Note: To complete these procedures, you must be assigned a role having the necessary permissions. To determine your role, follow the directions in Participant roles. For a basic understanding of roles and permissions, see Permissions and roles: Overview.
On this page:
Note: To change the default settings for certain options in all future forums and topics you create, change the template settings; see Changing forum template settings. You can override the template settings for individual forums and topics you create by following the steps below.
A default forum and topic is populated for each site. To create a new forum:
Forums
.
New Forum
. The Forum
Settings
screen will open.
Lock Topic (Disable forum postings)
.
Moderate topics in forum
.
Require users to post before
reading
. (Note that instructions or prompts should go in the
short or full description boxes with this option, since students won't
be able to see conversations initially.)
Automatically mark all messages in a
conversation as read
. With this setting, each time you open the
first message in a conversation, all messages within that conversation
are automatically marked as read. The default setting tracks
read/unread status for each message individually. (With the default
setting, you can also manually click Mark All as Read
for a
given conversation.)
Note: To add an item to the Gradebook, see Adding, editing, or deleting a Gradebook item.
Under "Permissions", you can modify permission levels for participant
roles (and groups, if you've created them; see Managing groups). Click the right arrow next to "Permissions" to expand the
options available. Next to the role of the participant, use the
Permission Level
drop-down list to select from several
predefined permission levels. Additionally, you can create
custom permission levels by clicking the right arrow next to "Customize" to enable or
disable specific functions.
Note: Forum permission settings will apply to all subsequently created topics in that forum, but if you modify forum permission settings after topics have been created, you must change the topic permission settings separately.
For details, see Controlling access in Forums.
Save:
Save your changes.
Save Settings & Add Topic:
Save your changes
and add a topic to your forum.
Save Draft:
Save your forum as a draft. Forums
saved as draft will not be available to site participants.
Cancel:
Cancel your changes.
Note: Students will be unable to see or post in your forum until you add at least one topic.
To create topics one at a time, follow the instructions below. If you want to quickly create similar topics for different groups of participants, see Automatically creating multiple topics for groups.
To add a topic while you're creating your forum, first finish
creating the forum, and then click Save Settings & Add
Topic
.
To add a topic later (i.e., after you've created and saved your
forum), on the Forums
screen, to the right of your forum's
title, click New Topic
.
On the Topics Settings
screen:
Add
Attachment
. The file selector screen will open. See Options for adding attachments.
Lock Topic (Disable topic postings)
.
Moderate Topic
.
Require users to post before
reading
. (Note that instructions or prompts should go in the
short or full description boxes with this option, since students won't
be able to see conversations initially.)
Automatically mark all messages in a
conversation as read
. With this setting, each time you open the
first message in a conversation, all messages within that conversation
are automatically marked as read. The default setting tracks
read/unread status for each message individually. (With the default
setting, you can also manually click Mark All as Read
for a
given conversation.)
Note: To add an item to the Gradebook, see Adding, editing, or deleting a Gradebook item.
Create one topic
) selected.
Under "Permissions", you can modify permission levels for participant
roles (and groups, if you've created them; see Managing groups). Click the right arrow next to "Permissions" to expand the
options available. Next to the role of the participant, use the
Permission Level
drop-down list to select from several
predefined permission levels. Additionally, you can create
custom permission levels by clicking the right arrow next to "Customize" to enable or
disable specific functions.
Note: Forum permission settings will apply to all subsequently created topics in that forum, but if you modify forum permission settings after topics have been created, you must change the topic permission settings separately.
For details, see Controlling access in Forums.
Save:
Save your changes, post the topic, and exit
the Forum Settings
screen. You'll see your newly posted
topic within your forum on the Forums
screen.
Save Draft:
Save your topic as a draft.
Save Settings & Add Topic:
Save your changes
and add another topic to your forum.
Cancel:
Cancel your changes.
A common use of Forums is creating separate topics for existing groups to facilitate private discussions for each group. Topics can be created individually and the permissions set manually, but the option described below expedites the process.
On the Topics Settings
screen:
Add
Attachment
. The file selector screen will open. See Options for adding attachments.
Lock
Topic (Disable topic postings)
.
Moderate
Topic
.
Require users to post before reading
. (Note that instructions
or prompts should go in the short or full description boxes with this
option, since students won't be able to see conversations initially.)
Automatically mark all messages in a conversation as
read
. With this setting, each time you open the first message in
a conversation, all messages within that conversation are
automatically marked as read. The default setting tracks read/unread
status for each message individually. (With the default setting, you
can also manually click Mark All as Read
for a given
conversation .)
Note: To add an item to the Gradebook, see Adding, editing, or deleting a Gradebook item.
Automatically create
multiple topics for groups
.
Save:
Save your changes, post the topics, and exit the Forum
Settings
screen. You'll see your newly posted topics within your forum
on the Forums
screen.
Save Draft:
Save your topics as a draft.
Save Settings & Add Topic:
Save your changes and add
another topic to your forum.
Cancel:
Cancel your changes.