Class Conversations

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

When to Use?

If you enable class conversations for individual content items, students can discuss the content with you and their classmates. They can ask for help, share sources, or answer questions others have. As the conversation develops, it appears only with the relevant content.   Conversations differ from Discussions in that they are not a gradable activity and instead are meant to provide a means for students to communicate on various content items.

Watch Using Class Conversations to learn the purpose of class conversations, how to create, post, and respond to a conversation.

Conversations can be enabled for these content items:

• Documents
• Cloud Documents
• Assignments
• Group assignments (see Important Insight on Groups and Class Conversations)
• Tests
• Group tests
• Offline submissions
• Links to teaching tools

Procedure

To enable class conversations on a content item, follow the steps below:

1. Select the item's Settings gear icon to open the panel with the item's details and information.

2. Select Allow Class Conversations.

NOTE: Conversations only appear in the menu if you selected "Allow class conversations" in the item's settings.

To view class conversations on a content item, follow the steps below:

1. Items with a new conversation will have an icon appear next to the item's title on the Course Content page

2. Click on the item to open the item's menu

3. Select the Conversation icon in the top right-hand corner to open the conversation panel

NOTE: A purple circle appears with the icon to indicate new activity.

Navigating Conversations:

Conversations are set up the same as discussions. Two levels of replies are allowed for each first-level response.

1. What do you want to say? Add a response or reply to a student. Optionally, use the functions in the editor to format your response.
2. Save a draft. You can start a response, save it as a draft, and finish it later.
3. What's new? New responses and replies appear with a new icon.
4. Edit and delete contributions. Open a response's menu and select Edit or Delete. As an instructor, you can edit or delete any course member's response. Students can delete their own responses, but they can't make edits.
5. View activity and search for participants. View the list of participants and their activity, and search for a specific participant.
6. Refresh your view. Check for new activity since you opened the conversation.

Important Insight on Groups and Class Conversations

When a group assignment has Class Conversations turned on, there are two Conversations associated with the assignment:  an All Class Conversation and a Small Group Conversation that only members of a group participate in.  From the student perspective in a course, when the group assignment is accessed, they can access either Conversation in the following manner:

• All Class Conversation:  In the right-side panel that opens for the assessment, the student clicks the Conversation Icon in the upper right corner to access a conversation in which all users in the course are able to participate. 

• Group Discussion Conversation: If the student wishes to only have a conversation with their teammates, the student can scroll to the bottom of the right-side panel that opens for the assessment and go to the Group Members section and click on the Group Member Conversation Icon to open a conversation that is only amongst their group partners.  Once in the Conversation screen, students can toggle between the All Class and their group conversation by selecting which conversation they would like to access via a drop-down menu.

Instructor View of All Class versus Small Group Conversations

Instructors can see all conversations associated with a group assignment (All Class Conversation and all conversations amongst small groups) by selecting which conversation they would like to view: