Posting & Reading Messages on the Discussion Board
The Discussion Board is an asynchronous communication tool (users are not present at the same to converse on-line). The major benefit of an asynchronous discussion is the back and forth quality of the conversation – one person posts a message, others reply to the original posts, and still others post responses to the replies. These conversations are logged and organized.
NOTE: The Discussion Board function may be available to the entire class and to groups within the class (through Group Pages).
Accessing the discussion board and entering the forum
Click on:
- the Discussion Board button on the left hand navigation panel, OR
- the Communication button on the left hand navigation panel and then click on Discussion Board, OR
- a course link (on a content area) to a Discussion Board.
- A list of all the Forums available is displayed. Click on the name of the forum (hyperlink), and the Forum page is displayed (see Figure 10).
Figure 10 – Discussion Board - Forum Page
Adding New Threads
•Click on the “Add a new thread” button to start a new topic discussion.
•Type your post. The following table details the entry fields on the Create New Message page:
Recipients
Current Forum- Name of the forum. (Make sure you are in the forum in which you want to post a message.)
Date-Today’s date and time. The date and time when your message is posted.
Author Your name-The person who is posting the message.
Subject- Subject (topic) of your thread.
Message- The content of your message. Enter the message by either typing directly into the text field or copy and paste text from another word processing document.
Attachment-Click on the browse button to select the file and then click on the open button to add the file.
•Click on the submit button to send the message, or click on the cancel button to abort this process.
Reading Messages
•Locate the message (original message or reply) you want to read:
View unread messages- Click on this button to display only the messages you have not read.
View all messages- Click on this button to display all messages (read and unread).
Expand all- Click on this button to display complete threads (original messages and all replies).
Collapse all- Click on this button to display only original messages, not including replies.
Search?-Click on this button to search for messages (by author, keyword, etc.).
•Click on the title of the message.
•If there is an attachment to the message, you will see the name (and hyperlink) of the file on the header of the message. Click on the hyperlink to open the attachment.
•You can reply to the message, navigate to other messages, or click the ok button to exit the forum.
Replying to Messages
•Having read a message, click on the Reply button.
•Type your post. The following table details the entry fields on the Your Response page:
Recipients
Current Forum-Name of the forum.
Date-Today’s date and time. Date and time when your message is posted.
Author Your name. The person who is posting the message.
Subject-Subject (topic) of the thread preceded by “Re:” for responses.
You can modify or type in a new subject.
Message-Your message. Enter the message by either typing directly into the text field or copy and paste text from another word processing document.
Attachment-Click on the browse button to select the file and then click on the open button to add the file.
•Click on the submit button to send the message, or click on the cancel button to abort this process.
Selectively Displaying & Printing Messages
•Click on the show options button. Six new buttons are presented:
Select All: Click on this button to select all messages (originals and replies).
Unselect: Click on this button to unselect selected messages.
Invert: Click on this button to select unselected message and unselect selected messages.
Read: Click on this button to mark the selected messages as read.
Unread: Click on this button to mark the selected messages as unread.
Collect: Click on this button to display all selected messages’ content in a new window.
•Check (one by one or using any of the previous options) the boxes next to the messages for the messages you wish to print.
•Click on the collect button to display the selected messages in the new window.
•Proceed to print, and click on the ok button to return to the Forum page.
Hint:
To print out information from the Blackboard web site, you must right click on the content frame, and select the Print option from the popup menu.
Need more help? Please contact the Help Desk by email or by phone at 651-523.2220
