DL Tip of the Week - Discussion Boards

This week’s tip is about the improved Discussion Board tool.

Did you know that with the upgrade in Blackboard SP 13 there was improvements made to the Discussion Board Tool? 


Discussions have been updated in two primary ways: the “Thread Detail” page has been thoroughly redesigned while maintaining all of its current functionality. We have also added new functionality to support specific pedagogical needs for the use of discussions. Selected highlights include:

• All Posts on One Page and Instructor Highlighting - all of the posts in a thread are now visible at the same time on one page. Posts now also contain the users’ course role and forum role.
• Inline Replies - when replying to a post, the content editor used to write a response appears on the same page, in the context of the discussion.
• Post First Discussions – This setting allows instructors to require students to post to a discussion before seeing other students’ posts.

Blackboard has a series of short videos called Quick Hit Videos that provide an overview of new features in Backboard Learn. 

Here is the Quick Hit Video for Discussion Boards.

The most requested option to be added to the discussion board is the Student Post First Option. Below is a screen shot in the discussion board area where in the Forum setting you would select the Participants must create a a thread in order to view other threads in this forum. This will make students think and have a more genuine response instead of formulating responses by looking at others. 

If for any reason the links appear broken, or if you have an idea for a DL Tip of the Week, please email us at HCTC-DL@kctcs.edu.

Remember if you need assistance; please let a member of the DL Team know.

• Brad Roberts, DL Specialist (Faculty/Student Support) – Lees
• Paul Currie, DL Specialist (Faculty Support) – Hazard, Knott, Leslie, Tech
• Wendy Davidson, LoD Program Coordinator (LoD support and Student Support)