Discussion boards (Original)

Discussion boards allow you to post items for discussion and reply to the posts of others. You may be required to participate in assessable course discussions.

Structure

Discussion boards are organised into forums, threads and messages.

Forums organise course discussions by defining appropriate threads of discussion. Forums contain questions or statements called 'threads'.
Threads of conversation are usually about one thing as defined by the creator of the thread. Users can reply to the original post or replies from other members of the course.
Messages are posted in threads in response to the thread or in response to another user's message in the thread.

Example structure

Forum: Discuss the weekly reading
- Thread: Week 1 Readings
  - Message: "I have a question about the reading this week..."

Work with discussion boards

Group and course discussion boards

Post a response first

Your instructor may use 'post first boards' to ensure that responses to the question under discussion are your own ideas, analysis and reflections before being influenced by the work of others.

Post first discussion boards:

require students to create a thread before they can see responses from other students
are often used when the forum or threads of discussion are being marked.

Click Create Thread on a post first discussion board to create a post. Other users' posts will be visible once your post is published.

Tips for writing messages

Do not use any form of electronic communication, including email or discussion boards, to attack members of staff or fellow students:

Use of the University network is subject to the UQ Information and Communication Technology Policy and Acceptable Use of UQ ICT Resources guidelines.
You may not be able to delete the messages.

Make the subject heading specific to the content so that readers can establish if the content is relevant to them. Subjects like "Hi" and "Help me!" are generic and can be frustrating.
Message content should be relevant to the subject of the discussion board and thread of conversation. People will appreciate you staying on point.
The Learn.UQ text editor contains tools to help you format your content. Make sure your text is easy to read and well-formatted.