About discussions

Class discussions are essential in developing critical thinking and interpersonal communication. Through discussions, students can share opinions, perspectives, and ideas with others. When done respectfully, a good discussion can help students process and express new concepts. Here are some best practices:

1. Offer a discussion goal. Some groups might struggle when they are given an open-ended prompt to discuss. Try adding a discussion goal. They can:

   • Agree: Decide on a consensus, on a position they all agree to

   • Brainstorm: Exhaust all possible ideas, and document them

   • KWL: Organize their group’s collective knowledge into things they Know, things they Want to know about, and things they have Learned (KWL)

2. Set discussion norms. Provide specifications such as time (how long can we engage in the discussion?), roles (who can speak, who takes down notes?), and mechanics (how do we respond to each other?). Norms allow all learners to participate in discussions.

3. Use discussion stems. When students are not adept in sharing ideas or opinions, try providing stems they can use to start their contributions. This particularly helps shy students, or those who are not confident in verbally expressing their thoughts. Some examples:

   • I used to think ____, but now I think….

   • Have you considered _____?

   • What we both agree on is ________

   • As a _______, I think that _______.

   • Let me explain why I see that differently….

   • What makes you say that?

In Brightspace, Discussions are asynchronous, and easy to set up. You will encounter four terms in Brightspace Discussions: forums, topics, threads, and posts. These terms can help you label and organize the content. Forums are the largest unit, while posts are the smallest. Forums contain topics. Topics contain threads. Threads contain posts. Here’s an example:

Making a discussion forum

A Forum is the largest unit that contains topics. Here is how to make a new forum:

1. Go to Discussions in the navigation bar.

2. From Discussions, click New, and select New Forum.

3. Give your forum a Title. A description is optional, but useful to provide more information to your students about the topics that will be covered.

4. Select the options you want to apply to the forum, such as:

   • Allowing anonymous posts

   • Requiring a moderator to review the comments learners make prior to posting them

   • Ensuring users to start a thread before they can read and reply to other threads

5. Afterwards, go to the Restrictions tab to set availability and locking details. You can add specific dates where learners can access and respond to topics inside the forum.

6. When done, click Save and Close. Your forum should appear in the Discussions section.

Making a discussion topic

All topics should belong to a forum. This also helps you organize discussions so it’s easier to find them when you need to check the progress of your students or review old threads.

1. Go to Discussions in the navigation bar.

2. From Discussions, click New, and select New Topic.

3. All discussion topics are contained within forums. Select the forum that will house your topic from the Forum drop-down list or create a new forum using New Forum.

4. Then, select your Topic Type. There are two types of topics, open topics, where all learners can contribute, and groups or section topics, that restrict contribution to the specified group or section.

5. Scroll down to Title, and give a title to your topic. Descriptions are optional, but helpful to provide additional context or instructions for learners.

6. Select the options that you want to apply to the topic, such as:

   • the ability for learners to post anonymously

   • requiring that a moderator approve posts before they display

   • requiring that learners start a thread before they can read and reply to others' threads

7. Scroll down to Rate Posts. Here you can apply a rating scheme to your discussion topic. This allows readers to rate posts using one of three methods: Five Star, Up Vote/Down Vote, or Up Vote only.

8. After, navigate to the Restrictions section. You can set multiple settings there including:

   • Date availability: when would learners have access to this topic?

   • Locking option: if a topic is locked, learners can still see the content but they can’t participate until it is unlocked.

9. When you are ready, click Save and Close. The topic should be displayed inside the forum, in the Discussions List.