Discussions:Students

From CLEW Wiki

Contents 1 Getting Started with Discussions Tool: 1.1 Read a Topic (With All Its Replies): 1.2 Post a Topic: 1.3 Post a Message in Existing Topic(Reply): 1.4 Edit and Delete Replies: 1.5 Understand Icons & Key Information: 1.6 Mark Topic as Read: 2 Private Messaging 2.1 Read a Private Message: 2.2 Send a Private Message: 2.3 Reply to a Private Message: 2.4 Reply to a Private Message With a Quote: 2.5 Delete Private Messages: 3 Discussions’ Profile 3.1 Display a User Profile: 3.2 Create My Profile in Discussions Tool: 3.3 Revise Your Profile:

Getting Started with Discussions Tool:

The "Discussions" tool allows you to communicate asynchronously with other students and your professors through moderated online discussion forums. It also allows students to send private messages (PM) to each other and to your professors.

To get started, click Discussions in the left-hand menu. You will see the Discussions home page. This page features the Discussion List, which is a list of discussion forums for the site.

Your course may appear a bit different than this example, as your professor may have renamed, added and/or removed categories and forums but use this example to familiarize yourself with the Discussions environment.

"Discussions" are organized into four parts:

1. Categories – a group of forums of similar themes (In the example on left, Main and Other are categories)
2. Forums – a place to hold asynchronous discussions (In example, Questions, Class Discussions, and Student Lounge)
3. Topics – separate discussions on the forum’s subject, inside a forum
4. Replies – replies made to a topic posted.

As you navigate through your forums and topics, you can return to the Discussions home page from any page of the Discussions tool by clicking on Discussion Home in the Options menu bar.

• Note: If you experience difficulty viewing and navigating CLEW’s Discussions because of scrolling or related problems, open and view the tool in a new window or tab. To do this, right mouse click on Discussion Home in the Options menu. Select Open Link in New Window / Tab.

• Note: For those familiar with various discussion forums, you will note that CLEW’s Discussions tool is not a true threaded discussion forum. Postings within one topic occur under one another and do not branch off.

Read a Topic (With All Its Replies):

You have a number of ways to view and read topics. Use the first one to get you started. Once you’re comfortable with the Discussions tool, try the other three methods. Begin in the Discussions home page.

1. View all messages in a topic: Click on the forum name. Then click the name of the desired topic. Scroll down to view more messages in this topic.
2. View last message in a topic: You can go directly to the last message posted in a topic. Click on the forum name. When CLEW displays the contents of the forum, click on the last reply icon (the little arrow and document image) in the Last Message column for the topic you want. Note: clicking on the person’s name in this column will bring up his/her profile, not the message.
3. View last message in a forum: You can also go directly to the last message posted in any topic in a forum. On the Discussions home page, click on the last reply icon in the Last Message column for the forum you want.
4. View most recent messages: Click Recent Topics in the Options menu at the top of the screen. You will see a sorted list of recent topics – topics containing the most recent messages are at the top. Click the name of the desired topic or click the last reply icon in the Last message column. Tip: This is a handy way to access and read new messages in topics across all forums when trying to keep up with new messages. After reading messages for one topic, you can return to the list to select another topic by clicking Recent Topics again.

Post a Topic:

Post a new Topic whenever you want to begin a new topic of discussion. If you want to raise a question that is not related to an existing topic, post a new topic.

1. In the Discussions home page, click on the forum in which you want to post your topic.
2. Click the button.
3. Provide a subject name in the text box beside Subject. (Keep it short and descriptive.)
4. Type in your message in the Message body text box. Use the icons and drop-down lists in the Rich Text Editor to format your text as desired. (Note: the spell checker is not yet functional.) Alternatively, you can copy and paste from WordPad or Notepad. Coping from Mircrosoft Word is not recommended as formatting will be lost.
5. (optional) In the Options list below the text box, click the options you would like to apply.
   • To disregard HTML formatting and display plain text, click the check box next to Disable HTML in this message.
   • To add your electronic signature, which you set up in the Discussions’ My Profile (See Create My Profile for more details), to the bottom of the message, click the check box next to Append Signature.
   • To receive an e-mail when a reply to this message is posted, click the check box next to Notify when a reply is posted.
6. (optional) To attach one or more files to your message, click Attach Files. A File Attachment Panel box will appear at the bottom of the screen. (You may need to scroll down to view it.) Click Browse, locate the file you want to upload from your computer and double click on it (or click once and click "Open") Add a description. Click Add another file if you want to attach more than one file. Note: The total size of the attachments cannot be greater than 30 MB.
7. Click Submit to post your new topic. To cancel without posting your topic, click the Back button on your browser.

