How to Create a Group Discussion

Group discussions encourage students to communicate and collaborate on coursework. Group discussion boards are separate from regular course discussion boards. Only members of the group can create and contribute to group discussions. Follow the steps below to set up a group discussion in your Blackboard course.

Step-by-Step Guide

How to Create Group Discussions

  1. Follow the steps for creating a group.
  2. Click on Course Tools and select Discussion Board.
    Click on Course Tools and select the Discussion Board.
     
  3. Select the group you would like to create a discussion for.
    Select a group from the list that you want to create the discussion for.
     
  4.  Click Create Forum to start a new discussion.
    Click Create Forum to start a new discussion
     
    Please Note: The first time you do this, you will notice that by default, you already have a forum called (Group Name) Discussion. You can either edit this forum or you can delete it and start fresh.
  5. Give the forum a name.
    forum information
     
  6. Make the forum available and set date restrictions if you'd like.
    Chose the desired forum availability settings.
     
  7. Set the desired Forum Settings.
    Choose the forum settings for the discussion.
     
    1. Viewing Threads/Replies: The options in this section determine how students view threads within the forum.
      1. Standard View: Selecting this option will allow students to view all the threads and replies that have been posted to the forum.
      2. Participants must create a thread in order to view other threads in this forum: Selecting this option will prevent students from seeing other students' posts until they create a post of their own. 
    2. Grade: This section allows instructors to enable grading for the discussion forum.
      1. No Grading in Forum: Select this option to leave the forum un-graded.
      2. Grade Discussion Forum: Points Possible: Select this option to assign a grade for the discussion forum and enter the total points possible in the space provided. 
      3. Grade Threads: This option allows instructors to specify points and grade individual threads in Blackboard. 
    3. Subscribe: This section allows instructors to enable subscription options for the forum.
      1. Do not allow subscriptions: Choose this option to disable students from subscribing to the forum.
      2. Allow members to subscribe to threads: Choose this option to allow students to select threads to subscribe to
      3. Allow members to subscribe to forum: Choose this option to allow students to subscribe to the entire forum.
      4. Include body of post in the email: Choose this option to allow students to see the entire post in the email.
      5. Include link to post: Choose this option to create a direct link to the post in the subscription email only.
    4. Create and Edit: This option allows instructors to determine students' ability to edit their posts.
      1. Allow Anonymous Posts: If this option is enabled, it allows students to post anonymously to the forum.  Generally this option is not recommended.
      2. Allow Author to delete own posts: Check this option to allow students to delete posts they have created.  This option is not recommended in graded discussion forums. 
      3. Allow Author to Edit Own Published Posts: Enabling this option allows students to edit their posts once they post them. This option is not recommended for use in graded forums.
      4. Allow Members to Create Own Threads: Check this option to allow students to create their own threads. Note: Deselecting this option will prevent students from using the discussion board unless the instructor creates threads to which students can reply.  If no thread is available, students will only be able to reply to a thread created by the instructor.
      5. Allow File Attachments: Check this option to allow students to attach files to their discussion posts.
      6. Allow Users to Reply with Quote: Check this option to allow users to quote existing students' posts in their replies.
      7. Force Moderation of Posts: If this option is selected, students do not see their posts immediately after posting.  Instead, the posts are placed in a moderation queue for the course instructor to review or release.
    5. Additional Options: This section allows instructors to modify additional options related to the discussion forum setup.
      1. Allow Post Tagging: Enabling this option allows users to tag posts with their own comments.
      2. Allow Members to Rate Posts: Enabling this option allows users to rate other students' posts on a five-point scale.
  8. When finished with setting up the discussion forum, click the Submit button at the bottom of the page.
     
Please Note: The process of creating group discussion forums would need to be repeated for each course group.

Copying a Forum to Other Groups:  If you want all groups to discuss the same topic, you can copy the forum to the other groups. Unfortunately, You can only copy one forum at a time.
  1. Put your cursor to the right of the forum name until you see the options menu (gray arrow).
    Click the options menu to the right of the forum's name.
     
  2. Choose Copy.
    Select copy to copy the forum
     
  3. Name the forum and choose the desired copy options.
    Select the copy options.
     
  4. Then select the name of the group you would like to copy that forum into.
    Select the new group you want to copy the forum too.
     
  5. Click Submit
     

References

For additional information refer the Group Discussion help page from Blackboard.
 

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Details

Article ID: 114340
Created
Thu 8/20/20 9:34 AM
Modified
Fri 11/13/20 12:32 PM