Setting up a discussion forum, topic, and thread

The discussion board is a virtual conversation space where students and instructors collaborate using short question answer style posts. The discussion board serves as a focal point for conversation in an online course. It is best to create discussion boards during the course setup.

D2L discussion boards have three levels of content:

• Forum: broad categories for discussion
• Topic: specific discussions within a forum
• Thread: student response to topic

You may create multiple forums with one (or more) topic(s), or one forum with several topics.

Note: Each forum must have at least one topic in order to be visible to students.

Adding Forum

Open a tutorial video: Discussions - Create a Forum - Instructor (YouTube)

1. On the navigation bar, click Communication > Discussions.

2. To facilitate ease of discussion forum navigation, activate the Discussion List pane.  Click Settings.

Check ‘Always show the Discussions List pane’. Scroll to the bottom of the page to Save.

Alternatively, you may try switching between the Reading view and Grid view to see which one works better for you.

3. Under the Discussion List tab, click New, and select New Forum from the dropdown menu.

4. Name the new Forum (e.g. Introductions).  A brief description of the forum can be added in the Description textbox.

Note: Every forum needs to have an associated topic before students can start viewing and posting to it. If you only have one topic, you may select ‘Create a new topic in this forum with the same title’. If you prefer to have different topics with distinct titles set up under the same forum, you may leave the box unchecked, then manually add each topic after the forum has been created.

5. Click Save and Close.

Adding Topic

Open a tutorial video: Discussions - Create a Discussion Topic - Instructor (YouTube)

6. To manually add a topic to a forum, navigate to the Discussion List (Communication > Discussions), locate the discussion forum, expand the dropdown menu, and select Add Topic.

7. Enter a name for the new topic.  Click in the text box to add a description.

8. Click Save and Close.

NOTE: If you wish to limit viewing or posting access to your Discussion Forums/ Topics, see Setting Restrictions for Discussions

Adding thread

9. Navigate to the Discussion List, and click on a topic (e.g.: Community Cafe and Introductions Topic).

10. Click Start a New Thread.

Add a title and a comment and click Post.