The Discussion on Topic tool lets a teacher post a discussion prompt to which students can respond. Students can respond to the discussion prompt by creating one or more posts. Subsequently, students can reply on each other's comments to discuss the topic. Students can express their agreement on comments by upvoting the comment.
After you have created a new Discussion on Topic in your LMS, you will see the following screen.
Step 1: Instructions
If the teacher wants to create a new assignment, start with filling out the title. Depending on your LMS, the title that is set when creating the assignment in the LMS is already copied here.
At the instructions step, the teacher is able to provide the students information about the use and aim of the assignment. Furthermore, the teacher can mention the minimum of posts the students should make and advise reading the discussion prompt carefully.
Step 2: Discussion Posts
In step two, the teacher can post the discussion prompt. Additionally, a deadline can be set for when the students must have read the prompt. Moreover, a required amount of posts students must make, and a minimum length can be set.
In the scheduling headlines option, the teacher can choose if they want to allow students who didn’t post, to still be able to reply.
When the last option 'Anonymity' is enabled, students post with an anonymous name, however the student is still visible to the teacher.
Step 3: Peer discussion
During step three, students will be able to reply to the posts of their fellow students. In this step can further be explained what sort of replies are expected. Furthermore, the teacher can set a deadline for when the replies must be made. A required number of replies per student can be set.
Step 4: Grading
In step four, the teacher can add the grading for the assignment. Do not forget to save the assignment when the setup is finalized.
This concludes the Setting up Discussion on Topic tutorial.
If you have any questions or experience a technical issue, please contact our friendly support team by clicking on the blue chat button (Note: support is available 24h every weekday & unavailable on the weekend).
