What's New
Blackboard 7.3: What’s New in the Discussion Board
Discussion Board [Watch the Tutorial--from Blackboard]
Many Discussion Board features have stayed the same. Instructors still have to create a forum, students still use threads, and instructors and students reply to threads the same way. However, there are new features that you may find useful.
Entering the Discussion Board through the Control Panel
If you enter the Discussion Board through the Control Panel, you'll notice that the screen has changed. You'll be able to access the course Discussion Board, here its the course name: BB100.00 as well as the Group Discussion Boards. The Course Discussion Board will display the Forums created in that area while the Group Discussion Boards will display the Forums create in each individual group.
Add/Modify Forum
Generally, adding or modifying a Forum is similar to the old process, however, new features have been added. Macintosh users will be happy to know that the text box is not cross-platform compatible. The big news is that instructors will be able to create Forums at the beginning of the course and make them available when you choose!
New Forum Settings
- Remove Posts - Instructors have always had the option to Allow Author to Remove Posts. Now you can further define the feature by allowing the author to remove posts or only posts with no replies.
- Tagging - This feature is similar to using a key word or term. Instructors can "tag" messages with search terms. Instructors create the "tags" while students can only collect the messages using the instructor delineated tags.
- Allow users to reply with quote - All users can reply to a message using the Quote button which places the original email message in the body of the reply message.
- Subscribe - Students can subscribe to an entire Forum which will automatically email notifications whenever postings are made on the board. Instructors can choose whether they want to allow students to subscribe to an entire forum or to threads. Instructors can activate subscriptions using the Modify link to change the Forum Settings.
- Rate Posts - The Discussion Board is the perfect place in a course for peer review. Each student may start a thread and include their work in the initial post. Other students then review the work, assign a rating to the initial post, and include comments in a response. As users respond, the feedback expands as users reinforce and build on points made by other students.
- Force Moderation of Posts - Moderating posts requires that all posts are reviewed by a responsible party before the content is shared with the class. Instructors by default are given the Manager role and he/she may delegate responsibility for reviewing posts to a Moderator. If moderation is enabled, when a user other than a Moderator or Manager submits a post, the post is saved to the Moderation Queue. New posts are displayed in the queue for review and publication. If a post is returned, a return message can be attached to the post allowing the Moderator to inform the user why the post was not accepted for publication. Note: Force Moderation of posts disables the ability to change the status of a post to published, hidden, unavailable, lock and unlock in the Change to: dialog box.
- Assigning Grades -
The Grade Forum users page appears. You can easily see how many posts students have made and by clicking on the Grade icon, can assign a grade to each student.
Forums List Page - General Overview
Student View 
- Any user can identify forums that contain unread posts, number of participants, and total number of posts by using the Forum List Page headers.
- Any user can search for specific messages in all of the forums listed on the Forum List page, other Discussion Boards, or Group forums created within courses by using the Search tools. Searches can be limited or expanded to include current forum, current thread, or all forums in the course.
Instructor View
- Instructors can change the display order of the forums by using the Display Order fields.
- Instructors can assign grades by clicking on the Grade Icon located on the Discussion Board page.
- Instructors can modify forum settings by clicking on the Modify button (as seen above). Instructors will be able to use new functions including: setting dates for Discussion Board forums, post tagging, allow users to reply with a quote, subscribing to Forum/Threads, allow members to rate posts, and moderate posts.
- Instructors can manage users within a particular forum by clicking the Manage button. In this version of Blackboard, instructors can assign roles to students. The participant role is the default.
Forum Role
A role type that is assigned to all members of the Discussion Board for each forum and enables specific privileges within the forum. A user may have one role per forum, however, a user’s role in each forum may differ.
Blocked
A forum role that blocks the user from accessing the forum.
Reader
A forum role that grants the user the rights to read the contents of a forum. Users with this role may only view content and cannot add or respond to posts.
Participant
(Default Setting) A forum role that grants the user read and write privileges in the forum.
Grader
A forum role that grants the user Participant privileges as well as the Grading privileges for the forum.
Moderator
A forum role that grants Participant privileges as well as the ability to modify, delete, and lock posts. If a Moderation Queue is used, the Moderator may also approve or reject posts in the queue.
Manager
A forum role that grants all privileges.
- Instructors can copy whole forums from this page by clicking the Copy button.
Now you can copy a Discussion Board to another Discussion Board in your course.For instance, you may want to put a discussion in each group that you've created through Managing Groups. With the new Copy feature you'll be able to copy the forum to each group.
Note 1: You cannot select multiple locations at one time.
You have the choice of copying all the threads in that forum using the Entire Forum option or just the Forum itself using the Forum Settings only option.
Note 2: You cannot copy Discussion Boards to another course without using the Course Copy feature.
Archiving Threads - Instructors no longer have the option of archiving threads. Instead, instructors are able to change the status of a post to published, hidden, unavailable, lock and unlock in the Change to: dialog box. This feature is only available in the List View setting (see below--Tree view and List View)
Locked Thread |
A thread that is visible for reading but cannot be modified. Users may not post to a locked thread. |
Unavailable Thread |
A thread that is hidden and inaccessible to all users except forum Managers. |
Hidden Thread |
A Thread that is locked and not visible by default. Users may view hidden threads by enabling the Display Hidden Threads feature. |
Moderation Queue |
A list of posts that must be approved before they will appear in the Discussion Board. |
Tree View and List View [Click here to see comparison]
Now you have a choice when viewing student posts. The List View displays a list of all threads while the Tree View looks similar to the old Discussion Board. The Tree View expand all option allows easy navigation within threads and from one thread to another.
Discussion Board Statistics
Discussion Board statistics are now a part of the Performance Dashboard. The total number of forums in which the user has participated is displayed for each user in this column. Clicking on the number in this column directs the instructor to a user detail page that displays links to all forums in which the user has participated and usage statistics for the user in each forum. Statistics displayed include:
- Total Posts
- Date of Last Post
- Average Post Length
- Minimum and Maximum Post Lengths
- Average Post Position
Additionally, the instructor can grade discussion board participation from this page.
Also available are general statistics under Course Statistics. Choose the Accesses by Forum filter to view the statics.
