Participating in Discussions for Students

All users are permitted to participate in Discussions by default. When a discussion is associated with a course, the discussion becomes available through the following pages depending on the user's access.

Discussion Components

A discussion has 4 main components users will interact with:

1. Topic – listed on the left side of the main Discussion page and used to organize/display posts.
2. Post – top level discussion item that can be added to a Topic. These are listed in date/time order on the left side of the Topics page and show the number of responses. A post consists of:
   1. Post Type: a question or a discussion. The appropriate icon will be placed on it.
   2. Topic: the Topic to which the post is associated.
   3. Title: a headline to draw attention to the post.
   4. Your question or idea: the main content of the post. This is an HTML field.
3. Response – second level discussion item. Users can respond to any Post. The responses are indented below the full Post in date/time order when the user selects the Post.
4. **Comment **– bottom level discussion item. Users can comment on any response. The comments are indented below their respective responses in date/time order.

To navigate in the discussion (you can add a post at any point either using the form or the Add Post link);

• Select a Topic to view/add posts:

• Select a Post to read and respond to, if wanted (notice the breadcrumb above the post titles):

• Add a new Post, Response or comment, if wanted. (Each activity has an HTML field for its content; only posts have a title.)
• Like/unlike the Post, a Response, or a Comment.

All posts, responses, and comments will have the date and time of the post (0 GMT), the name of the poster, and their image if available from their User profile. When a “Staff” member posts, replies, or comments, they will be marked with a special badge. “Staff” is a user who: 1) has administrative privileges for discussion, 2) belongs to the organization tree that owns the discussion, and 3) has management over the organization that owns the discussion.

Where to Find Discussions

For the first 4, it will be a link in the menu bar.

• Course
• Class
• Class Enrollment
• Course Assignment
• Simple Course Assignment

For the Simple Course Assignment, the discussion will have its own tab where it will be displayed.