Within a discussion forum, you can find topics to discuss. A forum may contain multiple topics. (For example: a forum titled Democracy versus Dictactorship may contain a topic Arguments for democracy/dictatorship, and a topic Arguments against democracy/dictatorship).

• Go to Activities in the navbar.
• Click Discussions.
• Click New and then New Topic.

1. Choose a title for your topic.
2. A new forum is automatically created for your topic. The title of this forum is the same as the title of your topic. Do you want to add the topic to an existing forum or create a new forum with a different title? Then click Change Forum.
3. Grade Out Of is set to Ungraded by default. Do you want to attach a grade to discussions posts? Then enter the maximum amount of points here.
4. If you have entered the maximum amount of points, click In Grade Book. You can choose between four options. You can choose:
   • Not in Grade Book if you do not want to include the grade in the grade book;
   • Add to Grade Book if you want to include it in the grade book as a loose grade;
   • Edit or Link to Existing if you want to link the grade to another grade;
   • Reset to Ungraded if you want to go back to not attaching a grade to this topic.
5. Add a description to the topic if you wish.

On the right-hand side you will find three boxes. The first is Availability Dates & Conditions. Here you can add restrictions to your discussion topic. The second box is Post & Completion. Click the arrow to unfold the tab.

1. Enable Allow learners to hide their name from other learners if you want to allow anonymous messages.
2. Enable Learners must start a thread before they can view or reply to other threads if you require students to first start a threat before they can reply to someone else's thread.
3. Enable Posts must be approved before they display in the topic if you want to approve posts before they are displayed in the topic.

The third box on the right-hand side is Evaluation & Feedback. Here you can add a rubric to your topic. You can also choose how threads are assessed.

1. Here you can add a rubric.
2. Enable Allow evaluation of individual posts if you want to assess each post individually.
   Under Calculation Method you can choose between six different ways to calculate the final grade. Choose:
   • Average post score for an average of all individual scores;
   • Maximum post score for the maximum of all individual scores;
   • Minimum post score for the minimum of all individual scores;
   • Mode post score - Highest on multiple for the score that appears most frequently;
   • Mode post score - Lowest on multiple for the score that appears least frequently;
   • Sum of post scores for a total of all individual scores combined.
3. Here you can choose whether students are allowed to rate posts. Have you enabled this? Then choose:
   • Five-Star Rating Scheme if you want participants to be able to rate the discussion posts based on a scale of one to five;
   • Up Vote/Down Vote Rating Scheme if you want the participants to give a discussion post a thumbs up or a thumbs down;
   • Up Vote Only Rating Scheme if you want participants to only be able to give a thumbs up.

Click Save and Close to save your topic. It will now be visible in the forum.