Discussions

The discussion tool is the central location for accessing and participating in all discussions that are located within a course. Each discussion is an area where users discuss a topic or a group of related topics.

Discussions offer an important vehicle for interpersonal interaction and can serve a range of purposes:

• An online meeting place for social interaction among peers.
• An additional medium for collaboration and the exchange of ideas.
• A medium to pose questions about homework assignments, readings, and course content.
• A way to demonstrate the understanding or application of course material.
• A record of discussion that users can review at a later point.
• A graded activity to evaluate responses.

On the discussion page instructors may enable the setting to allow learners to create a new discussion in the course. Instructors can add a discussion from within the discussion page area or directly to the course content outline. Users can participate by navigating to the discussion page, navigating to the course activity from the course content outline, or responding from the activity stream.

Instructors can indicate how many posts and replies that the learners need to perform for credit.