Using and Managing Discussions in Brightspace (Faculty)

Use the Discussions tool in your course to encourage users to share thoughts on course material with their peers. You can set up forums and topics for users to ask questions, discuss course content and assignments, and work together in assigned groups and sections.

Summary

Use the Discussions tool in your course to encourage users to share thoughts on course material with their peers. You can set up forums and topics for users to ask questions, discuss course content and assignments, and work together in assigned groups and sections.

Information Applies to

Faculty

Creating a Discussion

Discussions are structured with forums and topics. Discussion forums are the "folder" structure for discussion topics. Topics must exist within a forum. Topics and forums can be named the same thing.

1. From the navbar, select Discussions.
2. Select New button and choose New Forum. (Before you can create a discussion topic, you need to create a discussion forum to contain the topic.)
3. Name the new forum and select the Save and Add Topic button. This will cause the new forum to be created as well as take you to the dialogs for creating a topic.
4. Under Topic Type, Open topic, everyone can access this topic and its content should be selected. This means that all students can read all responses in every thread.
5. Title your topic for the forum, enter the discussion question in the Description box. If you want your students to post their reply before seeing other students' replies, scroll down and click the box that says Users must start a thread before they can read and reply to other threads.
6. Next you may want to set visibility of your topic. Just below the title of the topic is a series of tabs, click on Restrictions. Here you control when the topic is visible to your students in Brightspace.
7. Save and close.

To set up group discussions, or individual student discussions, visit the D2L Brightspace Community.

Evaluating a Discussion

There are a few ways to assess and provide feedback on discussions.

Option 1: From a discussion topic, select the down arrow and then Assess Topic. Select the student's Topic Score. This will show all initial posts and replies. You can add a score, provide text or audio feedback, or attach a file.

Option 2: From the gradebook, click on the discussion icon. This will take you to the assessment page for the discussion.

Additional Video Tutorials

• Add a rubric to a discussion
• Create individual discussion topics
• Get discussion statistics
• Moderate discussions

Learn More

For more information on discussions, visit the D2L Brightspace Community or YouTube page.

Need additional information or assistance? Contact WSU TLT by email, phone (507.457.5240, option 3), or Zoom.