Within a discussion forum you will find Topics to discuss. A forum can therefore have multiple topics (For example, a forum titled Democracy vs. Dictatorship can have a topic Arguments for Democracy/Dictatorship, and a topic Arguments against Democracy/Dictatorship).
- Navigate to Course Tools in the navbar.
- Click 'Discussions'.
- Click 'New' and then 'New Topic'.
If there are already forums on the Discussion homepage, you can also click on the arrow behind the name of a forum and select 'Add topic' there.
- Select the forum to which you want to link the topic.
- Under Topic Type, select whether everyone in the course can access this topic (Open Topic) or whether all students can see the topic but only see threads within the group they belong to (Group or Section Topic).
- Add a title.
- Optionally, add a description.
- Under Options, choose:
- Allow anonymous posts if you allow anonymous posts. You and students no longer see who posted which message.
- Users must create a thread... if each student must first post before he/she can read other people's posts or post comments.
- A moderator must... if you want to approve posts before they become visible.
Under Review publications you can set whether students are allowed to rate responses. You can choose:
- No ratings if no one can rate;
- Five-star rating scheme if participants in the discussion can rate posts on a scale of one to five;
- Up Vote/Down Vote Rating Scheme if participants can rate the discussion posts up or down;
- Up Vote Only Rating scheme if participants in the discussion posts can only upgrade.
Click 'Save and Close' to return to the Discussions homepage or click 'Save and New' to create another topic.