Create a Discussion in Ultra

If your course is in Original Course View, see the Original Course View tutorial collection.

When to Use?

Discussions encourage students to think critically about their coursework and interact with each other’s ideas. Follow these instructions, or watch the video, to learn how to create discussions in Blackboard Ultra.  See Discussion Overview to learn more about the features and settings of Discussions.

Watch Introduction to Ultra Discussions to learn more about creating and managing discussions.

Building a Discussion

Discussions can be added directly on the course content page or from the Discussions tab at the top menu.

1. Creating a Discussion from within Course Content:  To create a discussion directly on the course content page, select the purple plus sign where you want to add a link to the discussion, then select Create. In the side panel menu that opens, select Discussion under Participation and Engagement.

2. Creating a Discussion from the Discussions Tab:  Click the Discussion Tab and then either click on Create Discussion or the + icon in the upper right corner

(A) On the discussion page, give your discussion a title

(B) enter in the prompt in the Content Editor menu.  Be sure to include guidelines and expectations to ensure students understand the requirements and grading schema. You can use the options in the editor to format your text. When you are finished, select Save.

(C) when desired, be sure to make the Discussion visible to students.

(D)  Select the gear icon from the upper right to open up the side panel menu for additional configuration options:

• Display on Course Content Page:  adds a link to the discussion from the Course Content Page

• Post First:  requires students to make their initial post to the prompt, before they can see their classmate's posts.

• Prevent Editing:  if checked, this prevents students from editing or deleting an already published post.  Please consider this as a best practice for your course.

• Grade Discussion:   if the discussion is to count towards the final grade in the course, check this box.  Once checked, additional settings display for point value, due date, etc.

  You can add discussions for everyone or ask students to participate in group discussions. You can also make discussions count for a grade.

  

 If desired, Release Conditions can be set from the upper right drop-down menu ("hidden from students" is the default option that initially appears in this box).  When Release Conditions is selected, the side panel menu opens to determine when (date/time or by performance) the discussion is to be made available and to whom (all members of the class or specific students or groups).  When "performance" is chosen as a release condition, a discussion will become available to students based on criteria chosen by the instructor (e.g. successful completion of another graded activity in the course or the total score earned in the course).

When finished, select Save.

NOTE:  By default, students can only participate in discussions the instructor creates.  If desired, instructors can allow students to create discussions that appear in the list with yours.  To enable this, from the Discussions tab select the gear icon in the upper right to open the Discussion Settings panel. Select Allow Students to Create Discussion Topics, and then select Save. You can turn this setting on and off at any time.  AFTER a student has created a Discussion, the instructor can access it to enable discussion settings as normal.