Discussions

Discussions allow for interactive communication between two or more people in your Canvas course. A Discussion is an asynchronous method of communication. Discussions can contain more than just written posts. Users can add other media to their Discussion replies, e.g. images, video, audio, hyperlinks, attached files etc.

You can choose to allow students to start a Discussion or not, and you can decide whether Discussions can be threaded or not. You can also Pin Discussions so that students see them at the top of the Discussions page.

Discussions are always found in the Discussions link in the navigation menu, but you can also make a particular Discussion appear in a Module at a particular point in the students’ learning.

The MIT Canvas Standards template has some basic discussions already set up for you, e.g. a Meet and Greet Discussion. You can add more Discussions as you need.

Example

Recommended Discussions

We recommend you create a Discussion for your course where students can post any question about the course. This allows other students to answer, not just you.

We recommend you create a Discussion where students can introduce themselves to each other. This is a simple task that students can do to feel more included in their course. It makes it easier for them to answer each others’ other ‘proper’ questions if they’ve already joined in a simple discussion.

Threaded Discussions

A thread is a chain of posts created within a Discussion that focuses on a single topic. The student can therefore reply to another student’s post, instead of all students replying to your original post at the top level. Threaded discussions make structural sense, but sometimes need a bit of managing.

Pinned Discussions

If you want students to easily find a Discussion, e.g. one you’ve just created that you want them to easily find, but you’ve got lots of Discussions on the Discussions page, you can do two things:

• Pin the Discussion – when a student clicks on Discussions in the navigation menu, the Discussion is Pinned to the top of the page
• Add the Discussion into a Module as an element, so that when it’s time for the student’s to join in the Discussion, it’s in the right place within their learning.

Moderating Discussions

You want students to use Discussions. You want students to answer each other’s questions. You want there to be an online community within your course. In order to do this, you can keep threads going, by asking further questions, and replying to students points. You can also encourage your students to reply to each other’s posts. But also, be aware that Discussions can turn into arguments. Don’t let a Discussion thread degenerate into getting personal (that way lies Godwin’s Law of the Internet :-D).

Why Do You want to Use a Discussion?

• Discussions allow you and your students to talk about a topic that you may have started in class and didn’t get to finish.
• Discussions allow a student who isn’t confident at verbally talking in class to ‘find their voice’
• Students can organise their thoughts in a logical way, more so than in a verbal discussion in class. Discussion responses can be deeper, especially if you encourage students to defend their opinions.
• Discussions are asynchronous. Users don’t have to be online at the same time as the person posting in order to reply.
• Increased sense of community. Users can feel isolated studying a Canvas course with a large online component. Talking to other students helps them.
• Students can ask you a question without feeling that they’re ‘pestering’ you. Use a Discussion as part of your communication plan, e.g. if a student has a question they can think for themselves, then check learning materials/books, then ask a friend, then ask in a Discussion, then email you. Use a Discussion to reduce your communication traffic
• Let students know when you’ll check the Discussion, e.g. once a day or on week days.