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Middlesex Distance Learning Blackboard Tutorials

What are Discussion Forum and Threaded Discussion

Video - What are Discussion Forum and Threaded Discussions?

A Discussion Forum provides students an opportunity to participate in asynchronous virtual conversations at any time and any location. Threaded discussions refer to online postings on a specific topic. In an online course, you professor may have discussion assignments. Each discussion assignment, there are questions for students to answer. Students are asked to post their answer on a Discussion Forum. Students can read the messages and respond to them. This group of messages with the initial message and responses is called a 'thread'.

Here is an example of Threaded Discussion. In Blackboard, the List View is default view of discussion messages. In List View, you see a group of message threads. In a message thread, you see the number of posts and number of unread posts. In Tree View, you see a + sign next to a message thread. In either Tree View or List View, when you click on the Subject line of a thread, you see the initial message and the responses with subject, author, and posting date.

A message posted on the Discussion Forum can be viewed by your professor and all students enrolled in your course. If you would like to write a private message to your professor or to a student, use the Email Author on the discussion board or directly go to the Messages tool and send a message there. When you use Email Author, your message will be sent to the person's college email account. When you send a message to someone in Messages, your correspondent will click on the Messages link on the Course Menu and see your message in Inbox.

Read and Reply a Discussion Message

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Video - Read and Reply to a Discussion Message Video - Read and Reply to a Discussion Message

A Discussion Forum may be accessed from the Course Menu or a Folder (or a Learning Module). In this course, there is a "Discussions" link on the Course Menu.

1. Click on the Discussions link on the Course Menu. You see a list of discussion forums. Your professor may post discussion questions in the description area of a Discussion Forum. On this page, you see the discussion questions in each of the forums.
2. In a forum, the number of unread messages tells you that there are new messages posted.

3. Click on the forum title to enter the forum page. You will see the message threads with Subject, Author, and Date. In List View, you see a number of unread messages and a total number of messages.
4. Click on the Subject line of a thread, you see the initial message and the replied messages.
5. To reply to the initial message, click on Reply.
6. Type your message and click on Submit. Your message will be placed to the last.
7. To review another message thread, you need to go to the Navigation Path at the top and click on the Forum Title to go back to the Forum page. Then you will click on the Subject of another thread.
8. In default, you are able to view up to 25 message threads in one page. You may change the setting to see more than 25 message threads. Click on the Edit Paging icon at the bottom right corner. Enter a page number and click on GO.  

A Discussion topic can be accessed from the Discussions link on the Navigation bar or directly from a Folder or a Learning Module. This tutorial shows you how to access a discussion topic directly from the Navigation Bar.

1. Click on the Discussions link on the Navigation Bar. You will see a list of discussion topics. Your professor may post discussion questions in the description area of a Discussion Topic. For a discussion topic, you may see the entire questions or part of the questions on the description area of the topic.  The purple icon indicates that there are new posts on the topic. To read discussion posts, you will click on the topic. 

2. You will see a group of messages posted in the topic. You may click on Show Replies to read replied messages.

3. If you wish to respond to a message, click on Reply underneath the message.

4. Type your message, when you are ready to post, click on Reply. Your message will be placed right underneath the original message.

5. To review another discussion topic, you will close out the current topic page by clicking on the X sign at the upper left corner of the page.  Then select another topic.

Post a Discussion Message

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Video - Post a Discussion Message Video - Post a Discussion Message

Discussions can be accessed either from a link on the Course Menu or a folder in Course Content. In this course, there is a Discussions link on the Course Menu. Click on the Discussions link, you see a list of discussion forums. The discussion questions or instruction are shown in the Description box of a forum. You will post a message on the forum to answer the questions. For posting a short message, here are the steps:

1. Click on the Forum Title to enter the discussion forum.
2. Click on Create Thread to open the message window.
3. Enter the message subject in the Subject box.
4. Type the message in the Message box.
5. When you are ready, click on Submit. Your message will be displayed as the first message on the Forum page..
6. To read the message you just posted, click on the Subject of the message.

A Discussion topic can be accessed from the Discussions link on the Navigation bar or directly from a Folder or a Learning Module. This tutorial shows you how to access a discussion topic directly from the Navigation Bar. Click on the Discussions on the Navigation bar, you see a list of discussion topics. The discussion questions are shown in the Description of a topic. To answer the questions, you will post a message on the topic page. A discussion topic may be set up to have you post a message first before you can read others' messages.  To post a short message:

1. Click on a discussion topic to enter the topic page.
2. Click on Post a response to the discussion text. You have opened up the Content Editor. 
3. Type your message in the Content Editor. 
4. You may click on Save Draft to save your message. To edit your message you just saved, click on Edit Draft.
5. When you are ready, click on Post. Your message will be displayed as the first message right underneath the Description of the topic.

