What are Discussions?
The Astria LMS provides an integrated system for class discussions, allowing both instructors and students to start and contribute to as many discussion topics as desired.
Help students start thinking about an upcoming Assignment or class discussion.
Follow-up on a conversation or questions that began in a face-to-face classroom.
Test student comprehension of important points made in class.
Debate contradictory ideas.
Brainstorm different approaches to a class problem.
Note: Discussions are not the same as Announcements. Announcements are for the class as a whole to be informed by the lecturer, whereas a discussion invites participation. |
View Discussions
The Discussions Index Page is organized into three main areas: Discussions [1], Pinned Discussions [2], and Closed for Comments Discussions [3].
How do I use Discussions?
Within Discussions, you can:
Create, edit, and delete discussion topics. You can also reply to, edit, and delete individual student discussion posts.
Create threaded or focused discussions within your course. (Private discussions can be initiated within student groups, which are not viewable by others outside that group.)
Create discussions with varied due dates for different sections within your course.
Create a graded discussion or a group discussion as an assignment. When a discussion is marked as a graded assignment, the SpeedGrader™ isolates each student’s comments from the thread and combines them into one easily readable view for grading.
Subscribe to a discussion and be notified of replies.
Enable podcast feeds within your discussions.
Embed or attach files, images, and YouTube videos.
Add course content directly from your course.
Delay discussion posts until a defined date.
Pin discussion threads that you want your students to see at the top of the Discussions page.
Note: You can also use keyboard shortcuts to navigate individual discussion threads. Press the comma key and a pop-up window with keyboard shortcuts will appear for keyboard navigation. |
What Settings Can I Control in Discussions?
You can control certain settings within Discussions:
Tell the Astria LMS how to mark your discussion posts as read and unread. You can also manually mark posts as read.
Require students to reply to a discussion before viewing other replies.
Allow students to edit or delete their own discussion posts.
Allow students to create new discussions and attach files in your course discussions (this setting does not apply to student groups).
Allow students to like discussion replies in your course discussions.
Close discussion threads to comments.
Related Articles
How do I create Discussions?
Discussions can be formal (graded, teacher created, and/or moderated) or informal (ungraded, student created, and/or moderated). There can be many applications of the discussions tool in the Astria LMS, such as - but not limited to: Help students ...How do I allow students to create a course discussion?
You can allow students to create a new discussion by changing the settings from the Discussions page. When this setting is enabled, discussions created by students become part of the course and are included in future course copies and exports unless ...How do I delete a discussion in a course?
Open Discussions Delete from Discussions Page To delete a discussion from the index page, locate the discussion. Click the Options icon [1] and click the Delete link [2]. Delete from Individual Discussion To delete a discussion individually, click ...How do I subscribe to a discussion as an instructor?
By default, you will automatically be subscribed to all discussion threads you create in your courses and be notified when new comments are posted to the topic. If you allow TAs or students to create discussions in your course, you will not be ...How do I reply to a discussion as an instructor?
You can easily reply to any discussion, threaded or focused. However, the reply process varies depending on the type of discussion. If the steps in this lesson do not match what is displayed in your course, learn how to reply to a discussion in the ...