Manage discussion topics

Updated 17 Aug 2021

Most courses come with a Discussions or Discussion Board menu item where you add your discussion topics and posts, and you can create your own discussion menu items, as well. You can add multiple topics to your discussions, and each topic can contain many responses and replies (posts) from your students. Add introductory text above all topics in a discussion to provide instructions or other general information.

To better organize your discussion, you can edit, reorder, hide, or delete topics. You need to be in Manage mode to add or change discussion topics.

  1. Open the discussion menu item.
  2. Select Manage View above the discussion page then select Manage.
  3. To add Introductory Text select  Edit (optional).
  4. Select  Add Topic.
  5. Enter a Title for your topic (required).
  6. Use the content editor to describe the topic or add questions for your students to answer.
  7. Select the Hide topic from students option if you do not want students to view the topic in the Topics list.

    You can later edit the topic to show it to students when you’re ready.

  8. Select the Post first - Hide responses from a student until a response is posted option if you want students to see other responses only after first posting a response to the topic.

    If you select this option, students see the message: “Responses for this topic are hidden from you until you make a response.”

  9. For Attachments, select Add/Remove (optional). In the Add and Remove Attachments page, under File to attach, browse to the file to be attached. Select Attach File or Save & Attach Another File.

    Try to keep each file you attach smaller than 10 MB.

    To include content that is larger than 10 MB, upload the file to an external server then embed the content in the discussion.

  10. Select Add Topic.
  11. Select Manage View then select View to see the discussion as your students do.
  1. Select Manage View above the discussion page then select Manage.
  2. Select the Edit icon  in the row of the topic you want to edit.
  3. Edit the Title of the topic if you want.
  4. Use the content editor to edit the topic text.
  5. For Attachments, select Add/Remove (optional).

    Try to keep each file you attach smaller than 10 MB.

    To include content that is larger than 10 MB, upload the file to an external server then embed the content in the discussion.

  6. Select the Hide topic from students option if you do not want students to view the topic in the Topics list.
  7. Select the Post first - Hide responses from a student until a response is posted option if you want students to see other responses only after first posting a response to the topic.
  8. Select Save Changes to update the topic.
    1. Select Manage View above the discussion page then select Manage.
    2. Find the topic you want to move under Topics.
    3. Under Reorder, repeatedly select the move up  or move down  icons to move the topic to the new location.

You can hide or show all new topics in a course from students with the course-level Discussions Settings. To override the course-level settings, you can hide a specific discussion topic from students (or show it). You need to be in Manage mode to hide a topic, or to see or edit any hidden topic in the Topics list.

  1. Select Manage View above the discussion page then select Manage.
  2. Select the Edit icon  in the row of the topic you want to hide.
  3. Under the content editor, select Hide topic from students.

    Clear this option to show the topic to students.

  4. Select Save Changes to update the topic.

    The topic is now hidden from all students in the Topics list.

  1. Select Manage View above the discussion page then select Manage.
  2. Select the Delete icon  in the row of the topic you want to delete.

    A confirmation message appears.

  3. Select the confirmation check box then select Delete Topic & Responses.

    The topic and responses are deleted, including all responses posted by students.

See also:

Hide discussion responses until a student posts (Post first) | Manage course-level Discussions Settings | View discussion topics and responses