forum

10. Description: enter a description (this will appear next to the Forum on the Discussion Board list)

11. Forum Availability: restrict visibility to students (optional)

12. Forum Settings: choose from the following settings (optional):

13. Click Submit

14. The Forum is now ready to use

Forum Settings

Viewing Threads/Replies: require students to participate in order to view others’ posts

Grade: allows the instructor to mark students’ discussion forum participation; marks also

appear in the Grade Centre

Alignments: choose whether alignments are at thread or forum level

Subscribe: allows students and instructors to receive email alerts for new forum posts

Create and Edit: anonymity, editing/deleting own posts, thread creation, file attachments,

quoting and forced moderation (posts are not displayed until an instructor approves them)

Additional Options: tagging and rating

3 Document origin: Learning Technologies Team

© Durham University 2016

Student access Students can access their Discussion Boards in a number of ways.

Site menu

You can create a link to the whole-site Discussion Board on the

module site menu:

1. Hover over the + button at the top left of the site menu

2. Click Tool Link

3. Name: type the name you would like to appear on the menu (e.g. ‘Discussions’)

4. Type: choose Discussion Board

5. Available to Users: tick to allow access to students

6. Click Submit

Content area link

You can also link to the whole-site Discussion Board in any content area:

1. Go to the content area on your duo site

2. Hover over Tools and choose Discussion Board

3. Choose to link to the Board page or to one Forum.

Tip: You can also create a new Forum from this page.

4. Click Next

5. Link Name: include a name for the link to the Discussion Board or Forum

6. Choose any other options as necessary and click Submit

4 Document origin: Learning Technologies Team

© Durham University 2016

Tools area

If you choose to make the Tools area available on the duo site

menu, students can access the Discussion Board link to see

the whole-site Discussion Board.

My Groups

If you are using Group Discussion Boards, every group

member will see a link to their group’s board under My Groups

(below the site menu) and on their Group Homepage.

Using Discussion Boards Here are a few things to keep in mind when using a Discussion

Board on duo:

Technical

A Discussion Board is structured as follows:

Message Actions allow you to: mark all messages as read or unread; set or clear flags; collect the whole thread onto one page and print.

Quote copies the current post into a new Reply.

Practical

Be clear about the purpose of the Discussion Board, and expectations for its use.

Ensure that students know whether their posts will be monitored. For example, if they ask a question will the lecturer respond (and if so, when)?

Make sure that students know who can see their posts. For example, Groups cannot see each other’s Discussion Boards, but all site Instructors can see all Boards.

More help

The Blackboard Help site offers more detailed information about using Discussions.

Discussion Board

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