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How do I change the settings for Discussions?

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In settings you can choose in what way topics and posts are displayed, the default manner of rating posts and if you want to automatically subscribe to your own threads. These settings mostly influence only your own view of Discussions. 

  • Go to Activities in the navbar of your course.
  • Click on Discussions. You will now see the Discussions homepage.
  • Click on Settings.
  1. Below Personal Settings you can change the:
    • Display Settings: check the box Always show the Discussion List pane if you want to see an overview of all of the discussion forums and topics on the left hand side of the screen if you click on a topic or thread and the box Display deleted posts if you want to see deleted posts when you search within the discussion tool.
    • Default View: select whether you want to see the titles of the posts below each other and open the posts yourself (Grid View) or if you want to view all of the posts in their entirety below each other (Reading View).
    • Reply Settings: check this box if you want include the original post in your reply.
    • Subscription Settings: Check this box if you want to automatically be subscribed to a thread that you created yourself.
  2. Below Org Unit Settings you can select if participants in a post can be rated and if so: whether this rating is based on stars or via an upvote/downvote system.
    • No Ratings: nobody can give a rating.
    • Five-Star Rating Scheme: participants can rate the discussion posts on a scale from one to five.
    • Up Vote / Down Vote Rating Scheme: Participants in the discussion can rate posts up or down.
    • Up Vote Only Rating Scheme: participants in the discussion can only top up posts.

In the settings for the default rating scheme you decide the default when creating a new topic. However, you can always overrule this setting when creating a new topic. 

  1. The Grid View Settings allows you to adjust what you get to see in the grid:
    • Check the Topic Descriptions box if you want to see a short description of the topic. NB: this description is visible for all participants to the discussion!
    • Select Threaded if you want to see all posts in a thread below each other. Select Unthreaded if you want to see all the posts in chronological order.
    • Check the Show the preview pane box if you prefer all the posts to open in the bottom half of the screen instead of in a pop-up.
    • Check the Show the search bar box if you want to have a search bar available which you can use to find a specific post.
    • Check the Post ID box if you want to show the ID of a post.
    • Check the Org Identified ID box to show the ID of the author of a post.
    • Check the Limit the number of characters of the subject to display in the post box if you do not want that long titles of a post are displayed in their entirety. Enter the maximum amount of characters to be displayed in the box.
  2. Click Save and Close to save your adjustments and return to the Discussions homepage.
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