After an academy admin enables discussion boards for a course, learners, instructors, and admins can use its Discussion board button to start or join conversations.
Open a course discussion board
The Discussion board button appears only when the course’s Discussion board setting is enabled. Where you find the button depends on your role:
- Admins, training managers, the course creator, instructors, and enrolled or assigned learners see the button on the course’s About page.
While taking the course, select the link at the top of the theater mode page to open the About page.
- Admins, training managers, and the course creator also see the button in the Manage Course panel. This opens the same page without leaving the training admin workspace.
Find your way around the discussion board
The Discussion board page includes a search bar and three tabs:
- Lecture is the default tab. It lists a discussion for each visible lecture, in the same order as the course’s step configurator. Each entry shows the most recent poster, when they posted, and the number of posts and views.
- General lists discussions that aren’t tied to a specific lecture. Sort discussions by creation date, from newest to oldest or oldest to newest.
- Pending lists new topics and replies that are waiting for admin approval. This tab appears only when the academy’s All posts need admin approval to become public setting is turned on. It shows a count only when there’s content waiting for approval.
The Lecture and General tabs show up to 10 discussions at a time. Use the pagination controls to view more. Use the search bar to find a discussion by title.
Start a new topic
Select Create new post to start a general discussion, or select Reply to post to start a discussion about a lecture.
Enter a title and comment. Both are required, and the Create button stays unavailable until you enter content in both fields. Select Cancel to close the form without creating a post.
- If your academy requires admin approval, a note explains that your post needs approval before it becomes visible to everyone in the course. The topic appears in the Pending tab until an admin, training manager, or course creator approves it.
- If approval isn’t required, the topic is published immediately and appears in the General tab.
Read and reply to a discussion
Select a discussion to open it. The page shows the discussion’s title, tag (Lecture or General), view count, creation date, and author. Select the author’s name to view their profile.
From the discussion, you can:
- Sort posts and replies from newest to oldest or oldest to newest.
- Search within the discussion.
- Select Reply to post to add a reply.
- React to a post or reply with one of seven reactions: Like, Love, Celebrate, Thought-provoking, Humor, Applause, or Done.
Each post and reply shows the author’s photo and name, and when it was posted. If your academy has Team members can edit their thread posts turned on, an Edit button appears on posts and replies you wrote. If the academy requires approval for posts, replies also require approval.
Admins and the person who wrote a post or reply can delete it.
Admins and the creator of a general discussion can delete the entire discussion. This also deletes all replies. You’ll be asked to confirm before the discussion is deleted.
Manage posts awaiting approval
When your academy requires admin approval, new topics and replies wait in the Pending tab until they’re reviewed. Each pending item shows who posted it, when it was posted, and its content. It also includes Approve and Decline actions.
- Select Approve to publish the post or reply and remove it from the Pending tab.
- Select Decline to remove the post or reply from the Pending tab without publishing it.
Admins, training managers, and the course creator can review pending posts from either the course About page or the Manage Course panel. Both entry points open the same Discussion board page.