Discussions (Discussion Groups)

Discussion Groups are as easy to use as e-mail, however, all messages posted to the discussion groups are public and can be read by everyone who has access to those discussion groups. You can use the bulletin board to send a document such as a Word or Excel file, or a web page to everyone in the class.

Discussion Groups can be divided into separate areas for discussing different topics. Your instructor can limit which students can access certain topics.

Basic Use

When you first enter Discussions, your browser should look like this:

Discussion

  • Show All shows every message in the bulletin board, even if you have read it before.
  • When you click on this, it will change to Show Unread , and
  • Clicking on Show Unread will show only the new messages that you have not read.
  • Mark All As Read marks all of the messages as having been read (without you having to read them).
  • Update Listing checks to see if any new messages have been posted recently.
  • Search lets you search for a topic with certain criteria
  • If you'd like to email the group, use Compose Discussion Message

Composing Messages

Click the "Compose" link to create a new message that is not a reply to someone else's message (you are starting a new subject). If you want to answer someone else's previous message, you should click the link for "Reply," (see below ) then follow these same instructions. After you click "Compose," you will see the following window:

Message Composition Window

  1. First choose the "Topic" that you want your message to appear in. Often you can leave that as "Main" which is the main area for your course, but your instructor may create additional topics. For instance, the instructors of the Shaping a Life course have created topics for the various assignments in the course.
  2. Type a subject in the "Subject" area to summarize your message.
  3. Type your message in the larger box. If you know the HTML codes for creating web pages, you can type them in this box to format your text.
  4. To send your message, click the "Post" button. If you want to see what it will look like before you post it, you can click the "Preview" button.

Attaching Documents

If you want to send a Microsoft Word document, an Excel spreadsheet, a picture, or a web page to the rest of the class, you need to attach the document before you post the message:

  1. Click the "Browse" button on the Compose Discussion Message page. If you do not see a "Browse" button, click the "Attach" button first.
  2. Find the document you want to attach, and open it. You will see its name appear in the box.
  3. Click the "Attach File" button. Once the file is attached, its name should appear as a link under the "Browse" button.
  4. You can add more documents by clicking "Browse" again and repeating the previous steps.
  5. You can delete an unnecessary attachment by clicking on the box next to it and then clicking the "Remove Attachments" button.
  6. Once you are finished with attachments, you can continue working on your main body text or clicking "Post" to send your message as usual.

Reading and Replying to Messages

Reading a message is very easy. On the top-right of your browser window you will see a list of messages with the names of the people who sent them. Just click on the name of one of the people and you will see their message appear in the bottom-right of your browser.

To Reply to the message you are reading, click on the word "Reply" that is immediately above the text of the message. You will see the same box for composing messages, but the topic will already be set to the same topic as the message to which you are replying.

There is also a"Mail" link, however this does not send regular internet mail. If your class is not using the WebCT mail, do not use this mail link.

Choosing Discussion Topics

When you first come into the Discussions, you should see at the top of the list of messages the words "Topic: Main     Show: All Show: Unread. This indicates that your are currently viewing the unread messages in all of the topic areas of the Discussions. You can change that to show only the messages in one discussion topic.

  1. The "Topic" column will show you the discussion topics that your instructor has created. It will look something like this, although the names of the topics will probably be different:
    Forums choices
  2. Click on the name of the topic that you want to view, or click on "All" to see the messages in all of the topics.
  3. Your screen will now show only those messages that are in the topic you selected.