11.2. Anatomy of edX Course Discussions

This topic describes how course discussions are organized in an edX course.

11.2.1. Basic Elements: Posts, Responses, and Comments

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.

11.2.2. 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.

Discussion home page with the discussion navigation pane to one side of the "How to use edX discussions" pane. Numbered callouts indicate the elements on this page.

11.2.2.1. Discussion Navigation Pane

The discussion navigation pane shows titles and information for all the individual posts in the course. The discussion navigation pane also has filters that you can use to sort discussions by topic, status, and activity.

The discussion navigation pane includes the following elements.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Specific identifiers. If a moderator has pinned a post so that it is at the top of the list, 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.
  4. The title of the post. The title lets you know what the post is about.
  5. The post type icon. A post can be a discussion or a question. For more information, see Determine the Post Type: Discussion or Question.
  6. An icon that indicates a “correct answer”. The green check mark icon indicates that one of the responses to the post correctly answers the question that the post asks.
  7. The post search box. You can search all posts, responses, and comments for individual words or phrases. For more information, see Search the Discussions.
  8. The activity sorting control. You can sort listed posts by recent activity, most activity, or most votes. For more information, see Keeping Up with New Activity.
  9. Status indicator icons. These indicators show whether you have read a post and the number of responses and comments for that post. For more information, see Keeping Up with New Activity.

11.2.2.2. How to Use edX Discussions

When you select the Discussion page, information about how to use edX discussions appears with information about how you can interact with posts. Each of these interactions is covered later in this topic. For more information, see the following sections.

On this 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 Receive updates.

The How to Use edX Discussions pane with the Receive Updates check box circled.

After you select the title of a post, this area of the page shows the post, responses to the post, and comments on responses. The page is formatted to help you distinguish 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.

Discussion page with a specific post selected in the discussion navigation pane and the post, responses, and comments next to it.

Additionally, there are several option icons available for every post, response, and comment. The option icons that appear depend on the type of contribution. (For more information, see Providing Feedback on Contributions.)

A single post with the option icons indicated.

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.