Finding and reading posts

Once a discussion gets going, new posts can come in very quickly. There are a number of places in Learning Environment that identify new posts to help you keep on top of things:

• The Updates widget on your course homepage lists the total number of unread posts for all discussion topics in your course.
• The number of unread posts appears beneath each topic in the Discussions List. To see only topics with unread posts, click Unread in the Filter by tool navigation.
• All topics that contain unread posts appear bolded if you have the Discussions List pane visible when viewing topics.
• Inside a topic, click Unread in the Filter by tool navigation.
• You can subscribe to specific discussion forums, topics, or threads to receive an email notification whenever there is a new post.

Table of contents

1. Reading posts in Discussions
2. Following a discussion forum, topic, or thread
3. Managing discussion subscriptions and settings
4. Searching for posts in Discussions
5. Marking a discussion post as read or unread
6. Flagging a post in Discussions
7. Printing posts in Discussions

Reading posts in Discussions

There are two ways to view posts inside a topic. See Discussions settings to learn how to change your view.

In the Grid View, a list of posts appears at the top of the page, showing the subject, author, and date for each post. Click on a subject line to read the post; the full text appears in the preview pane or in a new window, depending on your personal settings.

Also in the Grid View, use the View drop-down list to switch between Threaded view, where posts are grouped with their replies, and one of the Unthreaded views (All Posts, Unread Only, Flagged Only, Unapproved Only).

In the Reading View, the full text of every post always displays once you click on a thread.

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.

Following a discussion forum, topic, or thread

You can receive email and SMS notifications to discussion forums, topics, and threads that you subscribe to. Ensure your Notifications settings are set up properly.

Subscribe to notifications

1. On the Discussions List page, click Subscribe beside the forum, topic, or thread to receive notifications of new posts.
2. If you do not have an email address set up in your user profile, you will be prompted to enter your System Password and New Email in a pop-up window. Click Save.
3. In the Customize Notifications pop-up window, select your Notification Frequency. Click Subscribe.

Note  To subscribe to threads inside the Grid View, click the Subscribe icon beside any post in the thread, then click Subscribe.

Unsubscribe from notifications

1. Click Subscribed beside the forum, topic, or thread to stop receiving notifications.
2. In the confirmation pop-up window, click Yes.

Note  To unsubscribe to threads inside the Grid View, click the Unsubscribe icon beside any post in the thread, then click Yes.

Managing discussion subscriptions and settings

You can make changes to your subscriptions in Notifications and in the Subscriptions area of Discussions.

Change default frequency of notifications and email address

1. Do one of the following:
• Click Subscriptions from the tool navigation in Discussions, then click Change your notification settings.

Note  You must be subscribed to at least one forum, topic, or thread to view this option.

• Click Notifications from the personal menu on the minibar.
2. Configure your preferences on the Notifications page.
3. Click Save.

Manage subscriptions for forums, topics, or threads

1. Click Subscriptions from the tool navigation.
2. Modify your Notification Frequency settings, or unsubscribe from any forum, topic, or thread you do not want to follow.

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Searching for posts in Discussions

1. On the Discussions List page, click on the topic you want to search for posts.
2. Enter the terms you want to find in the search field and click the Search icon.

To see all posts again, click Clear Search.

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Marking a discussion post as read or unread

Posts automatically mark themselves as read when you open them. However, if you print posts to read them, you will need to manually mark them as read to indicate to the system that they are no longer new.

In some cases you might also want to manually mark a post as unread—for example, if you open it but do not finish reading it.

Mark a post read or unread

Do one of the following:

• Select Mark All Posts as Read from the thread's context menu to mark all posts in the thread as read without viewing the thread.
• To mark individual posts as unread, click Mark Post as Unread from the context menu of the post.

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Flagging a post in Discussions

If you want to return to a post at a later time, or if you want to monitor replies to a post, you should flag the post. Select Flag Post or Remove Flag from the context menu of the post to add or remove a flag. To quickly find your flagged posts, click Flagged from the Filter by tool navigation.

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Printing posts in Discussions

You can view posts in a printable format and send the posts to your printer:

1. Do one of the following:
• Select Print Thread from the context menu of a thread to print a thread.
• Select Print from the context menu of an individual post to print a post.
2. In the Printable View pop-up window, click Print.

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See also

• Setting your notifications
• Creating and replying to threads