User guide to Blackboard discussion boards

Overview of the process

Discussion boards allow staff and students to communicate with one another. You will be encouraged to use Blackboard’s discussion boards to ask questions and exchange opinions. The following guide will take you through all the steps you will need to know in order to engage with the discussion boards. You will find a number of discussion board forums in your Blackboard courses, where you can read and reply to posts or create new discussion threads for posts.

How to access a discussion board

Log in to Blackboard with your HYMS username and password. Navigate to and click on the discussion board link on the relevant Blackboard course

Discussion boards can be found on the left-hand navigation panel of a course or organisation.

 

 

If you are part of a group discussion board, you will see your group discussion board listed under my groups, also on the left-hand navigation panel of a course or organisation. You may need to click on a group name for the the group discussion board link to appear (step 1 and 2).

 

Viewing and subscribing to discussion board forums

Viewing forums

1. Click on a discussion board link.  You will be taken to a list of discussion forum titles. Columns to the right of the forum titles display total posts, unread posts, replies to you and number of participants. Click on a forum title to be taken to a particular forum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From a particular forum view, you can;

1. Display discussion threads as a list view or tree view. Tree view is a more detailed view, with a + icon indicating there are replies to posts. Click the + icon to expand that particular part of the threaded discussion.
2. Search forums by key word in an advanced search 
3. Mark a thread as read / unread or flag it as important to you in thread actions

You can also reorganise the view of threads by clicking on a column title. For example, click on author to organise by author.

Subscribe / unsubscribe to a discussion forum

1. Click on the title of a particular forum

2. Click on subscribe in the top left-hand corner

A pink confirmation banner will appear at the top of the screen.

 

 

 

You should now receive Blackboard notifications about any new posts.

It will now say unsubscribe in the top left-hand corner. Click on unsubscribe if you no longer wish to receive notifications.

Viewing threads and replying to posts

Viewing threads

A thread is a conversation within a forum that includes the initial post and all replies to it.

Click on a thread title from the forum view. You will then see the following view of the thread.

1. Click on message actions to flag a post as important to you or mark it as unread / read
2. Click on expand all to expand all posts to their full size, click on collapse all to reduce posts to their title only. You can also click on an individual post to expand its contents.
3. Search threads/forums by key word in an advanced search
4. See the summary of posts to the thread, replies to you and unread posts

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some replies may be hidden and you will see an option below a post to show such replies.

 

*You can also navigate back to a forum view and bulk select certain threads, click on collect, and then view them in a list format together. 

Replying to posts

1. Click on a thread title. You will see a list of all posts in a thread.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Hover over a post in a thread. You will see options to reply to a post directly, quote a post in your own post, or directly email  the author of the post.

 

 

3. Each option presents you with the Blackboard text box. Once you have entered your text, attachments and images etc. click on submit. You can reply to the original person who posted, or to subsequent reply posts.

Creating threads

1. Click on a forum title
2. Click on create thread
3. Enter your thread title and write your text in the text box. You can also attach files and embed media content and links to external websites.
4. Click submit when you are ready to post your thread.

 

 

You will see a pink confirmation banner at the top of the page.

5. Back on the forum view, you will see your thread at the top of the list

Delete your thread

1. Click on the check box next to the title of your thread 
2. Click on delete