Post a Message in Existing Topic(Reply):

There are three ways to post a message:

1) Post Reply

1. Click on the forum and then the topic to which you want to reply.
2. Click the Post Reply button found at the top and at the bottom of the screen.
3. Type in your message in the Message body text box. Use the icons and drop-down lists in the Rich Text Editor to format your text as desired. (Note: the spell checker is not yet functional.) Alternatively, you can copy and paste from WordPad or Notepad. Coping from Microsoft Word is not recommended as formatting will be lost.
4. (optional) In the Options list below the text box, click the options you would like to apply.
   • To disregard HTML formatting and display plain text, click the check box next to Disable HTML in this message.
   • To add your electronic signature, which you set up in the Discussions’ My Profile (See Create My Profile for more details), to the bottom of the message, click the check box next to Append Signature.
   • To receive an e-mail when a reply to this message is posted, click the check box next to Notify when a reply is posted.
5. (optional) To attach one or more files to your message, click Attach Files. A File Attachment Panel box will appear at the bottom of the screen. (You may need to scroll down to view it.) Click Browse, locate the file you want to upload from your computer and double click on it (or click once and click "Open") Add a description. Click Add another file if you want to attach more than one file. Note: The total size of the attachments cannot be greater than 30 MB.
6. Click Submit to post your reply. You will be returned to the topic screen. Your reply will be posted at the end of the topic. The original topic is listed first, and all subsequent replies are listed below it in chronological order.

2) Quick Reply

Quick Reply allows you to quickly post a reply, but does not give you any formatting options or allow you to attachment a file to your message.

1. Click the forum and then the topic to which you want to reply.
2. Click Quick Reply found near the bottom of the screen.
3. Type your message in the text box.
4. Click Submit to post your reply.

3) Quote

Use Quote if you are responding to a portion of someone’s message. The other person’s post/reply will appear as a “quote” in your message.

1. Click the forum - then the topic to which you want to reply.
2. Click the Quote icon of the message you want to quote.
3. Delete any irrelevant parts of the quote being sure to leave the [quote=username] and [/quote] intact, where username is the name of the person you are quoting. Type in your message in the Message body text box after the [/quote]. Use the icons and drop-down lists in the Rich Text editor to format your text as desired. (Note: the spell checker is not yet functional.) You can copy and paste text from WordPad or Notepad. Coping from Microsoft Word is not recommended as formatting will be lost.
4. Proceed through steps 4 through 6 in Post Reply above.

TIP: Avoid asking NEW questions when adding a reply to a specific topic. Any issues that relate to the current topic or questions for clarifications can be raised or posted in the current topic. Questions that raise new issues will make the topic unfocused and difficult to follow. If you want to ask a new question that is not directly related to the topic, or if an assignment explicitly states to do so, start a new topic. (See Post a topic above.)

Edit and Delete Replies:

Students cannot edit or delete messages. Only professors have the ability to edit and delete messages.

Understand Icons & Key Information:

On the Discussions home page, you will find icons and other information to help you navigate through discussions.

• The icons found beside forums are described in the legend at the bottom of the Discussions home page.

• New Messages :Students can see at a glance where new activity is – where a new message is posted. An orange document icon will appear next to the forum name.
• No New Messages :If there are no new messages in the forum, the document icon will be white.
• Read Only :A padlock icon beside the forum name means that it is locked. Everyone except the Professor can only read the postings and cannot post messages.
• Reply Only :The pencil and paper icon means that in this forum only Professors can create a new topic. Students can only reply to existing topics.
• Select Groups :The Professor has allowed only a certain group(s) of members to participate in this forum. Only those members belonging to the designated group (and the Professor) have access.
• Deny Access :This forum is visible only to the Professor.

