LSU Online: Online Learning Tools and Collaboration: Discussion Forums

LSU Online: Online Learning Tools and Collaboration: Discussion Forums

Discussions Forums are for sharing thoughts and ideas about class materials. A discussion is an area where a topic or a group of related topics are discussed. In crafting your discussion post or reply, students have the option to attach files or upload/embed video and images. Discussions are typically set up to allow threaded replies. A thread is a chain of posts created within the discussion that focuses on a single topic. Instructors have the option to set up the Discussion Forum from five sub-types:

1.  Standard Forum for General Use - all participants in the course can create an unlimited number of discussion topic threads.
2.  Standard forum displayed in a Blog-type format - all participants can create an unlimited number of discussion topic threads.
3.  Q & A forum - students must submit a reply to the initial discussion post before viewing the replies of other participants.
4.  Each person posts one discussion - every participant in the course is allowed to create only one discussion topic thread. Replying to other posts is unlimited.
5.  A single simple post - the text in the Forum Introduction becomes the initial discussion topic post. Replies are unlimited, but no additional discussion topics can be added.