Discussions settings

Access Discussions tool settings

Do one of the following:

• On the Discussions List page, click Settings.
• Click Edit Course on the navbar, click Discussions, then click Settings on the Discussions List page.

Org Unit Settings

Org unit settings apply to all users and all forums and topics in your course.

Shared Display Settings  Controls whether shared forums and topics display in the Forums & Topics List in your course offering. If you clear this option, users cannot access shared forums and topics from within your course offering.

Rate Posts  Turns the post ratings control on or off for all topics within the course offering. See Rating discussion posts.

Personal Settings

Personal settings control the way you view posts inside a topic. These settings apply to all course offerings wherever you access discussions, but do not affect other users.

Display Settings  The following display settings are available:

• Show the Discussion Topics List  Use this setting to show or hide the list of topics. Hide it to save space or show it to switch between topics quickly.
• Display deleted posts  Use this setting to display deleted posts when browsing topics. You must have permission to see deleted posts.

Default View  The following default views are available:

• Grid View  The Grid View resembles a traditional email reader where each post’s subject, author, and date appear in a list without the full text of the post. To read a post, click the subject; the full text displays in a separate area.

Note  Your organization's version of Learning Environment might not include Grid View. Grid View has been deprecated and will be removed in an upcoming release.

• Reading View  The Reading View shows the full text of all posts in a single view. You read posts by selecting a thread. You can then scroll through the page without having to select posts from the thread and read them one at a time.

Reply Settings  Use this setting to automatically include the original post by default when composing a reply.

Grid View Settings

Topic Descriptions  Controls whether topic descriptions display in the Message List. You can turn off this feature to save space for users with small screens and instead use pinned posts to provide explanations or instructions. See Creating a thread in Discussions.

Default Threading Style  The following threading styles are available:

• Threaded  Group posts together with their replies.
• Unthreaded   Sort posts by author, date, subject, Post ID, or average rating.

Display Settings  The following display settings are available:

• Show the preview pane  Use this setting to open posts in a preview pane at the bottom of the screen or in a pop-up window. Select this option to use the preview pane; clear it to use a pop-up window.
• Show the search bar  Use the search bar to search for posts. You can also show or hide the search bar by clicking Show Search or Hide Search from the More Actions button inside a topic.

Post Fields to Display  You can choose to display the following fields:

• Post ID  Use this setting to see ID numbers when viewing posts.
• Org Defined ID  Use this setting to see ID numbers beside author names.

Character Limits  Use this setting to display a limited number of characters of each post’s subject to save screen space. Select the check box and enter the maximum Subject Characters to Display.