3-2 Writing in an Academic Online Forum

Discussion Boards

A discussion board is an online space where you can interact and discuss course materials with your instructor and classmates. Every discussion board is organized by forums and by threads.

A forum is a space within a discussion board dedicated to a particular topic; discussion boards will often contain multiple forums. Within each forum, users will post and reply to messages—or threads—on a specific topic. Some instructors will expect students to post threads to existing forums, while others may allow students to create their own forums. Check your syllabus or ask your instructor if you need any clarification on how to use discussion boards within your institution.

Students are expected to be able to perform two main types of activity during online discussion:

Posting a Thread

1. Click on the forum you want to post to;
2. On the forum page, click on the Create Thread button;
3. On the Create Thread page enter a subject or title for your post under Subject;
4. Enter your thread text in the Message field;
5. If your instructor has enabled the attachment feature you will be able to attach a file to your thread by clicking the Attach a File link;
6. If you are ready to post your message to the Discussion Board, click Submit. If you still want to continue working on your post, click on Save Draft. This will save your thread text and allow you to return to the discussion board at a later date to complete you message.

Replying to a Post

1. Click on the thread you want to reply to;
2. On the Thread Detail page click the Reply button;
3. On the Reply to Post page, you can choose to either enter a subject or keep the automatically generated subject;
4. Enter your reply text in the Message field;
5. If your instructor has enabled the attachment feature you will be able to attach a file to your reply by clicking the Attach a File link;
6. If you are ready to post your message to the Discussion Board click Submit. If you still want to continue working on your post, click on Save Draft. This will save your thread text and allow you to return to the discussion board at a later date to complete you message.

1. Click on the forum you want to post to;
2. On the forum page, click on the Create Thread button;
3. On the Create Thread page enter a subject or title for your post under Subject;
4. Enter your thread text in the Message field;
5. If your instructor has enabled the attachment feature you will be able to attach a file to your thread by clicking the Attach a File link;
6. If you are ready to post your message to the Discussion Board, click Submit. If you still want to continue working on your post, click on Save Draft. This will save your thread text and allow you to return to the discussion board at a later date to complete you message.