ANSWER: GROUP MANAGER - DISCUSSION TOPIC

You can create discussion topics for groups in which group members can participate in asynchronous communication.  For example, if you create a group assignment, you can create a discussion topic for the group in which group members can read and post messages, such as questions and ideas about the assignment.

You can create a discussion topic for one group or create multiple discussion topics at once, one for each group that you select. You can also choose to grade members on their participation in the discussion groups. IMPORTANT: For group members to have access to a topic created for groups, Discussions must be added to the course menu, or the topic must be added to the Course Content tool.

Step 1: From the Teach tab, click the  Group Manager on the Instructor Tools menu:

Step 2: From the Group Manager screen:

• To create a topic for one group or for each of multiple groups, next to each group for which you want to create a topic, select the check box.
• To create topics for all groups, in the table heading row, select the check box. All groups are selected.
• From the Create Group Activity drop-down list, select Discussion topic and click the Go arrow.

Step 3: On the Create Discussion Topic screen:

• Enter a title and description.
  • If you are creating topics for multiple groups, the title will be added to the group's name. For example: If you are creating topics for groups named Assignment Group 1 and Assignment Group 2 and you enter the title, American Poets, the topics will be titled American Poets - Assignment Group 1 and American Poets - Assignment Group 2.
• To award students a grade based on their participation in the topic, do the following under Topic Gradability:
  • Select the Topic is gradeable check box. A column for the topic is automatically added to Grade Book.
  • If you want the Grade Book column to have a name other than the topic title, in the Grade Book column title text box, enter a new name.
  • Select a grading scheme:
    • If you want to assign a numeric grade to the topic, select Numeric grade and, in the Out of text box, enter the maximum grade that can be attained.
    • If you want to assign a letter grade to the topic, select Alphanumeric grade.
• To specify whether Students can edit their own messages after posting them, do one of the following:
  • To allow Students to edit their own posts, select the Editable posts check box, unless it is already selected by default.
  • To prevent Students from editing their own posts, and if the setting is selected by default, clear the Editable posts check box.
• To allow users to post messages to the topic anonymously, select the Anonymous check box.
• If you don't want to allow messages to be posted to the topic, select the Locked check box. A Locked icon will appear next to the topic title on the Discussions screen and the Messages screen.
• Under Group Work, you will see listed all of the groups you selected in step one above. To remove a group from the list, click the Remove icon next to it.
• To place the topic in a category, next to More Options, click the Expand/Collapse icon.
• Click Save to create the topic.

If you have any further questions, please contact us for support. Thank you.
- WebCampus Support