Posting to Discussions

Printable Handout: Discussion handout Links to an external site. | Video Tutorial: Discussions Video

In Canvas discussions are public discussions with the instructor and your peers in the course. Instructors may use discussions for assessment and require you to post messages and respond to other students in the course. Instructors may also use discussions as a way share podcasts and files with students. You can adjust how you receive notifications for new messages in discussions via your notification settings. Review the numbered items below.

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  1. Gear Icon – Click the gear icon to mark all messages as read or to view the rubric attached to a graded discussion.
  2. Graded Discussion Indicator – Any topic that is graded will display a blue highlighted area with the due date.
  3. Description – Follow the directions in the discussion description for instructor’s posting requirements.
  4. Search box/Unread Filters – Use the search box to search for entries for keyword or author OR click the button to view only unread messages in the topic.
  5. Collapse/Expand All Threads –Use the buttons to collapse and expand all threads in the topic. Point the mouse over a thread to open and close the individual thread.
  6. Subscribe – Click the subscribe button to subscribe to entire discussion topic threads. Once subscribed, notifications will occur when new comments are posted to the topic.
  7. Creating a post – Click in the top Reply box to write a new post in the discussion topic.  The rich content editor will display. See the next page for details.
  8. Responding to a post – Click Reply under a post to add a reply to thread. The rich content editor will display. See the next page for details.
  9. Message Options - In some courses students may be able to edit and delete posts.

information.pngDiscussion Tips

  • The discussion link may not be available in course’s left navigation. If this is the case, your instructor will link directly to each discussion topic on a page or in a module.
  • Some instructors may restrict your ability to create discussion topics and edit discussions posts or add attachments to discussion posts. 
  • Some discussion topics will be focused discussions and other discussions will be threaded. 
  • If you are part of a group, the group will have its own discussion area and you will be able to create discussion topics and edit and delete posts. 

  • Please note that the rich content editor will warn you if you click away from the discussion page with an unsaved post; however, discussion posts are NOT automatically saved if you ignore the warning or if you have a technical issue posting to the discussion. In graded discussions students may want to write discussion posts in Word or another word processing program first so a copy of the work is saved locally in case there is a technical issue when posting the discussion. Once you are finished writing your post in Word use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + A to select all the text. Then use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + C to copy the text. In the rich content editor in Canvas place the cursor in the location where the text should appear. Use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + V to paste the text in the rich content editor. Then be sure to save your post when finished.

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