There are two types of courses in regarding to the set up of discussion forums. Some courses have only one set of discussion forum, which is called "Discussion Board" in the Blackboard navigation area. The "Discussion Board" can be accessed by everyone in the class. In the other type of courses, students are divided to several groups. Therefore we have "Group Discussion" and "General Discussion" for those courses. The "Group Discussion" can only be accessed by the students in the same group, while "General Discussion" can be accessed by everyone in the class. The instructor(s) assign the students into groups and your name should be listed under each group discussion link.

Posting Message

The process of posting response for general discussion is same as that of group discussion. The process is shown below.

1. Log in to Blackboard
2. Find the course link to enter the course area.
3. In the navigation on the left, click on "General Discussion" (it is called "Discussion Board").
4. You will see a list of topics your professor want your class to discuss.
5. Click on the topic you want to post your answer to. e.g. "Ice Breakers"
6. If you want to start your own thread of discussion, click on the button "Add New Thread" at the top. If you want to reply to other students' post, click on his/her message, scroll down to the very bottom of the message and you will see the "Reply" button. Click on it and you should be ready to write your response in the response page.

For more information, please visit the following two video tutorials.

Blackbaord Discussion Board (1:55 minutes)

Blackbaord General Discussion, Group Discussion, Send Email, and Tools (3:07 minutes)

Discussion Board Tips

Multiple messages. For your convenience, you can read multiple messages on one page.

1. In the posts list page, click on Show Options at the upper-right of the posts list to the display options buttons.
   
2. Click on posts that you want to read.
   
3. Click on Collect button among the options buttons (the last one).

OK button. It brings you to a higher level page. For example, if you are reading a post, click OK and you will be directed to the post list page. If you are in the post listing page, click OK and you will be brought to the topic page.

"Anonymous" posting. If your instructor allows "Anonymous" posting, you can do it by checking Post Message as Anonymous below the message box.

Preview. You always can preview your message before posting it by clicking on Preview in the lower-right corner. Your text decoration will show at this mode. What you see in preview mode is exactly what you'll see in your real post when you post it. Important: do not hit the Back button on your browser in preview mode because your message will be lost if you do so.

Editing. To make changes in your message in the preview mode, click on the Back botton at the lower-right corner of the page. Avoid clicking the Back button at the top of your browser because your message will be lost if you do so.

Posting. To submit your message, click on Submit at the lower-right corner.

Review. Consider your message carefully before submitting it. Once you have submitted a post, you cannot delete it. If you feel your message must be deleted, please contact your instructor.

Attachment. You can attach a document to your discussions message, using the Attachment setting at the very bottom of Create New Message page. (Click Browse, select file, and click Open, and then the path to the file will display in the Attachment box.)

Dial-up users: Avoid Being Disconnected from Discussion Board

If you connect to your Blackboard course through a dial-up Internet connection, you can be disconnected because of "idle time limits" set by your operating system or by your Internet service provider.

If you are disconnected while typing your message, do NOT close the Blackbaord window. Instead, reconnect to the Internet. In most situations, you should be able to continue with your message where you left off.

You can do two other things to avoid idle time disconnections:

1. Compose messages in Microsoft Word and SAVE THEM to your hard drive, then copy and paste your answers into the Discussion Forum. Having Miscrosoft Word backup can avoid rewriting your answers if you fail to submit. Also keeping a record for your discussion (and other assignments too) would help you review your study material at the end of the semester to prepare final exams.
   
   
2. This page opened in a separate browser window. Keep this page open while you are typing your message. This page has been designed to refresh itself every minute. Switch over to this window occasionally while typing your answer so your connection will be active. The way to switch to this connection is to click on the link to the page on the taskbar at the bottom of your screen.

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