Discussions
The Discussion feature in Canvas allows instructors and students to start discussions and contribute to discussion topics. Discussions can be created as an assignment (which can be graded), or to serve as a forum for topics related to your course. Note that Discussions are not the same as Announcements.
Tips and considerations when setting up a new discussion
Threading. Make sure that you go to Edit > Options > Allow Threaded Replies so that students can respond to each other and not just to the main topic. This feature can also be used to facilitate group discussions if you want groups to see each others' responses (see below).
Pinned discussions. These are "sticky" discussions: if you drag them into the top section of the discussions page, they will stay at the top in the order you choose. It is useful to "pin" course-long discussions, or discussion topics for the current week or module.
If you are setting up weekly discussions for a course, be sure to link to them on the same page as the reading and lecture material for that week. Otherwise, students can get confused about which discussions they need to participate in and when.
Graded Discussions. Sometimes you will want to grade students' submissions. If this is the case, check the "Options" box that says "Use this discussion for grading." You will be able to see and grade submissions in SpeedGrader. Note that this may not be the best option if you want to grade multiple discussions together, or if you have graded discussion groups.
If discussions are set up as group discussions, students who are not in the group will not be able to read that discussion. Therefore, an activity that requires students to "discuss in your online group and then share that discussion with the rest of the class" will not be feasible. Any feedback or pearls of wisdom the instructor posts in one group discussion is not available to students who are not in the group, and copying and pasting content into a location accessible by all is laborious. What happens in groups stays in the groups.
If students need to post images in discussion boards, recommend that they reduce file sizes 50 Kb or lower.
Best practices for group discussions
Option 1: Create one discussion and start a "thread" for each group. So if you have 5 discussion groups, post 5 replies to the prompt with instructions for students to discuss within that thread rather than reply directly to the prompt. So it might look something like:
Main Discussion Prompt (entered in the Edit box)
Group 1: Post your response by replying to this thread.
Student Response 1
Student Response 3
Student Response 2
Group 2: Post your response by replying to this thread.
Group 3: Post your response... etc.
Option 2: Create discussion groups by going to People > View User Groups > Make a new set of groups. You can then add discussion threads within each group's wiki space. NOTE: students will not be able to see other groups' discussions and the instructor will not be able to make these discussions graded.