Forums

Overview
Add a Forum
Start a New Discussion
Reply to a Forum Post
Subscribe to or Unsubscribe from a Forum
Delete the News Forum

Overview

A forum is an online discussion group. Conversations in a forum consist of a main posting and related replies. Forums may be graded or rated.

By default, all courses have a News forum, shown circled below, that you may use to post class announcements. (If desired, you can change the name of the News forum to Class Announcements or something similar.)

You may add other forums to your course.

Typically, when you open a forum, you'll see a list of discussion topics. Clicking on a topic displays the initial post along with indented replies, as shown below.

You can change how you view a discussion by clicking on the down arrow at the top of the page and selecting a different option.

Once you post in a forum, you have 30 minutes to edit or delete the post, and a copy of your post will be e-mailed to the students in your course.

Add a Forum

1. Click on the Turn editing on button in the upper-right corner of your course home page.
2. In the desired week or topic section, click on the Add an activity... down arrow and select Forum.
3. In the Forum name field, enter a name for the forum.
4. Specify the other forum options. (For more information about the forum options, click on their help buttons.)
5. Click on the Save changes and return to course button at the bottom of the page.

Start a New Discussion

1. On your course home page, click on the forum to open it.
2. Click on the Add a new topic button.
   
   
3. In the Subject field, enter a title for the discussion.
4. Enter and format your message.
5. If desired, attach a file.
6. Click on the Post to forum button.

Reply to a Forum Post

1. At the bottom of the forum post to which you want to reply, click on Reply.
   
   
2. Enter and format your message.
3. If desired, attach a file.
4. Click on the Post to forum button.

Subscribe to or Unsubscribe from a Forum

When you subscribe to a forum, you'll receive e-mail copies of every post in that forum. (Posts are sent about 30 minutes after they are posted.)

If you don't want to receive an individual e-mail for every post, then you can choose to receive a daily digest e-mail that either contains all of the posts made that day or only the subjects of the posts that were made that day. To select a digest e-mail, change the E-Mail digest setting in your profile information. (For more information, see Edit Your Profile Information.)

If you don't want to receive any e-mails at all, then you can unsubscribe from a forum.

To subscribe to or unsubscribe from a forum, open it and then click on Subscribe to this forum or Unsubscribe from this forum in the upper-right corner of the page.

Note: You also may subscribe to or unsubscribe from a forum each time that you post in it by clicking on the Subscription down arrow, shown circled below, at the bottom of the Your reply or Your new discussion topic page, and selecting the desired option.

Delete the News Forum

1. Click on the Turn editing on button in the upper-right corner of your course home page.
2. If you are using the Weekly course format, then in the Administration block on your course home page, click on Settings, change the News item to show field to 0, and click on the Save changes button at the bottom of the page.
3. Click on the Delete tool across from the News forum.
   
   
4. Click on the Yes button.