Forum discussions are a great way to have an online conversation. Here's how they work in the Member Center.
You have the following options:
- Reading
- Searching
- Subscribing / following (on the forum level or a single discussion)
- Replying to a discussion post, and
- Starting a new discussion
Each forum can have discussions. Each discussion is made up of messages (an initial post and replies).
Forum Home Page
We have a typical forum home page below with some markings to help identify things:
- Search - red arrow (upper right) - searches all forums in a course
- Add a new discussion - purple arrow (middle left)
- View a discussion - blue arrow (Discussion column)
- Subscribe / unsubscribe - orange circles:
- Settings / gear icon - whole forum
- Envelope icon - just that discussion
The envelope icon "closes" when you are subscribed to a discussion and "opens" when you are not. (All of the icons above are "open.")
See How do I subscribe or unsubscribe from forums? for more subscription management tips.
Discussion Page
Below is a discussion page.
You can:
- Navigate to different discussions (blue double arrow).
- Subscribe and unsubscribe to the discussion (orange circle).
- add a reply by clicking the reply at the bottom of the initial post (red arrow). Note that all replies also have a reply link at the bottom of their messages so that you can insert your reply where it makes the most sense.