WebCT

Using the Discussion Board

Demo: View and Send Discussion Posts

The Discussions tool provides asynchronous communication between instructors and students, meaning that the users need not be online at the same time to communicate.

• Discussion Overview
• Viewing Discussions
• Composing Discussion Messages

Discussion Overview

Discussions may be divided into topics that help to organize the communication. Topics can be a related to a chapter or a specific question or the introduction of a new concept, depending on how your instructor organizes the discussion board. Discussion messages can be threaded —threads are a series of replies to the same subject, allowing users to more easily follow a discussion from start to finish.

With WebCT Discussions, you can

• Read and post messages
• Search the full text of messages
• Sort messages by name, date, author, or number of messages
• Compile and download messages

The Discussion Tool may appear as an icon on the Course Toolbar (figure 1), providing access to the full discussion board and a view of all categories and topics at once.

Figure 1: Link to Main Discussions Board from Course Toolbar

Specific Discussion Topics can also be linked on the course home page (figure 2) or other organizer pages, as well as directly from within a Learning Module. Your link to the Discussion messages may appear in one or more places in your course depending on how your instructor has set it up.

Figure 2: Link to Specific Discussion Tool from Home or Other Organizer Page

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Viewing Main Discussion Board

When you click the Discussion tool on the Course toolbar you will be taken to the main page of the Discussion board (figure 3). Here you will see a listing of discussion categories and/or topics. Categories may be used to further organize discussions. The number of new and total messages within each topic will be shown, as well as the date and time of the last posting. Click on the topic title to view the messages in that topic.

Figure 3: Main Discussion Board Listing Discussion Topics

Viewing Messages within a Topic

When you click on the Discussion icon/link from the home page or from within a learning module, you will be linked directly to the message(s) in that topic (figure 4). Typically, the title of the topic will be the name of the link.

Figure 4: Messages within a Topic

When viewing the discussion messages (figure 5), you can choose how you want the items organized.

• Sort by message subject, author, and date.
• Expand or collapse a message thread to view all of the messages in that thread.
• View an entire thread at once by clicking the Display Complete Thread icon next to the message title.
• Compile one or more message threads into a single page that can be viewed, downloaded, or printed.
• Mark messages as Read or Unread, regardless of whether you have opened the message
• View messages in a Threaded view (all replies to a message will be grouped together) or Unthreaded view (all messages will be listed by the designated sort order)

Figure 5: Organizing Messages in a Discussion Topic

Reading Messages

From the messages screen, locate the message you want to read and click its subject. The message will open in a new window and display the text and a hyperlinked list of all replies to that message (figure 7).

Figure 7: View Message and Replies

• If the message includes an attached file, click the filename and it will open, or you can save it to a folder in your My Files area.
• You can reply to the message and your reply will become part of the message thread.
• You can forward the message to another member’s Mail box. This option opens the Compose mail message window and the rules of WebCT mail apply.
• To move directly between messages in the thread, you can click Previous and Next, or you can click on the message name/subject to go to a different message in that thread.
• To view the entire message thread in another window, click Display Complete Thread. You can view, save, or print from this compiled message view.

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Composing Messages

From the message screen, click the Compose Message button. The Compose Message screen appears (figure 6). Enter a Subject heading (required) for your message. Enter the content of your message in the message box. To easily add formatting to your discussion message, invoke the HTML editor. You can add text attributes, such as bold, italics, and underline, as well as images, hyperlinks, and tables. And, you can spell-check your text. For more details on the HTML editor, refer to that section later in this guide.

Figure 6: Compose Discussion Message

Other options for a new discussion message include

• Insert math or symbolic expressions in your message with an Equation Editor
• Add attachments to your message
• Preview your message before sending (especially helpful if you have not used the HTML editor to create your message)
• Save your message as a draft to edit at a later time

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Content Developer: Beverley Hoerig