If you want to create a discussion area for students in your course, you will need to create forums and topics in the Discussions tool. Forums organize topics into categories. You can create as many forums and topics as you like in your course. 


Instructors must create a forum first, then a topic. Topics are where students actually post threads. Students cannot post to a forum.


To create a forum,

  1. In Discussions, click Discussions List.
  2. Click New and select New Forum.
  3. Enter a title for the forum.
  4. Enter a description for the forum.
  5. In the Options section, select any of the following:
    1. Allow anonymous posts- this allows students to post anonymously to the topic
    2. A moderator must approve individual posts before they display in the forum – This can be useful for instructors who want to approve a topic for consideration before allowing students to start discussing it
    3. Users must start a thread before they can read and reply to other threads in each topic– This forces students to pose their own commentary and ideas before reading others’
    4. Display forum descriptions in topics– This can be useful and a timesaver if the forum and topic description are the same
  6. Click on the Restrictions tab near the top of your page
  7. Under the Availability section, you can select dates for when this forum will be available to your students using the "Has Start Date/Has End Date" check boxes. You are given 3 options when setting an Start/End date.
    1. Visible with access restricted before start/after end, The activity will be visible to learners before the Start Date or After the End Date, but they cannot click or open it. Information displayed to learners about the activity is limited to title, dates, and restrictions. 
    2. Visible with submission restricted before start/after end, The activity will be visible to learners before the Start Date or after the End Date and they can access and view the activity but cannot complete it. Learners can access the description and evaluation requirements such as rubrics. The activity behaves the same as the previous 'locked' functionality. 
    3. Hidden before start/after end, The activity will be hidden from learners until the Start Date/after the End Date. Calendar events for Availability Starts and Availability Ends will be hidden until the Start Date/after the End Date. Notifications will not be sent until the Start Date/after the End Date.
  8. Click Save and Close, Save and Add Topic, or Save.
    1. Save and Close: saves forum and returns to Discussions list page.
    2. Save and Add Topic: saves forum and takes you directly to create a new topic.
    3. Save: saves the forum but stays on the page


To create a topic,

  1. In Discussions, click Discussions List.
  2. Click New and select New Topic.
  3. Select or create the forum you want to put the topic in.
  4. Select the Topic Type: Open, or Group or section topic. (IMPORTANT: You can't edit the Topic Type once you save the topic!)
  5. Enter your topic's details.
  6. In the Options section, select any of the following:
    1. Allow anonymous posts- this allows students to post anonymously to the topic
    2. A moderator must approve individual posts before they display in the forum – This can be useful for instructors who want to approve a topic for consideration before allowing students to start discussing it
    3. Users must start a thread before they can read and reply to other threads in each topic– This forces students to pose their own commentary and ideas before reading others
    4. Rate Posts- you can allow students to rate posts in the discussion
  7. Click on the Restrictions tab near the top of your page
  8. Under the Availability section, you can select dates for when this topic will be available to your students using the "Has Start Date/Has End Date" check boxes. You are given 3 options when setting an Start/End date.
    1. Visible with access restricted before start/after end, The activity will be visible to learners before the Start Date or After the End Date, but they cannot click or open it. Information displayed to learners about the activity is limited to title, dates, and restrictions.
    2. Visible with submission restricted before start/after end, The activity will be visible to learners before the Start Date or after the End Date and they can access and view the activity but cannot complete it. Learners can access the description and evaluation requirements such as rubrics. The activity behaves the same as the previous 'locked' functionality.
    3. Hidden before start/after end, The activity will be hidden from learners until the Start Date/after the End Date. Calendar events for Availability Starts and Availability Ends will be hidden until the Start Date/after the End Date. Notifications will not be sent until the Start Date/after the End Date.
  9. Click Save and Close, Save and New, or Save.
    1. Save and Close: saves the topic and returns you to Discussions.
    2. Save and New: saves the topic and lets you create another topic.
    3. Save: saves the topic but stays on the page


  • If you want to add release conditions to a topic, you must click on Restrictions tab and modify the settings there.
  • If you want to add assessment to the topic, you must click on Assessment tab and modify settings there.
  • If you want to add objectives to the topic, you must click on Objectives tab and modify settings there.