Common Questions >> Blackboard Discussions

Printable View

Q) How do I use Discussions in Blackboard?

A) Discussions allows you to send, read, and search for messages.

Discussions is divided into different topics which allow you to create discussion groups 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 students and the instructor.

Discussions

By default, Discussions contains three public topics:

• Main: the main discussion area
• Notes: messages related to a page of content in a Content Module
• All: contains all messages from all public topics

With Discussions, you can

• Send and read messages
• Search messages
• Compile and download messages
• Create, delete, or rename a topic
• Add members to a private topic

When you are viewing a list of topics in a forum you can click on the All button to view all messages or the Unread button to view messages that you have not read. You can also turn on or off threading with the Threaded and Unthreaded buttons.

Sending messages with or without attachments

1. From Discussions, click the topic to which you wish to post a message. The Discussion Messages screen appears.
2. Click Create message. The Create Message screen appears in a new browser window.
3. In the Subject text box, enter the subject for your message.
4. In the Message text box, enter your message.
5. If you want to attach a file
   1. Click on the Add Attachments button. When the Get Files screen appears, click on the My Computer icon. Your computer's file browser appears.
   2. Select the file you wish to attach, and click Open. The file will be automatically uploaded to Blackboard and attached.
6. Click Send. Your message is posted to the discussion topic.

Reading a message

1. From Discussions, click the forum containing the messages you want to read, or to view all of the messages, click All. The Discussion Messages screen appears.
2. In the header row, expand the thread by clicking the arrow () next to it. All unread messages in the thread appear. A paperclip () icon appears if the message has attachments.
3. Click the message that you want to read. The message opens in a new browser window.
4. When you have finished reading the message, you can
   • Close the message by choosing Close.
   • Reply to the message
   • Download the message