Course materials: Discussions (instructors) | PowerSchool Learning and Engagement

Overview

Create interactive discussions with threaded comments so students can respond to classmates. Course Admins can moderate posts before publishing. Deleted posts appear under Moderate Posts in Course Options.

Create a discussion

Navigate to a course.
Select Add Materials, then Add Discussion. You can also add a discussion from within a folder.
Enter the discussion details. See the tables below for field and option descriptions.
Click Create.

Discussion field details

Field	Details
Description	Enter directions for students.
Due Date	Select a due date to show in the upcoming feed; otherwise, the discussion appears only in the discussions index or course folder.
Grading	Select Enable Grading and set grading preferences to make the discussion graded.
Align	Add learning objectives or standards. Enterprise users can track mastery after aligning materials.

Discussion option details

Options	Details
Individually Assign (enterprise)	Display the discussion to specific course members or grading groups.
Lock	Prevent students from posting, such as after the due date.
Publish	Show or hide the discussion from students.
Members can see other responses before participating	Control whether students can view peers' responses before posting.
Shared Discussion	Share an ungraded discussion with other courses using a password. Shared discussions cannot be graded.
Copy to Courses	Copy the discussion and its settings to another course you administer.

Shared discussions

When you share an ungraded discussion with other courses, Schoology generates a share ID that other instructors can use to join their classes.

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

Navigate to a course where you shared the discussion.
Select the discussion from the materials list.
From the details, copy the Share ID and Password. If they do not appear, grading is likely enabled.
Optional: select Share with your courses, choose additional courses, and click Share.

Join a shared discussion

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

Monitor discussion posts

From a discussion, monitor post counts, unread posts, replies, likes, grades, deleted posts, stats, and more.

A star identifies Course Admin posts.
Post count includes posts and replies.
Unread posts include posts and replies added since you last loaded the page; they appear in orange.
Select Highlight User to filter posts by author.
An orange dot indicates students who have not received a grade.
Use the grade button to enter a grade and comment for all of a student's posts in the discussion.
Hover over a post and use the gear icon to delete it.

Opening a discussion in the mobile app does not update the unread post count in the web version.