WebCT Communication Tools

Using The Discussion Board

The discussions area is a place where students can interact with you and with each other. Ideally, discussions keep students engaged and checking back often to participate. Your job as a facilitator is to keep the "conversations" going so that these conversations become part of the learning process itself.

You may jump into a conversation and play "devil's advocate", or use the opportunity to extend the learning process by bringing in similar and/or related subjects, or even link the conversation to previous or future learning.

Sometimes the best instructor answer in a discussion area is another question (you might toss in a few nuggets of information too). Your participation shows that you value discussion as an important part of the learning experience and helps to build a sense of community among distance learners.

Below you can see a graphic of the main discussions screen. A menu at the top provides choices for you to manage the discussions area. The Actions menu on the right allows you to manage topics and messages.

1. Action Menu: This menu lets you add, delete, or edit discussion topics.
2. Compose a Discussion Message: Clicking this button takes you to a screen with form fields for you to create a new message.
3. Manage Messages: This function allows you to move messages from one topic area to another or to delete messages.
4. Reading Messages

Action Menu

The Action Menu lists a number of options that can be applied to the topic areas.

Each topic has a checkbox next to it. To do something to a topic area, you must first check the checkbox, then choose from the list of actions on the right. Of course, to create a new topic area, you would not have to check the box of any of the topic areas already there.

Create a New Topic

1. For this action, you don't need to check any previous topics.
2. Click on the button Create Topic.
3. Type the name of your new topic into the box.
4. Click the Create button.
   

Rename a Topic

1. Click the checkbox next to the topic area you want to edit.
2. Fill in the new name for the topic area in the box next to "Rename Topic".
3. Click the Go button.
   

Delete Topics

1. Check the box next to all the topics you would like to delete.
2. Click the button for "Delete Topics.
   

Organize Topics

1. Select the one topic you would like to move up or down on the topic list.
2. On the Action Menu, under Organize, use the drop down menu to select the number of places you would like to move the topic up or down on the list.
3. Click the Go button.
   

Compose a Discussion Message

Composing a discussion posting and writing an email are very similar in WebCT. You can use the HTML Editor in your discussion message to aid in formatting if you like. Otherwise, messages are just in plain text. In fact, in order to separate paragraphs in a posting, you need to use two carriage returns as you are typing.

Refer to the graphic below and accompanying notes for some features of WebCT discussion composition.

1. The default topic area should be whichever topic area you are in when you chose "Compose Discussion Message". You can choose to post to a different topic area if you like, however, from the drop down list.
2. WebCT does have an Equation Editor (for statistical and other formulas) and resulting equations will be included in the text of a posting.
3. You can attach a file from your computer to your posting. Browse... will bring up a window showing files on your computer so you can navigate to and select the one you want.
4. Once the location of the file is displayed in the Browse box, you must click on Attach file to actually attach it to your posting.
5. You can Preview your discussion post before you post it. This allows you to see how WebCT has formatted your text and will show any attachments. Once at the Preview screen, you can post your message directly from there, or chose to Edit the posting, which will return you to the screen pictured above.
6. You can use the HTML Editor to format your message.

Once you are satisfied with your posting, click on the Post button. WebCT will then return you to the topic area from which you began. You may not see your posting listed. You need to refresh the listing to view new postings by clicking on the Update Listing button at the top of the screen.

Managing Your Messages

Clicking on the Manage Messages button takes you to a screen where all the messages are displayed, grouped by topic area. One difficulty in managing messages lies in being sure you are viewing all the messages you would like to view or expect to view. Refer to the graphic and explanations below for pointers.

1. The toggle for Display All/ Unread is one that students and instructors often overlook. Choosing "Display all" means that both read and unread messages appear in the message list. " unread" only displays those messages that you have not yet opened. Often students will wonder, "Where did my posting go?". Usually they just need a quick reminder about the Display All/Unread toggle.
2. The toggle for Threaded/Unthreaded gives you a choice to view the messages in sequential order of posting or in the tree structure of replies to root postings. Generally it's easier to follow a conversation when the messages are threaded so it is apparent who is responding to which specific postings/statements.
3. When you are using the Manage Messages feature, you can choose to view messages from a particular topic by using the pull down menu. Selecting All shows all messages posted to the discussion board.
4. If "Threaded" is the chosen way to view messages, replies to a posting will be nested under the original posting. To expand the posting and make all the replies visible, click on the blue triangle. When the blue triangle is pointing down the topic is expanded. When it's pointing to the right, the topic is collapsed so that you cannot see individual postings.
5. The Manage Messages screen sorts messages according to the topic area. This is especially useful if you have chosen "All" as the topic area to view.

Move a Message

You may need to move a message if a student posts to an incorrect area or inappropriate topic area. For example, some professors prefer that no students post in the an "Instructor Announcements" section he or she creates. If a student were to post a message there, inadvertently or not, he or she could simply move that message to another topic area.

To move a message:

1. Check the box(es) next to the message(s) you want to move.
2. At the bottom of the screen, select the topic where you would like to move the message(s) from the drop down list.
3. Click on the Go button.
   

Delete Messages

To delete messages:

1. Check the box(es) next to the message(s) you want to delete.
2. At the bottom of the screen, click Delete
   

Reading Messages

Important points about reading messages are included in the Manage Messages section of this page. Namely, messages can be shown as threaded or unthreaded, threaded messages must be expanded by clicking on the blue triangle, and you can chose to have all messages display or only those you have not yet read.

To make the job of reading a large number of student posts at one time easier, you can compile discussion messages. Compiling selected messages creates a new screen with all the messages visible for reading, thus eliminating a good deal of clicking, but it also eliminates the ability to reply to messages. Additionally, when messages are compiled, any attachments are not included in the compilation page.

To compile messages enter a topic area and follow the instructions below. (Hint: If you want to compile all messages posted, then enter the "All" area.):

1. Scroll down to the end of the message list.Click the ALL link to view all the messages. (You can also compile a single topic by clicking on only that topic.)
   
   
   
2. From the list of messages, select the messages to be compiled. To compile all messages in a thread, select the check box next to the thread. To select all of the messages displayed, select Subject.
   
   
   
3. Click Compile. The Compiled Messages screen appears displaying your compiled messages.
   
   
   
4. To download your compiled messages, click Download. Your browser's file download dialog box appears. Follow the on-screen instructions.
   
   
   
5. When the download is complete, click Close . The Discussion Messages screen appears.