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Discussion Boards
| Online Learning Module |
Contents |
OPENING THE DISCUSSION BOARD
If you are in an online course, the Discussion Boards are for sharing and discussion of specific assignments throughout the course. If you are not in an online course, your instructor may ask you to use this function for specific assignments.
DISCUSSION BOARD OPTION BUTTONS
Any Discussion Board postings are in the center of the page. There are important buttons across the top of the Designer Options page.
- Compose Message will allow the instructor to post a discussion message (this should not be used by students).
- Update Listing will refresh the browser so you can see the latest postings.
- Search will allow you to search for certain students postings.
- Mark all as read will change the status of all the postings to read.
- Designer Message Options link will display some advanced options below the postings:
- Compile allows you to select certain messages and view them in a new window.
- Mark as Read allows you to select desired messages and mark them as read.
- Mark as Unread allows you to select desired messages and mark them as unread.
- Delete allows you to select certain messages and delete them.
- Move to: allows you to select certain messages and move them to another topic.
Below the top buttons are Display options:
- All or Unread allows you to toggle between displaying all messages or just the unread.
- Threaded or Unthreaded allows you to display the postings in threads according to each question or in chronological order in which they were posted. We recommend you always have All and Threaded selected, this way you can view all postings in an organized fashion.
- Select Topic allows you to move to a different week or topic.
DISCUSSION BOARD POSTS
The initial instructor’s question (or thread) will create a subject heading in bold. The actual question is right below the heading. All of the students’ responses follow below the question.
There are three important things to be aware:
- The Expand/Collapse button appears next to a question heading once posted responses appear. By clicking on this button, you can either hide or reveal all the responses in a thread.
- The Magnifying Glass button allows you to view all the responses in a thread in one window. This is beneficial because you can copy and paste all of the responses at once into Word and read them offline.
- The Indention Arrow organizes the responses by indenting them to the right of the posting.
OPENING A MESSAGE
1. To open a posting, click on its subject link. A new window containing the message will open. 2. The subject, author, date, and message appear. Some options appear at the bottom:
- Reply allows you to reply to the posting.
- Quote also allows you to reply to the posting, but retains the original message in the response.
- Download lets you download the posting to your computer.
- Close will close the message posting.
Allows you to navigate to the previous thread.
Allows you to navigate to the previous message.
Allows you to navigate to the next message.
Allows you to navigate to the next thread.
REPLY TO A POSTING
In order to reply to a posting, we recommend that you first create the reply in a Word document. This allows you to carefully construct a grammatically correct response and save it on your computer for your records. 1. Click Reply (or Quote if you wish to keep the original question in your response). 2. Change the Subject line of your message to say “Reply to ____”,
3. Type/paste the message from your Word document in the message box. 4. You may use the HTML editor to format the text. 5. Click Post when you are ready to post the message. For additional information on discussion boards, click on Help within the Discussion Boards web page.
| Online Learning Module |
