How do I setup a discussion board in Forums?

1. Click on Forums in the toolbar (if you do not have it in your site go to Site Info > Edit Tools.)
2. Click on New Forum at the top of the screen. Enter a name for this forum. At the bottom of the screen click the button Save Settings & Add Topic.
3. In the text field next to Topic Title enter a name for the topic. At the bottom of the screen click the button Save Settings, or to add another topic at this time click the button Save Settings & Add Topic. Repeat this step for as many topics as you need. You can always add more topics at a later time.
4. After you click Save Settings you will see the new forum and the new topic(s) underneath. You can't have a forum with no topics.
5. Click on a topic and click Post New Thread to begin discussion!

How do I edit an existing forum or topic?

Click Forum Settings or Topics Settings on the right side of the screen to edit a forum or topic.

How do I reorganize topics in the Forums tool?

Click Organize at the top of the main Forums page. You can then reorder the topics and forums with the numeric drop-down menus. Make sure that you click the Save Settings button when you are done. By default the newest forums/topics are placed at the top.

Can I view how often each student is contributing to discussions?

Yes. From the Forums main page click Statistics at the top of the screen. You will see what students have authored, read, and ignored. At this time you should not base participation grades on these statistics, Isidore does not always recognize when someone has read a message. It will be accurate for how many messages they have posted though.

How do I close a discussion topic (stop postings)?

The Forum tool has a feature called "Lock Topic." Once you activate the lock, students can read postings but can no longer post. Here are the steps to do that:

1. Go to the topic you wish to lock and click on TOPIC SETTINGS.
2. Scroll down the page to the LOCK TOPIC option. By default the NO button is indicated. Click on the YES button and the forum will now be locked.
3. Click the Save Settings button at the bottom of the screen. Once you return to the topic you should see a visual Lock displayed.

Can I grade Forum Postings?

Yes. First, you must create column in the Gradebook to link the forum posting grades to. Once you have a column created you need to ensure that the Post to Gradebook option is checked for the instructor role and the Gradebook Item you created is selected under the Permissions section when creating or editing a topic in the Forums tool.

Once all of the configurations have been made you can begin grading the forum posts. First, click the title of the topic where you will be grading. Next, click the individual message subject link that you wish to grade, and then click the Grade link at the top of the message. (Alternatively, you can click the title of the thread or Display Entire Message, and then, next to an individual message, click the Other Actions menu, and select Grade.) On the next page, you can enter a point value and any comments. The points and comments you enter will be sent to the course gradebook.