Creating Forums

Creating a Forum

Forums divide the discussion board into general topics such as Lectures, Projects, and Questions & Discussion.

• Only instructors can create forums for both the whole class or restricted to specific groups:
  • To create a class forum, access your discussion board by going to Control Panel > Course Tools > Discussion Board > discussion board name. Click the button in the upper left labeled Create Forum.

• After clicking on the Create Forum button, you will see the following form that needs to be filled out.
• For Name, enter a title for the forum.

• For Description, enter a brief description of your forum.

• Select Yes for Available to let students use this forum. You may wish to select No if you are preparing forums in advance and do not want your students to see them just yet.
• Choose date and time restrictions makes a forum appear on the Blackboard course page during a specified time period. Simply check the box(s) which you wish to apply and set their date and time. You still have to select Yes for Available if you wish to use this feature.

• Pick your preferred Forum Settings:
  • Allow anonymous posts: participants will have the option to omit their name from their posts.
  • Allow author to remove own posts: participants will be able to delete their own posts. If checked, you must specify between All posts or Only posts with no replies. If not checked, only a moderator will be able to delete published posts.
  • Allow author to edit own published posts: participants will be able to edit the text in their posts after they are initially published. If not checked, only a moderator will be able to modify published posts.
  • Allow post tagging: allows forum managers to create tags and associate them with threads and posts. Participants will then be able to search and filter using those tags, but will not be able to create new ones or make associations.
  • Allow users to reply with quote: participants will be able to include a quote from the post they are replying to in their own.
  • Allow file attachments: participants will be able to upload a file and attach it to their post.
  • Allow members to create new threads: participants will be able to make threads within forums. If unchecked, participants will only be able to reply to a thread started by an instructor.
  • Subscribe: select whether or not board members will have an option to receive e-mails when a new post is created within a thread or a forum. If you choose to allow subscriptions, you must specify between sending the whole message (Include body of post in the email) or sending a link (Include link to post).
  • Allow members to rate posts: allows members to rate participants' posts on a scale of zero to five stars.
  • Force moderation of posts: participants' posts will have to be approved by a forum manager or moderator before becoming published for everyone to read.
  • Grade: if the contributions to the discussion board are graded, the points earned by students will feed into the grade center.

• Submit.
• After a forum has been added to the discussion board, you may go back and change it by clicking on the options menu button to the right of the forum's name, and selecting Edit. You can also manage user roles for the forum by clicking Manage.

Creating a Group Forum

• To create a group forum, go to Communication > Group Pages > group name > Group Discussion Board, then click on the button in the upper left labeled Create Forum. Note that to use the group discussion board, the feature must be enabled in the Group Properties. See Creating Small Groups for more information.