As an instructor, you can create a discussion for your course. This lesson outlines a variety of options to choose from in order to customize a discussion for your course.

Quick Start

Open Discussions

To create a discussion for your course, go to Course Navigation, then click the Discussions link.

discussions menu item displayed in the course navigation menu

Add Discussion

Click the Add Discussion button.

clicking the add discussion button

Create Discussion

In the Title field [1], create a title for your discussion.

Use the Rich Content Editor [2] to create content for your discussion. The Rich Content Editor includes a word count display below the bottom right corner of the text box. You can also add links, files, and images to the discussion.

The Rich Content Editor includes a word count display below the bottom right corner of the text box [3].

If you want to create a section-specific discussion that is not graded, select one or multiple sections in the Post to drop-down menu [4]. Graded section-specific discussions must be created as part of the Graded option in the next section.

editing discussion details

Add Discussion Options

To add an attachment to your discussion, click the Choose File button.

By default, discussions are created as focused discussions. To create a threaded discussion, click the Allow threaded replies checkbox [1].

To require users to reply to the discussion before they can see any other replies, click the Users must post before seeing replies checkbox [2].

To enable a discussion podcast feed, click the Enable podcast feed checkbox [3].

To allow students to like discussion replies, click the Allow liking checkbox [4].

To add an ungraded discussion to the student to-do list, click the Add to student to-do checkbox [5]. Student to-do items display in the course calendar, in the student-specific List View Dashboard, and in the global and course home page to-do lists. Graded discussions automatically display in a student's to-do list.

To make the discussion a group discussion, click the This is a Group Discussion checkbox [6].

To make your discussion available on a specific date or during a specific date range using availability dates, enter the dates in the Available From and Until fields [7], or click the calendar icons to select dates. If you create a graded discussion, the Available From and Until dates can be set in the Assign field. Before the Available From date, students will only be able to view the discussion title. After the Until date, students can view the discussion topic and all responses but cannot add or edit any responses.

Creating Discussion Boards details

If you are ready to publish your discussion, click the Save & Publish button [1]. If you want to save your discussion and publish it later, click the Save button [2].

save and publish or just save

💡 Tips:

Your topics and threads will migrate to Canvas, but posts and replies will not migrate. If you have Gradebook settings for these discussions, you will need to update them in Canvas.

Discussions can be graded or ungraded. If a student attaches a file to an ungraded discussion, the file size counts toward the student's storage quotas. However, attachments added to graded discussions do not count toward the student's storage quotas.

Show Me

🤿 Deeper Dive Guides

How do I create a discussion?
How do I assign a graded discussion to an individual student or course section?
How do I allow students to attach a file to a discussion post?
For more information on Discussions, click here.