The Read Only, Reply Only, and Select Groups icons will appear with an orange background if there are new messages or with a white background if there are no new messages.

• You can also see how many topics and messages are in each forum by the numbers in the Topics and Messages columns. As topics and messages get added to the forums, these numbers are updated.
• The last column in the Discussion List on the Discussions home page provides the name of the person who posted the last message in that forum and when. Clicking on a user’s name will bring up his/her profile. Clicking on the last reply icon (it looks like an arrow and a page) takes the user to that last message.
• When you click on a forum, you will see icons beside the topics. Orange icons indicate new messages in the topic. White icons indicate no new messages in the topic. You will also see a few other icons (see legend at the bottom of the forum screen). Hot messages refers to topics that have had heavy dialogue and have at least 20 replies posted.

NOTE: When you read a topic, the icon changes from orange to white, to indicate that you’ve read it. However, as soon as you leave your site (log out, go to another course site, etc.) and log back in, all those white icons turn orange again.

In order for icons to remain white after you log out (until new material is posted), you must “Mark Topic as Read”.

Mark Topic as Read:

There are three ways to mark your topics as read:

1. While you’re reading a topic, you can click on Mark Topic As Read, which is located both above and below the topic list. Notice that new postings have a pinkish background until they’ve been marked as read. Once they are marked, they become white. This makes it easy to see at a glance which postings are new when you enter the topic list. NOTE: You cannot mark individual messages as read, marking some as read and leaving others as not read in the same topic. All messages in a topic posted so far will be marked as read.
2. If you have read all the new posts in a Topic but didn’t yet mark them, you can do so in the List of Topics. On the right side of the List of Topics of any forum, there is a column of check boxes. Click in the box(es) of the topic(s) you want to mark as read, then click on Mark Topic As Read, either at the top or the bottom of the list. You can easily choose (or deselect) all boxes by clicking on Check All (or Uncheck All).
3. If you’ve read ALL the new posts from all topics in all forums but didn’t yet mark them, you can click on [Mark Topic As Read] located at the top of your page in the Options Menu. This affects EVERY posting in EVERY category, so be sure that’s what you want.

Private Messaging

Read a Private Message:

Upon entering the Discussions tool, you can see immediately if you have any new messages. Private Messages in the Options menu bar changes to New Private Messages when you have received a new private message and the number of new unread messages is shown in parenthesis beside it.

1. To read new or old messages, click on Private Messages (or New Private Messages) in the Options menu bar.
2. Click on the Subject of the message you want to read. (New messages will display an orange icon beside them. Once you have opened a private message, the icon will change to white to indicate that it has been read.)

Send a Private Message:

Use Private Message if you want to share an aside or off-topic notes with others, or to communicate information that would not be appropriate to post publicly, such as feedback on an message that will be graded.

NOTE: Do not use Private Message when your message needs to be read in a timely fashion. Unless the user has chosen to receive an e-mail notification when a private message is sent to him/her, he/she may never notice that a new private message has been received. Do not expect your professor to notice that you have sent a Private Message to him/her unless your professor has explicitly asked you to use the Private Messaging of CLEW.

1. In the Discussions home page, click on Private Messages in the Options menu bar.
2. Click on the icon.
3. In the To user area, select to whom you want to send the private message. Scroll up or down if you need to. To select more than one name, click on one then hold the Control key (Command key, on a Mac) and click on the others. You may send a private message to up to 10 members at a time.
4. Enter a subject in the Subject text box.
5. Enter your message in Message body. Format the text using the icons and drop-down lists in the Rich Text Editor. (Note: the spell checker is not yet functional.)
6. (optional) Select your Options.
7. Click Submit.

• You can also send a private message while you are reading a discussion message from someone. To do so, click the message icon under his/her post. Then follow steps 4 through 7 above.

Reply to a Private Message:

1. While reading a private message, click the Post reply icon.
2. Follow steps 5 through 7 in Send a Private Message above.

