How to Create a Forum

This article is for instructors who wish to create a forum on their discussion board for students to use for collaboration and discussion.

A forum is an area of the discussion board where participants discuss a topic or a group of related topics. Within each forum, students can create multiple threads. A thread includes the initial post and all replies to it. You can create forums and threads to organize discussions into units or topics relevant to your course.

1. Go to the Discussion Board in your HuskyCT course.

2. Click Create Forum.

3. Enter the name of the forum.

   1. Add a description if desired, the description will show up below the forum as shown:

      Open

      

4. Under "Forum Availability," add date and time restrictions if desired. This will allow the forum to open and close at specified dates and times.

5. Choose the Forum options:

   Open

   

   1. Viewing Threads/Replies

      1. Standard View: Allows students to view the forum whether or not they have posted in the forum.

      2. Participants must create a thread in order to view other threads in this forum: Students must post a thread in the forum before being able to view the forum.

   2. Grade

      1. No Grading in Forum: The forum will not be graded in any capacity.

      2. Grade Discussion Forum: The entire forum will have one grade.

      3. Grade Threads: Each thread will have an individual grade.
         Tip: More information on grading threads can be found on Blackboard's Grade Discussion help page.

   3. Alignments: This will change how the forum is displayed to students. We recommend leaving this at the default option.

   4. Subscribe: This option will allow students to subscribe to a forum or thread so they will receive a notification each time a post is made on the forum or thread.

   5. Create and Edit

      1. Allow Anonymous Posts: This will allow students to anonymously post. Their post will be anonymous to other students but not the instructor.

      2. Allow Author to Delete Own Posts: Allows students to delete their own posts.

      3. Allow Author to Edit Own Published Posts: Allows students to edit their own posts.

      4. Allow Members to Create New Threads: Students can create new threads in the forum if this is checked.

      5. Allow File Attachments: Students can attach files to their posts.

      6. Allow Users to Reply with Quote: Allows students to include a quote of the post they are replying to.

      7. Force Moderation of Posts: Student responses must be checked by an instructor before becoming visible.

   6. Additional Options

      1. Allow Post Tagging: Allows posts to be tagged with keywords.

      2. Allow Members to Rate Posts: Allows students to rate posts from 1 to 5 stars.

6. Click Submit.

Related Articles