Special Note

***For an extensive discussion message such as your answer to a discussion assignment, we highly recommend you draft your answer in a MS Word file and save your answer to your computer. Then you will copy the answer from the Word file to the message box. Refer to Copy Answer from MS Word to a Discussion Message for instruction.

Copy Questions from a Discussion Forum to a MS Word File

When you need a good amount of time to answer discussion questions, we highly recommend that you compose your answer in MS Word and save a Word file on your computer.  Then you will work on your discussion response off-line using MS Word. After you have completed your discussion response in MS Word, copy your response  from the MS Word file to Discussions. This tutorial shows you how to copy discussion questions from Blackboard to a MS Word file. 

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Video - Copy Questions from a Discussion Forum to MS Word Video - Copy Discussion Questions from Blackboard to MS Word

Accessing discussion forums may be from a link on the Course Menu, a folder or a Learning Module. Your professor will tell you where to find the discussion forums and discussion questions in your course.

1. Click on Discussions link on Course Menu.
2. In this course, the discussion questions are shown on the Description box of a discussion forum.
3. Highlight the questions. Right-click on the highlighted questions and select Copy. You can also copy the text by using CTRL + C keys on your keyboard. -- Then you open MS Word with a blank file, select Paste (You can also paste the text by using CTRL + V keys on your keyboard).
4. To save the file, go to File, select Save As. Locate the folder where you would like to save the file, type a file name, and click on Save. The file with discussion questions is saved on your computer. You may close the MS Word entirely.
5. If you would like to open the file you just saved and work on the answers, minimize the Blackboard window, go to the folder where the file was saved and double-click on the file to open.

Accessing discussions can be from the Discussions link on the Navigation bar, a folder or a Learning Module. This tutorial shows you how to access a discussion topic from the Navigation Bar.

1. Click on Discussions link on the Navigation Bar.
2. You see the discussion questions on the description box of a discussion topic.
3. Click on the discussion topic, you see the full questions on the description box.
4. To copy the questions, highlight the questions and right-click on the highlighted questions and select Copy. You can also copy the text by using CTRL + C keys on your keyboard. -- Then you open MS Word with a blank file, select Paste (You can also paste the text by using CTRL + V keys on your keyboard).
5. To save the file, go to File, select Save As. Locate the folder where you would like to save the file, type a file name, and click on Save. The file with discussion questions is saved on your computer. You may close the MS Word entirely.
6. To work on your discussion response, go to the File Explorer, look for the folder where the file is saved and double-click on the file to open.  Then you will work on your discussion response.

 

Copy Discussion Response from MS Word and Post It on Blackboard Discussions

When you need a good amount of time to answer discussion questions, we highly recommend that you compose your answer in MS Word and save a Word file on your computer. From the previous tutorial we showed you how to copy the discussion questions from Blackboard to a MS word file on your computer.  This tutorial shows you how to copy your discussion response from a Word file to a discussion topic.  After you have completed your discussion response, you will log on to Blackboard and go to your course.  

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Video - Post Discussion Response from MS Word Video - Post Discussion Response from MS Word

You may go to a discussion forum from the Discussions link on the Course Menu or from a folder or a learning module. This tutorial shows you how to get to a discussion forum from the Discussions link on the Course Menu.
1. Click on Discussions link on Course Menu.
2. Click on the Forum Title to enter the forum. (Your professor may set up the forum to allow students to post a message first before you see others' messages.)

3. Click on Create Thread to open the message window.
4. Enter the message subject line in Subject box.
5. Minimize the Blackboard window, locate your Word file. Double click on the file to open. Highlight your answer, select Copy. You may also use CRTL and C keys on your keyboard to copy the text.
6. Go back to Blackboard by clicking on the Blackboard tab on the top of the window. Go to the Message box. Right-click on the Message box and select Paste. You may also use CRTL + V keys on your keyboard to paste the text. Click on Remove Formatting when prompted.
7. Click on Submit. Your message will be displayed as the first message.
8. To read the message you just posted, click on the Subject of the message.

You may go to the discussion topic from the navigation bar, a folder, or a learning module.  This tutorial shows you how to get to the discussion topic from a learning module. 

1. Click on the learning module Week 1. You see the discussion topic. 
2. Click on the discussion topic title to enter the discussion page. Your professor may set up the discussion to allow students to post a message first before seeing other messages.
3. Click on Post a response to the discussion text. You have opened up the Content Editor. 
4. Click on the File Explorer (the yellow folder on the window's task bar), locate your Word file. Double click on the file to open. Highlight your response, select Copy. You may also use CRTL and C keys on your keyboard to copy the text.
6. Go back to Blackboard by clicking on the Blackboard tab on the Windows taskbar (bottom). Go to the Content Editor. Right-click on the text box and select Paste. You may also use CRTL and V keys on your keyboard to paste the text. 
7. Click on Post. Your response will be displayed as the first message right underneath the description box.