Reply to a Private Message With a Quote:

1. While reading a private message, click the quote icon on the right.
2. Delete any irrelevant parts of the quote being sure to leave the [quote=user] and [/quote] intact. Type in your message in the Message body text box after [/quote]. Use the icons and drop-down lists in the Rich Text Editor to format your text as desired. (Note: the spell checker is not yet functional.)
3. Follow steps 6 and 7 in Send a Private Message above.

Delete Private Messages:

You can delete any private message you have received or sent from your Private Message list.

1. In the Discussions home page, click on Private Messages in the Options menu bar.
2. Click on the check box to the right of the private message you want to delete.
3. Click Delete Selected. The message will be immediately deleted.

• You can also delete a message immediately after reading it. At the bottom of the message is a Delete this message button. Click the button. The message will be immediately deleted.

Discussions’ Profile

Anywhere in the Discussions tool that you see a participant’s name or a Profile icon, you can click on it to view the participant’s profile. A Profile is composed of information about the participant that he/she chooses to display.

Note: My Workspace also contains a Profile tool. Information from the Profile tool in My Workspace is not automatically transferred to the profile area of Discussions. If you want others to be able to access your information from the Discussions tool, you must add this information to your Discussions user profile. (The Discussions Profile is expected to be integrated into the My Workspace Profile in a future version of CLEW.)

Note: The information you enter here will be visible in the Discussions area of all CLEW sites to which you belong.

Display a User Profile:

• On the Discussions tool home page, click Member Listing in the Discussions Options menu.
  
  

  

  Members List

You will see a list of all site participants.

• To see a participant’s complete user profile, find the person’s name and click it.

Notice that the information displayed here includes profile information plus the number of Topics the person has posted and the date he/she joined this Discussions area.

When you post a message to a discussion, your name, image (if selected) and profile preferences will appear next to the discussion message you posted. Any site member may click on the Profile icon to view your profile.

Note: Only you and the System Administrator can edit your profile.

Create My Profile in Discussions Tool:

• On the home page of the Discussions tool, click My Profile in the Discussions Options menu.
  
  

You will see the Register Information screen. Your User Name and email address are already entered. You cannot edit these.

• You may choose to add any of the following General Information about yourself to your profile by typing into the text boxes:
  • Your instant messaging number for ICQ, AIM, MSN Messenger, and/or Yahoo Messenger
  • Your web site URL
  • Your location
  • Your occupation
  • Your interests
  • Your special signature message
• Under Preferences, click Yes or No to instruct CLEW to do the following:
  • Show your email address in your profile
  • Notify you when replies are posted to your messages. Note: If you select this preference, you will receive an email EVERY time a reply is posted to your messages. You can return to deselect this preference at any time.
  • Send you an email when you have received a private message
  • Attach your signature to all messages you post to discussion forums
  • Allow HTML in your messages
  • You can also set your language preference.
• You may also include a picture to be displayed next to your posted messages. IMPORTANT: Before uploading an image, resize it to 130 x 130 pixels or smaller. To upload your image, scroll down to the Avatar Control Panel section and click the Browse button.

• Find your image file on your computer and double click on it. The name of the file will appear in the text box to the left of the Browse button. Alternatively, you may enter the URL of an image you want instead of uploading it from your computer.
• Click Submit to save your changes. You may click Reset to delete any changes and revert your profile back to the last saved version. If you click Submit, the message “Information Updated” is displayed in red at the top of the screen.
• To return to the discussion list, click Discussion Home in the Discussions Options menu. You can click on My Profile in the Discussions Options menu at anytime to change any of the information, preferences, or image in your profile.

Note: Once included in My Profile, this information appears in every topic or message you post.

If you make a change to your profile, it will update all references of your profile in all sites to which you are a member and all your posted topics and messages, even posts and PMs made prior to these changes.

Revise Your Profile:

On the home page of the Discussions tool, click My Profile in the Discussions Options menu.

Make any change to the information and click Submit to save your changes. You may click Reset to delete any changes and revert your profile back to the last saved version. If you click Submit, the message “Information Updated” is displayed in red at the top of the screen.