This topic describes how course discussions are organized in an edX course.
Discussions are made up of posts, responses, and comments. Together,
posts, responses, and comments are known as contributions, and a post
together with its responses and comments is an exchange.
- Posts initiate a conversation by asking a question or making a statement
for learners to consider.
- Responses reply directly to the post.
- Comments, in turn, reply to specific responses.
The following conversation shows each of these contributions:
Post: "Please introduce yourself."
- Response: "My name is Lee and I teach secondary school maths in Canberra,
Australia."
- Response: "Hello everyone, I am Sumei from Hong Kong, China."
- Comment: "Hi Sumei, I am taking this course in Hong Kong too. Maybe we
should make a study group!"
- Comment: "I'd like to join the Hong Kong study group too, I think it
will help me keep up with the homework."
- Response: "Hi from Johannesburg! I am taking the course to prepare for my
matric exams."
You can see posts, comments, and responses, as well as other information about
the course discussions and individual posts, on the Discussion page.
When you go to the Discussion page in your course, you see a page that
looks like the following image. You can select the image to enlarge it.
14.2.2.1. List of Posts
The list of posts in the left pane lists titles and information for all the
individual posts in the course. The list of posts also has filters that you can
use to sort discussions by topic, status, and activity.
The list of posts includes the following elements.
- The drop-down Discussion list. When you select this list, you can see all of
the topics in the course discussions, or you can view only the posts that you
are following. For more information about discussion topics, see
View Discussions about a Specific Topic. For more information about following posts, see
Follow Posts.
- The status filter. You can filter discussions that you have not read yet, or
that contain unanswered questions. For more information, see Answer Questions and Mark Questions as Answered.
- Specific identifiers. If a moderator has pinned a post, if you chose to
follow a post, or if the person who created the post is a community TA,
moderator, or administrator, you see a colored identifier with this
information.
- The title of the post. The title lets you know what the post is about.
- The post type. A post can be a question or a discussion. For more
information, see Determine the Post Type: Discussion or Question.
- A “correct answer” status indicator. The green check mark indicates that one
of the responses to the post correctly answers the question that the post
asks.
- The post search box. You can search all posts, responses, and comments for
individual words or phrases. For more information, see Search the Discussions.
- The activity sorting control. You can sort discussions by recent activity,
most activity, or most votes. For more information, see Keep Up with New Activity.
- Status indicators. These indicators show whether you have read a post and the
responses and comments for that post. For more information, see
Keep Up with New Activity.
14.2.2.2. Right Pane
When you select the Discussion tab, the right pane opens to a home page
that lists ways that you can interact with posts. Each of these interactions is
covered later in this topic. For more information, see the following sections.
On the home page, you can also specify that you want to receive an email
message each day that summarizes discussion activity for the posts you are
following. To receive this daily digest, select the Receive updates check
box.
After you select the title of a post, the right pane shows the original post,
responses to the post, and comments on responses. The page is formatted to help
distinguish between posts, responses, and comments:
- The post and its title appear at the top of the page.
- Responses appear indented and with a white background below the original
post.
- Comments on a response appear with a gray background below the response. The
font size for comments is smaller than the font size for responses.
These elements appear in the image below. You can select the image to enlarge
it.
Additionally, in the upper-right corner of every post, response, and comment,
you can see several option icons. The icons that you see depend on the type of
contribution. (For more information, see Provide Feedback on Contributions.)
The icons that you see might include the following options.
- A plus sign (+), together with the number of votes the post has received.
Select this icon to vote for the post or response. For more information, see
Vote for Posts or Responses.
- A star (posts only). Select this icon if you want to follow the post. For
more information, see Follow Posts.
- A check mark (responses only). For questions, the student who posted the
question, or discussion team member, can use this icon to indicate that the
response is correct. For more information, see Answer Questions and Mark Questions as Answered.
- An ellipsis, or “more”, icon (...). When you select this icon, you may see
several additional options:
- Edit. This option is only visible if you are the author of the post,
response, or comment. You can change the text of your contribution, or, for
posts, you can change the type of post. For more information, see
Edit or Delete a Post, Response, or Comment.
- Delete. This option is only visible if you are the author of the post,
response, or comment. For more information, see Edit or Delete a Post, Response, or Comment.
- Report. You can use this option to report an inappropriate post,
response, or comment. For more information, see Report Discussion Misuse.