Create a discussion forum

Use forums to organize your discussion topics into categories. Your course can have multiple forums and topics, but you must create a forum before you can create a topic since all topics belong to forums.

Important: For the August 2021/20.21.8 release, your administrator can choose to opt-in to a new workflow that makes it easier for you to set visibility and posting restrictions for discussion forums and topics. If your administrator turns on the new workflow, Locking Options are consolidated with the Availability Start Date and End Date options. For more information on these changes, see the Changes To Availability And Locking Dates For A Consolidated Dates Workflow blog post.

  1. On the navbar, click Discussions.
  2. On the Discussions List page, from the New button drop-down menu, click New Forum.
  3. Enter a title for your new forum.
  4. Enter a description for your new forum.
  5. In the Options section, select any of the following check boxes:
    • Allow anonymous posts - To enable users to post anonymously.
    • A moderator must approve individual posts before they display in the forum - To ensure that posts are approved by a moderator before they display in the forum.
    • Users must start a thread before they can read and reply to other threads in each topic - To ensure user participation.
    • Display forum descriptions in topics - To provide instructors the option to display a discussion forum description within a discussion topic description.
  6. In the Restrictions tab, set the following options:
    • Availability options specify when learners can access (or view) a forum based on a specific date set by you. For example, you can set a date to make a discussion forum available to learners after the end date for finishing a course module.
    • Locking Options specify if learners can post or reply to a forum based on a specific date set by you. For example, you can set a date to lock a discussion forum after making it available, giving learners time to read and understand the discussion forum, but not post replies. You can also set a date to unlock the forum several days later, allowing learners to post their well thought out replies.
      Note: If the new workflow for setting availability and posting restrictions is enabled, set the following options:
      • Visible with access restricted before start/end. The forum is visible to learners before or after the start or end date, but they cannot access it.
      • Visible with submission restricted before start/end. The forum is visible to learners before or after the start or end date and they can access it, but they cannot post new threads or replies. This effectively makes a discussion read-only.
      • Hidden before start/end. The forum is hidden from learners until the start or end date. Calendar events for Availability Start and Availability End are hidden until the start or end date. Notifications are also not sent until the start or end date.
  7. Click Save and Close.