WebCT DISCUSSIONS
Discussions allows you and your students to engage in asynchronous online discussions. Within the Discussions tool, you can create topic areas which allow you to organize discussions around particular subjects. Topics can be public or private. Everyone in your course can access public topics, while private topics are available only to the set of students and teaching assistants that you choose.
With the Discussions tool, you can:
- post and read messages
- reply to messages in discussions
- search messages
- compile and download messages
- create, delete, or rename a topic
- add members to a private topic
- lock a topic, making it unavailable for more posts
- allow students to post anonymously to a topic
Note: The Design Wizard will take you, step-by-step, through creating a topic and posting a message to an existing topic.
When you click on the Discussions icon, you will see by default three Topics:
- Main: the main discussion area
- Notes: contains messages related to a page of content in a Content Module
- All: contains all messages from all public topics
After you have created Topics, you will see them added to the list of Topics in the order they were created. For example, in the following screen shot, there is a Topic area called Week One Discussions, which has a Total of 4 messages, 1 of which is Unread.
For information about [Topic Settings]
Reading and Posting Messages
By default, messages are presented in the order they were posted according to time. This is referred to as the Unthreaded format. In the following example, the Display information tells us that we are looking at "All" the messages in an "Unthreaded" format in the topic "Week 1 Discussion". The Status column of the messages shows that messages 1, 2, and 3 have been opened 
and message 4 has not been opened 
. (If we were to click on the Unread button in the Display row, only message 4 would appear.)
Click on the [Threaded] button results in the following format:
The green triangles pointing to the right signify a thread (a group of messages having the same subject heading). The Status column indicates that there are 0 unread out of 3 total messages with the Subject heading "Assignment" and 1 unread out of 1 total messages with the Subject heading "Other thoughts". If you click on the "preview" button [
] button, you can view all of the messages in the thread on one page.
To expand a thread, click the green triangle so that it points down. (To collapse the thread, click the green triangle again.) Note that in the following listing of messages, the replies are indented.
To post a new message, click on the [Compose Message] button. Enter a subject in the Subject box and your message in the Message box. To change the number of viewable lines in the Message text box, from the Height of edit area drop-down list, select a number, and click [Resize]. To allow text to continue horizontally beyond each visible line, select "Don't wrap text". To preview your message before posting it, click on the [Preview] button at the bottom of the "Compose New Message" window. To cancel the message before it has been posted, click on the [Cancel] button. To post the message, click on the [Post] button. Each "new" message posted will generate a "new" thread.
*TIP* After posting your message, click on the [Update listing] button. This displays the message you just posted or any other messages that have been posted since you entered the discussion topic area.
Note: As the instructor/designer, you can [Delete] any message in Discussions, but students do not have this option. Neither the student or instructor can edit a message once it has been posted.
To read a Message, click on its Subject heading. The message will list the Subject, its number, the author, and the Date. The content of the message will be in a somewhat smaller and lighter text font.
Example:
Clicking on one of the four buttons at the bottom of the message window will have the following effect:
Brings up the first message of the previous thread
Brings up the previous message in the currently viewed thread
Brings up the next message in the currently viewed thread
Brings up the first message in the next thread
To Reply to a Message
Click on the message to which you want to reply. There are 3 ways to reply to a message:
- [Reply] - When you click on this button, the "Reply to Message:" window appears. The subject of the message you are replying to will be filled in but can be edited. After entering the text of your message in the Message box and clicking on [Post], the message will appear in the same topic area below and indented from the message to which you were replying.
- [Quote] - To include the original message in your reply click on the [Quote] button.
- [Reply Privately] - To reply only to the person who posted the message, click on the [Reply Privately] button. When you reply privately, your reply is sent as a mail message to the person who posted the message, rather than being sent as part of the discussion forum. The recipient of your reply should check their mail messages for your response.
To Search Messages
Click on Discussions and then click on the [Search] button, along with a listing of all the messages. The Search Topics window appears in a new browser window. Select your search parameters:
- From the Search drop-down list, select to search All messages or only Unread messages.
- From the Topic drop-down list, select the topic to search.
- From the Criteria drop-down list, select from the following filters: First name, Last name, User ID, Subject, Message No., Date, or Message (Any of the words in the text of a message).
- From the Comparison drop-down list, select how the information entered in the Value text box will be compared with the search Criteria.
- Contains - Retrieves messages containing the letters or numbers entered in the Value text box.
- Equals - Retrieves messages that match exactly the letters or numbers entered in the Value text box.
