Creating Discussions

When creating a discussion in Blackboard Learn Ultra, you have two choices of how to add them to your module from the top navigation panel or within Content.

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Instructions

Creating Discussions from the top navigation panel

1. Select the Discussions tab along the top navigation panel.
   
   

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2. Click ‘New Discussion’

3. Create your discussion by inputting title and your discussion prompt

then you can adjust the settings and make visible to students.

Creating Discussions within Content

1. You can also create Discussions from the Create option within Module Content. Select the + icon wherever you want to add content.
   
   

2. Click Create.
   
   

    

3. Then select Discussion  in the Participation and Engagement section.
   
   

Adjusting settings in Discussions

1. Once you have given your discussion a title and a topic/context /a question or a starting point etc. you can adjust the settings by clicking on the cog in upper right hand side.

Under the settings you can decide if it is marked etc.

If you choose to allocate marks for the discussion, more options appear.

Click Save to save your settings

Your new discussion will appear in the list on the Discussions screen. Active discussions will display a little blue speech bubble.

When you click on the discussion, it opens the discussion forum with responses and replies appearing under the topic and a list of participants on the right.

To create multiple threads under one topic, create different responses, students can then reply to which ever thread is relevant to them:

Students can then reply under their chosen response.

Panopto video: Creating Discussions in Blackboard Ultra

Creating Group Discussions

You can either use an existing group set (recommended if you want to reuse the group) or create groups within the discussion (these groups are not visible in the groups tab)

To create a group discussion using an existing Group set to set up your groups

In Groups view, I have a group set with my two e-tutor groups:

Click on Discussions in the Course toolbar. Click on New Discussion.

This will open up the Discussion editor. Add a Discussion name and a Discussion Topic and click Save.

Click on the cog to open up the Discussion Settings:

Under the Group discussion section, select Assign to Groups.

This will open up the group setting for your discussion. Open the Group students drop-down menu and select the appropriate Group Set from the Reuse groups listed (NB Group Sets, not groups are displayed). Click Save.

Alternatively, if you don’t have a Group Sets or any groups set up, you can set up a new Group Set with groups. Open the Group students drop-down menu and select Custom, Randomly assign or self-enrolment to set up your new groups as normal. Click Save.

Note these groups will only exist within this discussion.

You will return to the Discussion Settings menu, the number of groups in the selected/created GroupSet should now appear under Group discussion, click Save.

You can then swap between group discussions using the drop-down menu

Your new group discussion will now appear in the Discussions list (make sure it’s set visible to students).

Students will only have access to the discussion within their group:

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