Tutorial overview

This tutorial will allow you to set up a discussion board for a particular topic, allowing students on the course to discuss the ideas you list

This tutorial is rated as -

You'll need the following software - Internet explorer, firefox - any web browser

You'll need the following hardware - A modern PC connected to the internet

The other factors might help - A WebCT course already set up, and a topic!

You'll need to work through the following steps:-

How do I add discussion topics?

Creating a topic for discussion

1. From either the Build or Teach tab:
2. Click on Discussions from the left hand Course Tools
3. Click on Create Topic from the top left of the main window
4. Enter a Title for your discussion topic
5. Enter a Description (this can include an introductory description to the topic or instructions for students)
7. If you wish to make the topic gradeable click on the box beside Topic is gradable (a column is automatically created for this topic in Grade Book)
8. Enter a Grade Book column title and a Numerical Grade for the topic to be scored 'out of'
9. By default, students are able to edit their own messages after posting them. If you wish to disallow this, click on Locked under Topic Settings
10. Click on Save

Organising your topics in categories
Topics can be grouped within categories. Categories can be created directly from the discussions screen or when setting up a new topic. The latter is achieved in the following way:

1. Follow the above instructions for Creating a topic for discussion (1-8)
2. Click on More Options
3. Click on the radio button beside Create a category
4. Enter a Name and Description
5. (If you wish to specify an existing category click on the radio button beside Specify an existing category and select your chosen category from the drop-down menu)

1. Click on Create Category from towards the top of the discussions screen
2. Enter a Title and Description
3. Click on Save

Organizing Discussion Topics
To reorder your discussion topics

1. Click in the square box to the left of the topic you wish to move
2. Click on the icon to the left of the location to which you would like to move your topic
3. You are asked to either Move Selected Items Above or Move Selected Items Below. Click on the appropriate option

Action Links At the right of each topic heading is a drop-down menu icon. Clicking on this invokes Actions Links which allows you to do a number of things to that particular topic. The most common of these are described below:

Renaming a Topic

1. Click in the Action Links icon to the right of the topic
2. Click on Edit Properties
3. Edit the text in the text box to the right of Title
4. Click on Save

Deleting Topics

1. Click in the Action Links icon to the right of the topic
2. Click on Delete

Possible benefits - You can encourage your students to discuss and debate ideas online

Ideas on how to use this - Why not set up some discussion topics around what ideas you discuss in tutorials.