- Starts with - In combination with a text filter (Name, Subject, Message) retrieves messages with words that begin with the letter entered in the Value text box.
- Ends with - In combination with a text filter (Name, Subject, Message) retrieves words that end with the letter entered in the Value text box.
- In the Value text box, enter the words or numbers you want to search. If you have selected the Date filter, enter the date in the format mm,dd,yyyy. Include the commas.
Click [Search], and then click [Close]. The Discussion Messages screen appears listing all messages that satisfy your search requirements.
Compile and Download Messages
You can compile Discussion messages into one file and download the file. From the Discussions window, click on the Topic whose messages you want to compile.
Select the messages you want to compile by clicking on the box to the left of the message. If you click on the box to the left of a thread heading, all of the messages in that thread are automatically selected. To select all the messages in a Topic area, select the box to the left of the Subject heading. When you've selected all the messages you want compiled, click on the [Compile] button.
To download your compiled messages, click [Download]. Your browser's file download dialog box appears. Follow the on-screen instructions. When the download is complete, click [Close]. The Discussion Messages screen appears.
Create, Delete, or Rename a Topic
| From the Discussions window, under Options click on [Create topic]. In the Topic name text box, enter the name for the new topic. Click [Create]. The Discussions screen appears and the new topic is displayed in the Discussions table.
To rename a topic, select the topic, enter the new name for the topic in the Rename topic: box and click on [Go]. Note: You cannot rename a topic that is associated with a presentation group. To delete a topic and its associated messages, select the topic and click on [Delete topic]. You can delete all the messages from a topic without deleting the topic by clicking selecting the topic and clicking on [Delete messages]. Note that under the Organize section, you can select topics and move them up or down in the list. |
 |
*TIP*
1) Create a Topic area for each discussion about a particular subject. This will make it much easier for you and your students to find and post to a current discussion. 2) Make the current discussion the first Topic in the list so that students don't have to scroll through a long list. 3) When you are ready for students to move on to the next Topic, lock the old Topic.
Add Members to a Private Topic
From the Discussions window, check the Private box corresponding to the Topic you want to be private. Click on [Update]. When the window refreshes itself, there is now a [Manage members] button under the Rename topic: box. Select the private topic and click on [Manage members] and the Private Topic screen appears. Click on the [Select members] button and a list of the members of the class, including the instructor, will appear. Check the names of the people you want to add to the private topic. (To select all members, select Status. To select all members copied to the clipboard, click Paste records.) Click on [Update].
A Private Topic will appear only on the Discussions window of the selected members of the topic.
*TIP*
Notes is a topic area that is rarely used. If you link a content document to Discussions, this is the area that the student is put into by default. If you don't plan to use it in this way, it is best to not have it appear. You can do this by checking the Private box in the Notes row and by not putting any members in the private group. Click on the [Update] button to set these changes.
Lock a Topic
To lock a topic, go to the Discussions window, check the Locked box corresponding to the topic you want to lock and click on [Update].
Note: If you lock a topic, members of the topic will still be able to read the messages inside the topic, but they will not be able to post to that topic. If someone tries to post in a locked topic, they will be given a warning that "this topic has been locked" and their message will be posted in the Main topic area or in the next unlocked topic that is available.
*TIP*
Don't use or allow students to use the Main area for messages. This will make it easier for students to find and participate in a discussion. It will also make it easier for everyone to follow the discussion on a particular subject. To ensure that messages are not posted in the Main area, we suggest that you lock it (click on the box in the Main row in the Locked column). If you followed the last two tips, Main will be Locked and Notes will be Private (with no members).
Posting Anonymously to a Topic
When a topic is assigned an anonymous status, individuals have the choice of whether or not to post messages to that topic anonymously.
To allow students to post to a topic anonymously, go to the Discussions window, check the Anonymous box corresponding to the topic and click on [Update]. When a student composes a message in this topic, a "Post anonymously" box is checked above the message box. The student can leave the box checked and post anonymously or uncheck the box and the author of the message will be identified.
*TIP*
Use the post anonymously feature for topics where you want to survey students' opinions or where you want students to respond openly, without the hindrance of identification.
Topic Settings
[Topic Settings], a button selection in the Discussions window, allows you to control how messages are displayed on your screen. Selections made in Topic Settings will apply only to your own view of Discussions.
You can choose to:
- display a particular number of threads per page or all the threads at once (the default)
- display a particular number of characters in the subject of a message or display the entire subject
- set the default for composing messages in anonymous topics with an anonymous status.
The default topic settings are shown in the image below.
