Course materials: Discussions

Create interactive discussions for students with threaded commenting allowing students to respond to other student’s posts. Comments can be moderated, requiring a Course Admin to approve each post before publishing. Deleted posts will be listed under Moderate Posts in the Course Options section.

Create a discussion

Navigate to a course and click Add Materials. Alternatively, click Add Materials from within a folder.
Select Add Discussion from the list.
Fill out the Create Discussion form. Refer to the Discussion field details and Discussion option details tables for more information.
Click Create.

Discussion field details

Field	Details
Description	Enter directions for students.
Due Date	Select the due date to be displayed in the Upcoming feed. Otherwise, it will only be accessible in the Discussions index or course folder.
Grading	Select Enable Grading and adjust the grading preferences to make the discussion a graded item.
Align	Add custom learning objectives, Common Core, Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), ACTFL Standards for Foreign Language Learning, College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education, AERO Curriculum Frameworks, or State Standards. Enterprise users can use the Mastery tool to track students' progress after aligning materials with learning objectives. Common Core, NGSS, College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education, and State Standards are consistently updated in Schoology. Any learning objective titles that contain a year indicate the original publication date and not the most recent update.

Discussion option details

Options	Details
Individually Assign (enterprise)	Displays the assignment to specific members of the course or grading group.
Lock	Prevent students from posting in the discussion. You can lock the discussion after the due date has passed.
Publish	Display or hide the discussion from students.
Members can see other responses before participating	Determine if students can access their peers' responses before they post. If enabled, other students' posts will be greyed out. Choose this option to encourage originality in your students' posts.
Shared Discussion	Enable sharing the discussion with other courses by entering a password and selecting the courses. Shared discussions cannot be graded.
Copy to Courses	Copy the discussion with the current settings and options to another course you administer.

Shared discussions

If you used the Shared Discussion option to share your ungraded discussion with other courses, a Shared ID was generated that other instructors can use to join their classes in the discussion.

You cannot share discussions after they have been created.
Shared discussions are not available across linked sections.

Locate the Share ID

Navigate to a course where you shared the discussion.
From the materials list, select the discussion name.
From the discussion details, obtain the Share ID and Password. If the details do not display a Share ID and Password, grading is likely enabled. Graded discussions cannot be shared with other courses.
Optionally, click Share with your courses, select additional course, and click Share.

Join a shared discussion

Navigate to the course where the discussion is shared.
From Materials, change the filter from All Materials to Discussions.
From Options, select Join Shared Discussions.
Enter the Discussion ID and Passcode, and then click Join Discussion.
You can also automatically share the discussion with your courses and sections.

Monitor discussion posts

From the discussion, you can monitor the post count and unread posts, reply and like posts, grade posts, delete posts, review stats, and more.

A star is displayed on the course admin's discussion post image to help identify which posts may be directions or feedback from the instructor.
The Post Count includes the total number of posts and replies on the discussion.
The Unread Posts include the number of posts and replies added since you last loaded the page. Unread Posts are highlighted in orange.
Select Highlight User to filter posts by author and display all posts the student has created in this discussion.
An orange dot indicates students who have not yet received a grade for the discussion.
Click the grade button to enter a grade and a comment for the student. This grade applies to all of the students' posts on the discussion, not just the one you have selected.
Hover over a post to display the gear icon. From the gear icon, delete the post.

Opening a discussion on the mobile app does not affect the Unread Posts count. Posts you read, while logged into the Schoology mobile app, will still be marked as unread the next time you log in to the web version.