​Blackboard Discussion Board Forums

You can create discussions on the Course Content page or through the Discussions tab.

On the course content page select the plus icon and choose create item. Scroll down to Discussion. 

On the Discussions page you will select the New Discussion button.

Discussions will be generated based on your course's title and description or you can enter a description to narrow the focus of the discussions

You can also select which course items you’d like the AI Design Assistant to use as context for discussions. Select course items to start.

Select any course content item to include it in the context for your discussion then select Generate.  Choose the discussion you’d like to add to your course, then select Add. Visit AI Design Assistant to learn more about the feature.

Select the Discussion and click the Settings button in the top right corner to customize your discussion.

By default, all discussions appear to students on the Course Content page. You can deselect the option if you want students to only view the discussion from the Discussions page.

When you choose to grade a discussion, more options appear in the settings, such as the due date and maximum points. The maximum points apply to one or more posts made by a student. When you enable grading for a discussion, a column is created automatically in the gradebook.

Graded discussions have a Grades & Participation tab that tracks your progress with grading.

You also have access to several kinds of discussion analytics. Select a student’s name on the Grades & Participation tab to view their discussion entry’s analytics. You can view whether or not a post is substantive, its sentence complexity, and other information.

Instructors can edit or delete anyone's responses and replies. Students can delete only their own responses and replies.

Open the menu for a response or reply to access the Edit and Delete functions. If you delete an initial response, all replies remain. The system displays a message about your deletion so others know what happened.

• Post first- to hide discussion activity from students until they respond to the discussion. When you want to use both post first and groups, select Post first before you assign groups.
• Prevent editing if you don't want students to be able to edit their discussions after posting them.
• Anonymous responses and replies- make discussion posts anonymous if you'd like students to feel more free to share their thoughts without judgment. You can turn anonymous posts on and off. Any posts made while anonymous keep their anonymity if anonymous posts are later turned off. You can't grade anonymous discussions. 
• Grade discussion- To motivate students to post insightful contributions, you can make the discussion count for a grade.
• Groups- You can assign students to discussion groups so that fewer people are involved. You can also assign a specific topic to each group.
• Release conditions- The visibility settings of a learning module or folder also apply to discussions within them. However, visibility settings on the Discussions page are separate. For example, a discussion set to Visible to students within a folder set to hidden won’t be on the Course Content page. However, that same discussion will be available to students on the Discussions page.