Create & Manage Discussions

Introduction

Online discussion boards are a common means of communication in online, blended, and hybrid courses, but they are also a tool used to enhance teaching and learning in a variety of contexts. Use the activities and resources on this page to identify important pedagogical recommendations for effective discussions and to learn the steps for creating and managing discussions in your course.

On This Page:

    1. Recommendations for facilitating online discussions
    2. Create a discussion in your course
    3. Manage course discussions

 

Recommendations for facilitating online discussions

Visit our Facilitating Online Discussions page to explore pedagogical principles and recommendations to help you facilitate effective online discussions.

 

Create a discussion in your course

Practice creating a discussion thread in your Canvas sandbox by following the steps in any of the resources below; choose to view video or text-based tutorials depending on your personal learning preference.

Review the following tutorials to learn more about creating Discussions and using the Discussions Index Page:

 

00:07: How do I use the discussion index page? 00:12: In course, navigation, click the discussions link. 00:16: The discussions index page is designed with global settings at the top of the page, 00:20: followed by the discussion groups. Individual discussions 00:24: are nested within each Discussion Group. 00:27: Global settings include a drop-down menu to filter all or unread discussions 00:31: and a search field for searching discussions by title or discussion author. 00:35: You can also add a new discussion and edit discussion settings. 00:40: Discussion groups can be expanded and collapsed by clicking the arrow next to the 00:44: name. Discussions are organized into three main areas. 00:52: Pinned discussions. These are discussions that you want your students to see at 00:56: the top of their page. Pinned discussions can be arranged in any order. 01:00: Students will only see this section heading. 01:02: If there are discussions within this section, 01:06: Discussions. These are current discussions within the course. 01:09: Discussions can remain open indefinitely Or you can specify a 01:13: date range as designated by the available from until date. 01:17: Discussions with replies are ordered by most recent activity, discussions 01:22: with no replies are ordered by creation date. 01:24: Students will only see this section heading if there are discussions within this section, 01:30: Closed for comments. These discussions have been manually closed for comments 01:34: or the discussion is past the available from until date. 01:38: These are discussions that are only available in a read-only state. 01:42: Closed for comments. Discussions are also ordered by most, recent activity. 01:46: Students will always see this section heading, even if there are no discussions 01:50: within this section, 01:53: Each discussion displays whether or not it is a graded discussion. 01:56: The name of the discussion the date on which the last discussion reply 02:00: was posted. 02:02: Additionally, you can view the number of unread total posts in the discussion, 02:06: the discussion State published or unpublished. 02:08: And whether or not you are subscribed to the discussion. 02:13: You can also view availability dates for graded and ungraded discussions. 02:18: The unread icon next to a discussion indicates an unread discussion. 02:23: The number of unread total posts is not included for group discussions and discussions 02:27: that have no discussion replies. 02:31: The peer-review icon. Also displays, if a graded discussion has been assigned 02:35: peer reviews, 02:37: Discussions can also include availability dates availability. 02:40: Dates can make a discussion available for only a specific period of time. 02:46: To manage an individual discussion, click the options icon. 02:50: From the options drop-down menu, you can edit the discussion close the discussion 02:55: for comments, assigned to discussion pin, or unpin the discussion. 02:59: Open Speed grader duplicate, that discussion, send 03:03: a discussion to another instructor copy, the discussion to another course, 03:07: add the discussion to a Mastery path or delete the discussion. 03:13: To view discussion, details and replies, click the name of the discussion. 03:18: If you use Mastery pads in your course, you can tell which items are set up in 03:22: modules as Mastery paths or conditional content items. 03:27: To view the discussions index page as a student. 03:29: Click the view as student button. 03:33: This guide covered how to use the discussions index page.

Discussions Index video, 3m 47s

 

Follow the steps in the tutorials below if you would like to allow students to attach files to their discussion posts, create their own course discussions, or edit and delete their own discussion posts:

You can also assign a non-graded discussion a "to-do date" and add to a student's To Do List as a reminder. Follow the steps in the article below to add a page to a student's To Do List:

 

Manage course discussions

Visit the Canvas Instructor Guide to learn how to monitor and manage discussions in your course:

NOTE: Information on the use of Piazza with Canvas can be found in the Advanced Canvas Learning Path.