To create engagement or continue conversations outside of the classrooms, teachers may create discussion boards. Discussion boards are also a great way to give students processing time and encourage participation from students who might not have shared their thoughts otherwise. Additionally, they allow for students to interact with one another and act as an avenue for monitored public discourse.

As a parent, when you log in to your Schoology account, you will notice if you view a discussion board that all of the responses from students other than your own are redacted. This is in an effort to protect their privacy.

If your student has been asked to participate in a discussion board, they simply need to:

1. Open the discussion from the Materials section of the course.

2. Review the discussion prompt, instructions, videos and/or attachments in the box that appears at the top.

3. Type the response in the Write a comment box.

4. Press Post.

Note: In some instances, the teacher may have disabled the ability to see others’ posts until your student has posted. If it doesn't seem like anyone else has replied after submitting a response, they should refresh the browser to see what others have posted.

If your student has been asked to reply to others' posts, they should:

1. Open the discussion from the Materials section of your course.

1. Scroll through other students’ posts.

2. Click Like to like a response someone else has posted.

3. Click Reply to type a response.

1. Click Post Reply to post the response.

If you need to edit your reply, click the three dots in the upper right corner and select Edit.

The .gif below demonstrates both how to create an initial reply and how to reply to someone else's post.