Discussions are a type of graded assignment based on the conversation about a specific topic.

Each course has an access point to all Discussions in the top menu, where the total number of new messages is indicated. Additionally, we can add links to these discussions within the course content so they are contextualized where appropriate.

If you click on the Discussions tab in the course’s top menu, you will see the list of existing discussions and folders. For each discussion, you will have the description, due date, visibility, and conditional availability if applicable. If a discussion has new messages, you will see a marker next to its name. You can access editing each one by clicking the three dots (...) to access the settings. In that menu, you can also access the student activity report.

Discussions distributed throughout the course content also show the same information.

Adding a Discussion

You can add discussions either from the course content by clicking + > Create > Discussion or from the top menu by clicking Discussions > New Discussion.

Assign a name to the discussion and write the initial post using the text editor. Click Save to register that post.

Let’s configure the discussion by clicking the gear icon to access the settings.

If you want the discussion to appear in the course content in addition to the menu, make sure the checkbox for Show on the course content page is checked.

Other options you can enable require Post first, before seeing what others have replied.

Prevent editing stops students from editing their messages, and Allow anonymous replies and comments opens the possibility to write anonymously. This option can be very useful in some contexts, especially when the discussion touches on controversial topics.

If you want the discussion to take place among work groups, you can select the group set to be used under Group Discussion.

In this case, each group will see its own discussion, and the instructor can switch between groups via a dropdown, all within the same discussion.

If you check Grade discussion, several more options will appear to configure the grading:

• Due date, to which participation requirements can be added, such as making one or more posts and/or replies to peers.
• Second due date, also with its corresponding participation requirements.
• Stop activity after the due date, which will block posting and replying after the date, leaving the forum in read-only mode.

Besides these options, choose the maximum score and the grading scheme used (points, letter, percentage, etc.).

If you want, you can also assign a grading rubric to the discussion that will be used to grade the students.

Generating Discussions with AI

You can generate discussions using the generative AI features of Blackboard. To do so, click on Generate Discussion Automatically. Generation options include Generate a Title. You can learn about the rest of the generator configuration options in this article.

Select from the generated drafts and click Add.