Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Setting start and end dates for discussions

You can control access to a discussion topic by setting start and end dates. You may want to cover content that pertains to the topic before students have access to post. An end date will prevent students from posting while you are assessing individual posts.

• What is required: A D2L Brightspace course that uses discussions

You can control the availability of a discussion topic from the Availability Dates & Conditions accordion.

1. Click on the Discussions link from the course navbar.
2. Click the topic action menu and select Edit Topic.
3. Click the Availability Dates & Conditions accordion on the right of the page.
4. Enter a Start and End Date for the discussion topic. Additional restriction options can be applied below the date fields:
   • Visible with access restricted: The forum or topic is visible to learners before or after the start or end date, but they cannot access it.
   • Visible with submission restricted: The forum or topic is visible to learners before or after the start or end date and they can access it, but they cannot post new threads or replies. This effectively makes a discussion read-only.
   • Hidden: The forum or topic is hidden from learners until the start or end date. Calendar events for Availability Start and Availability End are hidden until the start or end date. Notifications are also not sent until the start or end date.
   • Add availability dates to Calendar: Add the start date and end date of your discussion to the course Calendar.
5. Click the Save and Close button.

Steps

View the D2L documentation: Manage discussion forums and topics