1. Login and select the course title
2. Go to the Topic or Week section in which the forum exists, and click on the name of the Forum or click Forums in the Activities block and select the forum name.
3. To read a posting, click on a discussion that someone else has posted.
4. To reply to a discussion that someone else has posted, click “Reply” in the message
5. To start a new discussion (if available in the forum), click the "Add a new discussion topic" button. This will start a new thread.

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Some courses may not use forums at all, while other courses may use many forums. Most courses will have a News/Announcements forum. Only the instructor can post to this forum, and students cannot reply. By default every time a message is posted to this forum an email will be sent to your @uregina.ca email. If the Latest Announcements block is in the course, new posts to the News/Announcements forum will be highlighted there.

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Each student has the option of turning tracking on or off for a particular forum. When tracking is turned on, all unread posts are indicated with a checkmark next to the forum/discussion name in the forum page that lists all discussions. To access these new posts, click the number next to the checkmark.

All new postings and unread replies in each forum are shown in gray color.

If you do not see this on new messages or any new posts in the unread post's column, please do the following:

1. Click on your profile icon in the top right corner of the page
2. Select Preferences
3. Click on Forum preference in User account
4. Next to Forum tracking, in the drop-down menu select Yes, highlight new posts for me
5. Click the Save changes button at the bottom of the page.

Once you have clicked on the message, the number of new unread posts decreases when you go back to the main forum page. If there are multiple unread replies on a thread, loading that page will consider all replies to be read, whether you have scrolled down to a particular new reply.

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Depending on how the instructor sets each forum, students may subscribe to all or individual forums. However, the News/Announcements Forum students are automatically subscribed for the course. Students subscribed to a forum will receive an email (@uregina.ca as listed in their profile) each time a posting is made to that forum. Students should check their @uregina.ca email regularly. Replies will appear as a posting in the forum. To unsubscribe from a forum email either click Unsubscribe in the email itself or, in the upper right corner of the forum, click Unsubscribe from all forums.

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Users have the choice of how their forum posts are displayed (e.g. nested, flat). Click on a Forum and then a discussion name. The default is to have all reply posts in a discussion to be nested (indented further than the original post). This format indicates who is replying to whom. To change the view, click the Display replies in nested form drop down list. Choose another view from the list:

1. Displays replies flat, with oldest first
2. Displays replies flat, with newest first
3. Displays replies in nested form

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Many courses may require students to use a forum to work in groups. There are 2 types of group forums:

1. separate groups
2. visible groups

Separate groups

Separate groups are private, meaning only members of a group can post new discussion topics and read each other's postings within the group; you will not have access to any other group. To post to this forum, you must:

1. Click on the drop-down menu beside Separate Groups in the forum page. A list of groups will appear for which you are a member.
2. To start a new discussion, click on your group from this drop-down list. Depending on what type of forum was selected by your instructor, a new button may appear in the middle of your page called Add a New Discussion Topic. This will start a new discussion thread.
3. To reply to an existing discussion, click on another group member's discussion post and then click reply.

Visible groups

Visible groups, on the other hand, are both private and public. This means that only group members can post a new discussion topic or reply to an existing topic within the group, but all class members can read postings of other groups. Students can see other groups' postings by clicking the Group name from the drop-down list next to Visible Groups.

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1. Go into your course

2. Click on participants

3. Click on your own name

4. Click on Forum Posts

5. Scan through all of your posts and copy and paste into a document the ones that meet Your Instructor’s expectations (see Syllabus).

   • This is now the bare bones of your Forum Digest.

   • Now add your reflection and commentary as directed by your Instructor (see Syllabus).

   • When you are finished your Forum Digest, complete with required reflection and commentary, submit your document to the Forum Digest assignment tool as a PDF.

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