Discussion Board

As opposed to Chat, Discussion Boards are designed to allow students and the instructor to interact, or hold a conversation, asynchronously. Discussions may continue for a few days or a few weeks with classmembers checking in frequently to see what's been added to the discussion.

In WebCT the Discussion Board interface is very similar to the Email interface. Just as with email, you can choose to view all messages, or just those you've yet to read. You can also view discussions as threaded or chronological listings, attach files to messages, and compose messages with the HTML Editor, adding color and other effects.

If you are trying to catch up quickly on a particular discussion, a nice feature to use is the magnifying glass. This will show all messages in a topic area at once, rather than having to click through each one individually.