In VIULearn, you can use the Discussions tool to allow students to engage in smaller more intimate group discussions. You can use the Discussion tool to:
- Allow students to answer a general prompt in small groups.
- Allow students to answer group-specific prompts.
- Allow students to communicate with their other group members regarding a group project or presentation.
- Create a private discussion between you and a single student.
When setting up your group discussions, you first want to decide if you want to create one topic that all groups contribute to or if you want to create separate topics for each group. For students, both of these options will appear identical as students only see their own group's topics and posts. The decision whether to create one or multiple topics is entirely up to you, but there are some activities that are better suited to one option over the other.
Use a Restricted Topic that Separates the Threads When
- All groups will have access to the discussion at the same time.
- All groups are discussing the same subject, problem, or question.
- You want to connect the group discussion to a grade item in VIULearn.
Use a Restricted Topic When
- You want to give groups different dates that they will be able to access and contribute to the discussion.
- Groups are discussing a different subject, problem, or question and you want to keep these discussions separated in your view as the instructor
Create Group Discussions
- Select Communication. From the dropdown menu, select Discussions.
- Click the New button. From the dropdown menu, select New Topic.
- Give your Discussion Topic a name.
- Click the Availability Dates & Conditions heading.
- Click Manage Restrictions.
- Click the checkbox next to Restrict topic and separate the threads.
- Choose the Group Category you wish to assign the Discussion Topic to.
If you have mapped your course shell together and there are multiple sections within your course shell, you can also choose to restrict the Discussion Topic so that students will only be able to see and reply to other students who are enrolled in the same section as them by clicking Section from the dropdown menu. - Click the blue Add button to add the restriction.
- Once you have finished editing, click the blue Save and Close button.
When adding restrictions to a Discussion Topic, you can choose to restrict the topic so that only users in the selected groups/sections will be able to view the topic and all of its threads. This method is ideal if you would like each individual group or section to have a different discussion question or prompt. If students will be responding to the same discussion question or prompt, it is recommended that you choose the Restrict topic and separate the threads setting in the Manage Restrictions area. This way, you only have to check for student responses in one location.
- Select Communication. From the dropdown menu, select Discussions.
- Click the New button. From the dropdown menu, select New Topic.
- Give your Topic a name.
- Click the Availability Dates & Conditions tab.
- Click Manage Dates.
- Click the checkbox next to Restrict topic.
- Choose the Group Category or Section in question by clicking the checkbox next to the Group Category or Section. You can also restrict the topic so that only a specific group in a Group Category can see and reply to the topic by clicking the downward arrow beside the Group Category and then selecting the checkbox next to the group you wish to restrict the discussion to.
- Click the blue Add button.
- Once you have finished editing, click the Save and Close button.
Create Private Discussions
You can use groups and discussions to create private journals or personal learning reflection areas for students. The steps below will walk you through how to set this up through the Groups tool. However, if you have already created Single User, member-specific groups for your course, you can set up a discussion area using these groups using the same steps as you would for any other group-restricted discussion.
- Click Communication from the course navigation bar. Select Groups from the dropdown menu.
- Click the blue New Category button.
- Give your Category a name. You can also add a description if you wish.
- Set the Enrolment Type to Single User, member-specific groups.
- Click the Set up discussions area checkbox if you wish to immediately begin creating your group restricted Discussion Topics. These steps will assume that you wish to begin immediately creating the Discussion Topics.
- Choose the Forum you want your Discussions to appear under or click the New Forum text to create a new Forum.
- Choose if you want to create a New Topic or if you want to attach this topic to an existing topic. These steps will assume you are creating a new Topic.
- Click the blue Save button.
- Choose what type of topic you want to create:
- Create one topic per group: This setting will create separate Discussion Topics for each learner. This setting can be helpful if you wish to give each student a different prompt to answer.
- Create one topic with threads separated by group: This setting will create a single Discussion Topic, but the threads each user creates within that Topic will be private. This option may be best for you if you anticipate wanting to post to all groups at once or if you will have several group discussions and want to minimize clutter on your discussion page.
- Create one topic per group: This setting will create separate Discussion Topics for each learner. This setting can be helpful if you wish to give each student a different prompt to answer.
- Give your Topic a name and enter a description or instructions into the Description field.
- Click the blue Create and Next button to create the Discussion and return to the groups editing screen or click the grey Add Another button to create another group restricted Discussion Topic.
- When you are finished creating Discussions, you will be taken to a confirmation page. Click Done.
- Depending on how many groups you will be creating, it may take some time for VIULearn to finish creating your Group Category. You will receive a notification in the Update Alerts area once your Group Category has been successfully created.
- If you would like to apply additional settings to your group restricted discussions (Add a Start and End Date, attach a Grade Item, attach a Rubric etc.) you will need to edit that Discussion Topic in the Discussions tool. You can do so by clicking Communication and then Discussions from the course navigation bar. Then click the downward arrow next to the Discussion Topic and click Edit Topic from the dropdown menu.