How do I use the Discussion Board in Blackboard 7.

Note: discussion boards have been substantially improved in this Blackboard release.

PDF Overview of Discussion Board

Some flash tutorials created by Blackboard:

About Discussion Boards: Blackboard Manual Guides

About participating in a forum (student perspective mostly)

1. In the side menu, click on "Discussion Board".

2. Only instructors can create forums which are the "places" for discussion in Blackboard.

To participate in the discussion click on the blue hyperlinked forum name in the forum column. (In this example - Forum 1: The significance of Luther will link you to the forum.

Anatomy of a Discussion Forum (Instructor initiated thread)

3. Discussion boards can be set up to allow students to add threads or not add threads. Above is an example of a "no threads allowed" discussion. In this example we have two threads . If you have the capability to add threads, the +Thread button will be found at the top left of the discussion.

To read and/or respond to either thread click on the posting's blue hotlink (#5 in the above diagram)

4. Once you are in a thread of your choice

Reply to a message by clicking on the hyperlinked title of the messages to select the message and then click the "Reply" button.

Type your reply in the Message box, update the "Subject" if you wish, or attach a file or image. Then click the Submit button.

Note: If you select the "Save" button, your message will NOT be posted, but only saved as a draft visible to only you. You will need to "Modify" your message and "Submit" to publish your message to the discussion.

5. There are a number of other things that can be done from this page as well.

SEARCHING:You can search for a reply within this page by typing a keyword into the search box near the top of the page or by the date and time it was created.

VIEW: You can view all responses at once by clicking on the "select all" at the bottom of the page, then click on the "collect" tab at the top left-hand side of the page just above the search box.

FLAGGING: You can also flag a response and come back to it later.

Rating: If enabled by the instructor you can rate each message in a forum.

Display Selector: By default only "Published" messages are shown. If you wish to see "hidden" or your "saved drafts", you would need to select "Show All" from the Display selector.

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