How to Create and Manage Discussion Board Forums
Discussion forums and discussion groups serve several purposes in an online learning course:
  • They give students a feeling of belonging to a group rather than being isolated with their computer.
  • They encourage communication among students and between students and teacher.
  • They provide an opportunity for every member of the entire class or a smaller group within the class to participate. Unlike a classroom discussion where sometimes only the most vocal members participate, an online discussion requires comments by every member of the class, and every member of the group can see the comments of everyone in that group.

Teachers can use the Announcements section of the course to leave a message on the home page of the course for everyone in the class to read, but these announcements are informational. They do not provide the opportunity for dialogue. Teachers and student can use the e-mail feature of the Communication section to send messages to one person or several people at once, but since every student has a different email address, the student receiving the message thinks that he or she is the only one receiving the message. The Discussion Board, however, gives students a chance to respond to messages submitted by the teacher. In order for a student to use the Discussion Board, the teacher must first create a discussion forum. Follow these steps to set up a forum on the Discussion Board:
  1. From any page in the Blackboard course, click on the Discussion Board button.
  2. When the Discussion Board page appears, click on the Add Forum button.
  3. Then type a brief title for the forum in the title box and a brief description, which may include instructions for participating or a link to Student Discussions for further instructions on how to particpate.
  4. Before clicking on "Submit" at the bottom of the "Add Forum" screen, check the options appropriate for the activity. If the discussion forum is an informal evaluation, you may want the students to participate anonymously. If the activity will be a graded one, remove the default check on "anonymous." If you want the students to create their own discussion threads, leave that box checked or uncheck it if you want students to respond to your discussion thread prompts. If so, then you will need to enter the discussion forum after you click "submit" and then create your own discussion thread with further instructions.

Note: If the teacher wants only a few students to participate in a discussion on a particular subject, the teacher would set up a group through the Control Panel and then return to the course, enter the group, and create a discussion forum on the group discussion board. Click here to learn how to set up a group and then a discussion forum on that group's discussion board.

If you want the discussion to be a graded activity, follow these steps:

  1. Click on the Control Panel button.
  2. From the Control Panel page, click on the "Online Gradebook" link.
  3. From the Online Gradebook page, click on the "Spreadsheet View" link.
  4. Create a gradebook entry for the discussion activity by clicking on the Add Item button. When the "Add Gradebook Item" page appears, type a brief name in the "Enter Item Information" box. Then select the type of activity, enter the points for the discussion activity, choose whether you want the gradebook entry to be visible to students at this time in the course, and finally click "Submit" at the bottom of the screen.
  5. Note: Be sure that the learning module contains instructions and a purpose for participating in the discussion and that the schedule of assignments also refers to the discussion activity.
  6. Read the discussion regularly and reply to the entire group's messages in the discussion forum itself or via email to one member if the reply is private. (A teacher can also modify the discussion forum and block the participation of a participant who is not respectful or others in the group.)
  7. Enter a grade in the gradebook soon after the deadline for participation.

Tip: When evaluating students' participation in a group, open two browser windows. Use one to read comments by students. Use the other to enter grades in the gradebook. It may also help you to click the "Show Options" button in the discussion forum, check the "Select All" option, and then the "Collect" option to see all responses by all students rather than just the discussion comments in one discussion thread. For further advice, please read Discussion Board Options.