CougarVIEW Guides

Your course can have multiple forums and topics, but you must create a forum before you can create a topic since all topics belong to forums.

1. On the navbar, select Discussions.
2. On the Discussions List page, from the New button, select New Topic.

3. On the New Topic page, Do the following:
   • Enter a Topic Title .
   • Click Change Forum to change the forum where your topic will go, if necessary.
   • To add your topic to your grade book, enter a value in the Grade Out Of field.
   • Enter a Description for your topic.

4. In the Availability Dates & Conditions menu, enter the following:
   • Enter a Start Date and End Date .
   • Adjust the Before end and After end restrictions based on your preferences by clicking each option.
5. Click Add Release Condition to create a new release condition or add an existing one.
6. Under Group and Section Restrictions, you can set different restrictions if you have Groups or Sections set up in your course.

7. In the Post & Completion menu, select the checkboxes for any of the following options to apply them to your discussion topic:
   • Default participation.
   • Allow learners to hide their name from other learners.
   • Learners must start a thread before they can view or reply to other threads.
   • Posts must be approved before they display in the topic.

8. In the Evaluation & Feedback menu, do the following:
   • Click Add Rubric to attach a rubric to your discussion topic.
   • Click Manage Learning Objectives to associate learning objectives to your discussion topic.
   • Select the Allow evaluation of individual posts checkbox if you want to assign scores to posts. Then, select your Calculation Method. You can also choose to Include unevaluated posts in the topic score calculation as zero.
   • Select Allow learning to rate posts if you want your learners to score others' posts. Then, select a rating type.

9. Toggle the Visibility ON or OFF.
10. Click Save and Close.

1. On the navbar, click Discussions.

2. On the Discussions List page, click the context menu of the forum or topic you want to edit and click Edit Forum or Edit Topic.

3. Make your changes.
4. Click Save and Close.

1. On the navbar, click Discussions.

2. From the context menu of the forum or topic you want to hide, click Hide from Users.

Lock a discussion forum or topic to prevent learner replies and posts. This is also a good option when you want to stop any posts and replies so you can grade discussions.

1. From the navigation bar, choose the  Communications  dropdown, and then select the Discussions item.

2. From the context menu of the forum or topic you want to lock, click Edit.

3. In the Availability Dates & Conditions accordion, below the Start Date and End Date fields, click the locking options.

4. Select from the following locking options in the dialog:

• Visible with access restricted: The forum or topic is visible to learners before or after the start or end date, but they cannot access it.

• Visible with submission restricted: The forum or topic is visible to learners before or after the start or end date and they can access it, but they cannot post new threads or replies. This effectively makes a discussion read-only.

• Hidden: The forum or topic is hidden from learners until the start or end date. Calendar events for Availability Start and Availability End are hidden until the start or end date. Notifications are also not sent until the start or end date.

• Add availability dates to Calendar: Add the start date and end date of your discussion to the course Calendar.

5. Click Done.
6. Click Save and Close.

Post to group discussions so that learners can discuss topics in independent groups.

1. From the navigation bar, choose the  Communications  dropdown, and then select the Discussions item.

2. On the Discussions List page, select a group discussion topic.

3. Click Start a New Thread.

4. From the Post Thread to drop-down list, select All Groups, or a specific group.
5. Provide a subject and enter your post in the HTML editor.
6. Set any of the following options:

• To receive updates on the thread using your selected notification method, select Subscribe to this thread.
• To attach a file, in the Attachments area, click Add attachments, click Upload, and locate the file you want to attach.
• To attach an audio recording, in the Attachments area, click Record Audio > Record. To adjust your microphone selection and volume, click Flash Settings. To listen to your recording, click Play. To erase your recording, click Clear. If you have pre-recorded audio and are using a supported browser, you can drag audio files onto the attachments upload target.
• To add your post to other topics, click Post to other topics, and then Add Topics. Select the desired topics and click Add Topics.

7. Click Post.

Note: If you select the option to post to all groups, the Discussions tool creates a copy of the thread for each group to access and reply to.

When you add a discussion topic’s score to a numeric grade item in your grade book, your learners’ scores automatically transfer to the grade book. This enables you to factor the topic score into their final grades for the course.

Note: You can only link numeric grade items to discussion topics.

1. On the navbar, select Discussions.

2. From the context menu of the topic you want to configure for assessment, select Edit Topic.

3. On the topic creation or edit page, enter a numeric value in the Grade Out Of field.

4. In the Grade Out Of section, click the drop-down menu and click  Edit or Link to Existing .

5. In the Edit or Link to Existing dialog, select one of the following:
   • Select Create and link to a new grade item to create a new grade item associated with your discussion topic. Choose the Grade Scheme for your new grade item.
   • Select Link to an existing grade item to link your discussion topic to an existing grade item. Select the existing grade item from the drop-down list.

6. Click OK.

7. Toggle the Visibility of your discussion topic ON or OFF.

8. Select Save and Close.

Your discussion topic is now linked to a grade item.

You can automatically create a discussion topic for each group or section in a selected category. Topics get their names from the group or section they associate with.

To automatically create restricted topics for groups or sections

1. On the navbar, select Discussions.

2. From the tool navigation, select Group and Section Restrictions.

3. Select the Automatically create restricted topics link.

4. Select a Group or Section Category and the Forum where you want to create your topics. If you want to create a new forum, select New Forum.
5. Select Create.

You have automatically created restricted topics for groups and sections.

If you do not want date restrictions enabled, select [Forum/Topic] is always visible.

• Ensure that there are discussion topics created for your discussion forum(s)
  Forums are used to group topics into predetermined themes, course units, etc. You can only post in discussion topics. If there are no topics created for a forum, then students will not be able to participate in discussions.
  On the course home page, click Discussions. Make sure that there are topics nested under the discussion forum. If you do not see topics nested under the discussion forum(s), you must create topics by referring to Create a Discussion Topic guide.
• Ensure that discussion forums and topics are not unintentionally hidden
  The option to hide a discussion forum or topic is located on the Discussion List page, in the context menu for each forum or topic. The Hidden icon appears beside any topics or forums that are currently hidden. Forums and topics can also be hidden on the New Forum or New Topic page (or the Edit page for existing forums and topics), in the Restrictions tab's Availability section.
  If you selected Hide this [topic or forum], then learners cannot see it. If a discussion forum has this setting enabled, all of the topics nested under it are also hidden.
• Ensure that there are no unwanted date restrictions set for the discussion forum or topic
  Students cannot access topics that fall outside of set date restrictions. If a discussion forum has date restrictions attached, then all topics nested under it will be hidden outside of those date restrictions.
  The option to set date restrictions is located on the New Forum or New Topic page (or the Edit page for existing forums and topics), in the Restrictions tab Availability section. Select the Forum is visible for a specific date range check box, then fill out your start and end dates. If you want the forum or topic to be currently visible, ensure that the End Date has not passed yet and the Start Date has already begun; if you want it to be available at a later time, set the date restrictions accordingly.
• Ensure that the appropriate group restriction settings are applied
  If group restrictions are enabled for the discussion forum or topic, then only students within the group selected can see the discussion.
  The option to set group restrictions is located on the New Forum or New Topic page (or the Edit page for existing forums and topics), in the Restrictions tab of the Group and Section Restrictions section. Select Restrict this forum to the following groups and sections to enable group restrictions for a forum or topic.