• How does a Discussion Forum work?
• Create a forum
• Create a topic
• Instructional videos
  • Video about creating a discussion forum
  • Video about creating a topic in a discussion forum

Students can easily collaborate and communicate through Brightspace discussion forums. Create a course discussion forum to allow students to discuss a relevant topic. The Discussions home page can be reached via:

1. Click Course Tools.
2. Click Discussions.

A forum can consist of several topics, just like a course can consist of several forums.

The teacher can allow students to discuss a specific topic or place them in groups so that they can exchange ideas in a private setting. Starting a discussion works the same for both cases: you must first create a forum and then add one or more topics.

A topic is a place where students can post and read messages. They can create one or more threads in a topic. Threads are main messages where others can reply with a post. A student can create a thread and post a reply. As a instructor (the moderator of the discussion), you can edit or delete all student posts. You can also follow forums, topics and/or threads (subscribe) so that you receive messages when there are new posts or updates.

Topics can be found in a forum and are usually named after the subject of the discussion. A forum may contain multiple topics (for example, a forum titled "Democracy vs Dictatorship" may contain a topic titled "Arguments in favor of democracy/dictatorship", and a topic titled "Arguments against democracy/dictatorship").

A discussion forum doesn't work without a topic. Students can only create threads in a topic.

• Go to Course Tools in the navbar of the course.
• Click Discussions.
• Click New and then click New Forum.

1. Give the forum a title.
2. Do you also want to create a topic with the same title? Check 'Create a new topic...'.
3. Add a description (and/or video or link) in the HTML editor.

4. Under Options you can choose different settings for your discussion forum:

• Check Allow anonymous posts if you want to allow anonymous posts. The name of the person who posts will then not be visible to students. Posts are only anonymous for students, but the moderator (the instructor) can still see the names.
• A moderator must approve... allows you to accept or reject any message before it is posted.
• Users must start a thread before... is an option to indicate that students must first start a thread before they can read other posts and/or replies.
• Check Display forum description in topics if you want the description of the forum to be visible in every topic. Topics can also have their own description.

• Click New and then New Topic.

1. Select the forum to which you want to link the topic or click on New Forum to create a new forum.
2. Under Topic Type you can choose whether everyone in the course has access to this topic (Open topic) or whether all students can see the topic, but only see the threads of the group they belong to (Group or section subject).
3. Add a title.
4. Add a description.
5. The following boxes can be checked under Options:
   • Allow anonymous posts if you want to allow anonymous posts. The name of the person who posts will then not be visible to students. Posts are only anonymous for students, but the moderator (the teacher) can still see the names.
   • A moderator must approve... an option that allows you to accept or reject any message before it is posted.
   • Users must start a thread before... an option to indicate that students must first start a thread before they can read other posts and/or replies.

6. Under Rate Posts you can choose whether students can rate posts. You can choose from:

• No Ratings if you don't want students to be able to rate posts.
• Five-star Rating Scheme if students can rate posts based on a five-star rating scheme.
• Up Vote/Down Vote Rating Scheme for a voting system.
• Up Vote Only Rating Scheme for an upvote-only voting system.