Using the Discussion Board and Adding Attachments

In some of your classes, your instructor may set up a discussion board discussion for you to participate in. Many people find this to be one of the most rewarding aspects of online learning. Here's how to contribute.

Reading Discussion Postings

Step 1

From your course menu, click on the Discussion icon. Note that it may be called something slightly different, like Class Discussion or Discussion Board, and the icon may not be the same. (Instructors sometimes customize to their own preferences.) But, whatever the label, it all functions in the same way.

Step 2.

The first section in the discussion homepage is a row of buttons.

All Topics :

Lists messages from all discussion topics in the course. This can be useful if you don’t remember which topic a post is in.

All My Posts :

Will show only posts that you have made.

Topics:

You will also see a list of all the topics the instructor has created for the course. Some may be specific to the week, or specific to an assignment. Choose a topic from the list and click on it.

Step 3

The second section in the discussion homepage is a row of display options.

Display All/Unread:

Toggles between viewing all emails and just the emails you haven't read yet.

Threaded/Unthreaded:

toggles the display of discussion postings between sorted by date and sorted (and grouped) by topic. As you can see from the screenshot below, the current display is set to "threaded", so that all postings that have "What is the author’s point" in the subject line are grouped together. The posting titled "Question 3, page 45" is given a new grouping.

Select Topic:

select for which topic you'd like to view postings. Your instructor may set up topics for each learning objective or chapter in your textbook.

Step 4.

The fourth section is a row of action options; you must select at least one discussion posting before being able to do something with it.

Compile:

Displays all selected postings in one window so you can view their content all at once.

Mark as read:

Remove special display features that normally indicate new, unread postings.

Mark as unread:

Adds special display features that indicate new, unread postings.

Posting a Discussion Message

Step 1.

From your course menu, click on the Discussion icon.

Step 2.

Click on Create Message.

Step 3.

Type a subject for your discussion message in the Subject box. (This is a required field.)

Step 4.

Type in a message in the Message box. (You have the option of composing it in a word processor, then cutting and pasting it into this box. That is a good way to take care with your spelling, as Blackboard doesn't have a built-in spell checker.)

Step 5.

If you want to send it to the discussion board without an attachment, click on Post. Your message will be posted. If you'd like to send an attachment, please go to Step 6.

Or if you'd like to preview your message before posting, click Preview, then Post.

If you need to make some changes, click Edit, make your changes, and then click Post. Your message will be posted.

Step 6: To Add an Attachment

If you want to send the message with an file attached to it, click on the Add Attachments button located at the bottom of the window.

Step 7.

• Click on My Computer.
• Select All Files (*.*).
• Locate the file that you want to attach to your Discussion Message, and click to select.
• Once your file has been selected, click on the Open button.

Step 8.

Your attachment will be listed below the Add Attachments button. You can remove it by clicking on the remove icon.

You can attach more than one file to a message. To attach more files, follow Steps 6 - 8. When you have finished attaching all the files, go to step 9.

Step 9.

Click on the Post button to send your message to the Discussion Board.

Step 10.

Or, if you'd like to preview before posting, click Preview, then Post.

If you need to make some changes, click Edit, make your changes, then click Post.

Complete!

Note that once a message is posted to the Discussion, the only way to  delete it is for an instructor to remove it.