Student Course Tools

Discussion Board

The Discussion Board tool lets you participate in conversations that enhance your course. Blackboard groups conversations in threads that contain a main posting and all replies to the main posting. The Discussion Board Forum page is the first page you access when you click on the Discussion Board link from the Course view.

Reading/Responding to a Thread

From the Course view:

1. Click on the Discussion Boards link in the Communication section.
2. Click on the Discussion link of the discussion you want to enter.
3. Click on the Thread link that you want to read.
   
   

If you want to respond to the thread:

4. Click on the Reply button.
   
5. Type information in the appropriate text fields.
6. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click on the Submit button.

Options:

• Post Message as Anonymous – Enable this option to not let other users know you posted the message.
  Note: Your instructor must have this option enabled for it to show up. If you do not see it, your instructor has disabled this option.
• Attachment – Use this option to upload a supplementary file with your posting.

Creating a New Thread

From the Course view:

1. Click on the Discussion Board link in the Communication section.
2. Click on the Discussion link of the discussion you want to enter.
3. Click on the Add New Thread button.
   
4. Type information in the appropriate text fields.
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click on the Submit button.

Options:

• Post Message as Anonymous – Enable this option to not let other users know you posted the message.
  Note: Your instructor must have this option enabled for it to show up. If you do not see it, your instructor has disabled this option.
• Attachment – Use this option to upload a supplementary file with your posting.

Searching the Forum

From the Course view:

1. Click on the Discussion Board link in the Communication section.
2. Click on the Discussion link of the discussion you want to enter.
3. Click on the Search button.
   
4. Click on a Search radio button.
5. Choose the users you want the search to return from the By Author list.
6. Type your search in the Keywords text field.
   
7. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click on the Submit button.

Search Options:

• All – Use this option to search all text in the forum.
• Subject – Use this option to search only the subjects of the messages.
• Subject & Body – Use this option to search the subject and body message of the posts.

Sort By Options:

• Default – The default sort option is Date.
• Author – Use this option to sort by the authors’ last names.
• Date – Use this option to sort by the messages’ dates.
• Subject – Use this option to sort by the messages’ subjects.

Display Options:

• Messages per page – Use this option to set how many search results Blackboard returns per page.
• Expand messages – Enable this option to display the message body of each thread it returns.

Collecting Discussion Threads

This will allow you to read all the postings on one page.

From the Course view:

1. Click on the Discussion Board link in the Communication section.
2. Click on the Discussion link of the discussion you want to enter.
3. Click on the Show Options tab.
   
4. Click on the Select All button.
5. Click on the Collect All button.

More Information

Q: How do I add a file to my thread?
A: Use the Attachment option to upload files with your post.
Note: All files should have a three letter file extension (such as .doc or .htm) that designates its file type. File names should not contain spaces or special characters, except for the underscore (_) and only one period before the file extension (such as HomeWorkOne.doc).