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Discussions

Summary

Discussions let students communicate asynchronously with each other and teaching staff on a particular topic.

Create a discussion

  1. In the Course Content area, hover where the discussion should appear. Click the plus icon then Create. Click the plus icon then Create.
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  2. Under Participation and Engagement, select Discussion.
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  3. Add a title and instructions/first post, and set the appropriate visbility.
  4. Optionally, click the cog icon to open Settings (eg. allow anonymous posts)
  5. Click Save.
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Watch a demonstration of creating a Discussion:

Setting up discussions in Ultra [YouTube]

Access a discussion

Users can access discussions in two locations:

  • In the Course Content area, for example in a weekly materials section.
    Course content area: Week 2 section containing lecture and Discussion
  • In the dedicated Discussions area reached from the top navigation bar. You can also create and organise Discussions here.
    Discussions Area: all Discussions in the course collated together

Tip

Deleting a Discussion in the Course Content area may only delete the link to the discussion. Check the Discussions area to make sure it is deleted fully.

Follow (subscribe to) Discussions

You can follow a Discussion to receive notifications of new activity. Currently these are only in the Activity Stream, with email notifications coming in a future release.

  1. Open the Discussion and click Follow.
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  2. The default followed Discussions settings are to receive notifications of new replies and new responses to your posts. You can change this in your notification settings.

Anonymous discussions

Set up:

  1. Open a Discussion and click the settings icon towards the top right of the screen
  2. Tick Allow anonymous responses...
  3. Click Save.

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Posting anonymously: Posts will not automatically be anonymous, but users will have the option to make their post anonymous before they post it.

  1. Type out your response
  2. Tick the post anonymously box below the text pane
  3. Click Respond

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You can also use Padlet for anonymous discussions.

Using discussions to support teaching

Discussions can be set up in various ways to support different teaching and learning activities.

Assign to groups

You can split a discussion for different groups of students. For example, to:

  • make a discussion easier to manage for large student cohorts.
  • provide a discussion space for each seminar group.
  • support project or collaborative work.

Set up:

  1. Create and set up the discussion as above (only one is needed for all groups).
  2. Click the Discussion Settings cog icon.
  3. Under Additional tools, click Assign to groups.
  4. Assign students by setting up new groups (see our Groups guide for details) or reusing existing groups and save.
  5. Back in the Discussions settings, the assigned groups are now shown. Click Save to finish.
    Groupwork discussion assigned to 3 groups

To view each group's discussion:

  1. Open the discussion.
  2. Select the relevant group name from the drop-down menu below the instructions. Decorative

You can also limit discussion visibility using Release Conditions. However, this method requires a separate discussion for each group, so it needs more care to set up and manage. See our Release conditions guide for details.

Post first

You can require students to post a reply before they can see other students' posts. For example, students could:

  • summarise a topic/key points from a reading before they see other students' ideas.
  • create multiple choice questions for other students to test their understanding.
  • create their own discussion question before responding to other questions.

To set up post first:

  1. Open the discussion and click the Discussion Settings cog icon.
  2. Tick the Post first option.
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  3. Click Save.

Mark discussion

You can also grade discussions. This could be useful to:

  • use performance/completion as a release condition for other materials
  • use a discussion as a summative assessment
  • show students you've reviewed their formative response
  • use a marking rubric to grade and give feedback

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To mark a discussion:

  1. Open the discussion and click the Discussion Settings cog icon.
  2. Select Mark discussion.
  3. In the Marking and Participation section, set the due date and how the discussion is marked.
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  4. If desired, Add marking rubric. You can create a rubric here or reuse a rubric already in your site.
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  5. Click Save.