BB4 Blackboard Discussion Board

1. BB4Blackboard Discussion Board Instructional Technology Support / IS – SAC 284 blackboard@depaul.edu

2. BB4 – Table of contents General rules 1 – Uses for a Discussion Board 2 – Create Discussion Board button 3 – Create a Discussion Forum 4 – Create a Discussion Thread 5 – How students respond with a post 6 – Meaningful subject lines? 7 – Grading a Forum 8 – Adding a grade comment 9 – Making threads read-only 10 – Resequencing Forums 11 – Discussion Board suggestions This course takes only 1.5 hours or less. But you must first complete training course BB2, Introduction to the Grade Center. The graded Discussion Board function works through the Grade Center and you need to know the basics about it to effectively use the version 8 Discussion Board.

3. General rules • The FireFox browser seems to work best with Blackboard Version 8, especially in the GradeCenter! (Some functions here have been documented not to work in Internet Explorer). • Always use the “OK” or “Cancel” or “Submit” buttons at the bottom of the Blackboard screen for navigation—NOT your browser’s “back” arrow button!

4. 1 – Uses for a Discussion Board • Asynchronous discussion: everyone contributes! • Midterm or final exam review • Student sharing of sound files, pictures, movies • Organized,gradable, safe, self-contained way for instructor to give class-accessible feedback , “FAQ” information, or support a class-only “blog”

5. 2.1 – Create a Discussion Board button

6. 2.2 – Create a Discussion Board button 1 2 > Control Panel > Manage Course Menu

7. 3.1 – Create a Discussion Forum

8. 3.2 – Create a Discussion Forum Now scroll down

9. 3.3 – Create a Discussion Forum A Forum can house many “threads” The Forum sets the rules for all threads in it Here is how you set the rules

10. 3.4 – Is Discussion Forum accessible? “No” here makes the Forum inaccessible and invisible regardless of any date criteria below. If “Yes” is clicked the date criteria controls access.

11. 3.5 – Date window of accessibility? □ Display After says when the Forum becomes available □ Display Until (optional) indicates when the Forum “disappears”

12. 3.6 – Allow anonymous postings? Will you allow students to choose to hide their identity and make an anonymous posting? (Not compatible with a graded form!)

13. 3.7 – Allow posts to be modified? Will you allow students to modify or remove their postings after first making them?

14. 3.8 – Tag posts with keywords? Do you want to have the ability to tag each post with a keyword so you can conveniently retrieve subgroups of posts?

15. 3.9 – Replies to contain original post? Give student choice of using Reply or Quote. Quote will include the posting being responded to within the body of the new posting. Reply just conveys the new posting.

16. 3.10 – Allow post to have attachments? Can students attach files (text, Word, .pdf, html, mp3, or video) to their posting?

17. 3.11 – Can students create threads? A thread is a new topic in an existing forum. Do you want students to start them, or do instructors and TA’s start them?

18. 3.12 – Can students subscribe? You can make it possible for students to “subscribe” to Forums or Threads. They choose if they want to subscribe, and if they want an e-mailed link or the content itself.

19. 3.13 – Can students rate each post? If you check this box, students are provided a way to rate each post on a scale of 1 to 5 “stars” similar to Amazon’s reader’s review ratings.

20. 3.14 – Will you moderate all posts? If checked, all posts go into a queue from which you (the (instructor) must release or reject them. If not checked, student posts appear without your involvement.

21. 3.15 – Grade student participation? Click Grade Forum and enter maximum points possible. This will give you a “grading” function that collects each student’s posts for easy assessment of their participation.

22. 3.16 – Submit the Forum Click Submit to create the Forum

23. 3.17 – Resequencing Forums New Forum is added at bottom. Use dropdown numbers to change order.

24. 4.1 – Create a Discussion Thread

25. 4.2 – Click on “+ Thread”

26. 4.3 – Create topic/question (message) X

27. 4.4 – How the Thread looks in Forum

28. 5.1 – How students respond to a post

29. 5.2 – Student enters a reply post

30. 5.3 – Should change subject line!

31. 6 – Meaningful subject lines?

32. 7.1 – Grading a Forum

33. Grading a Forum Click the Grade button for the forum you want to grade

34. 7.2 – Grading a Forum

35. 7.3 - Grading collects a student’s posts

36. 8.1 – Adding a grade comment v v v

37. 8.2 – Adding a grade comment

38. 9.1 – Making threads read-only

39. 9.2 – Enter Discussion Board here

40. 9.3 – Enter the Discussion Board The list here will show all discussion boards in the course. Only one discussion board will list here unless you create groups and let each group have its own discussion board.

41. 9.4 – Enter the appropriate Forum

42. 9.5 – Change Status to Locked

43. 9.6 – Making threads read-only

44. 10.1 – Re-sequencing Forums

45. 10.2 – Re-sequencing Forums

46. 11 – Discussion Board suggestions • Create a Forum for each discussion if rules differ • Allocate time to participate in some discussions! • Use the grading feature to assess participation • Stress the importance of meaningful subject lines • Pose a discussion question before an in-class discussion to hit the ground running • Post topics for midterm and final exam review and critique responses for all to review

47. BB4Blackboard Discussion BoardEND Instructional Technology Support / IS – SAC 284 blackboard@depaul.edu