WebCT Discussions tool Tutorial

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The Discussions tool provides asynchronous communication between course members.

Click Discussions icon from Course Tools.

The Discussions window appears displaying the Discussion Topics available for your course. (Note in this graphic there are no messages in any of the Discussion Topics.)

 

Posting Messages:

Step 1: Click on title of the topic where you want to post your message.

If there are messages in this topic they will appear. (Note in this example below there are no messages.)

 

 

Step 3: Enter the subject of your message and enter the content of the message. Click the button.

Note: You may also copy and paste the contents from a word processing program to the message area of the Create Message window. This process is recommended for small amounts of text only. If you have a large amount of text then it is advised to post as a file attachment - see Adding Attachments below.

To copy and paste text do this:

a) Open the word processing document. Within your word processor use the Edit, Select All command then use the Edit, