Blackboard Communication Tools: Discussion Board
The Discussion Board provides a forum for exchanging information and discussing course materials in a format which allows for archiving of old messages, searching, and threading.
In order to work with the Discussion Board, you must enter the Blackboard site for a particular class by choosing it from the list of Courses you are teaching on your My Institution page. There are two ways instructors may get to the discussion board:
- Click on the Discussion Board button
- Click on the Control Panel button and choose Discussion Boards from the Course Tools area
Creating a Discussion Board -- Instructors only
To create a discussion board, click on the Discussion Board button in the toolbar at the right side of the screen. Click on Add Forum. You will be asked to supply the title and a brief description of the forum as well as several settings. You can allow anonymous posts, enable the person who wrote the message to delete it or to edit the message even after it has been posted. You can also allow students to create new threads or even send attachments with their posts. Click the Submit button at the bottom of the page when you have made your selections.
You can also block or unblock users, or give them administrative privileges.
Using the Discussion Board
To use the Discussion Board, simply select Discussion Board from the course menu. You can also go to the Communication button on the course toolbar and select Discussion Boards. Next, choose a particular forum/discussion board available to your class. It will show the first topic submitted to the board and will have an indication of how many messages exist and how many are new or unread since your last visit.
- Click on a message board name to start reading and posting messages.
- The information on the screen is organized under several headers: A checkbox to select a particular message, the message topic, the sender, and the date the message was sent. Click on the subject line to read the message. Click on the sender's name to send that person an email message. Messages can be sorted by date, author, and subject by clicking on the arrow by Sort By: below the messages.
In the upper right corner of the window is a tab labeled Show Options or Hide Options. Use this to display a number of functions for organizing and keeping track of the messages: Select All, Unselect All, Invert, Mark Read, Mark Unread, and Collect. Instructors will also see Lock, Unlock, and Remove; these will enable them to take control of messages (to prevent the author from changing them) or delete them.
- Click on the message subject to read its contents. The window looks much like many other newsgroup windows.
- Click the Reply button at the bottom to respond to the message board. Click on the author's email address to send that person a personal response via email. Note: clicking on the author's address will either launch the browser's email program, or your preferred email program if it is running in the background.
- In the reply/new message window, simply type your response. It can be plain text or it can contain HTML. Depending on how the instructor set up the board, users may be allowed to send an attachment along with the message. Scroll down the screen to see the original message to which you are responding. When you are done composing the message, click Preview to read through your message or Submit to post it to the message board.
- Searching: When you first enter a discussion board, there is a Search button on the right hand side of the screen (near expand and collapse). Click Submit to look through all message fields to look for your keywords:
- The search will generate a list of messages that contain the criteria you specified. Click on the link to read the message in which you are interested.
- Archived messages: If the instructor has archived older discussion board messages, they will no longer show up with the rest of the messages. Instead, they will appear once you click on Archives. Then the archived messages, as well as any new messages, will appear together.
Archiving messages -- Instructors only
The instructor may archive a discussion board and all of its postings by clicking on the Archives link. If none exist, a message will say so. Then the instructor may create the archive by clicking Add Archive. Give the Archive a title and description and click Submit. Note: if you want the messages to remain available to the students, make sure to check the box by "The archive and its messages are available to students" at the bottom of the screen. Once you submit, you may select the archive. You will see that there are no messages. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select the threads you want included in the archive; click Submit. Once messages are archived, they do not initially show up with the rest of the messages. Click on Archives and the archived messages, as well as any new messages, all appear together.
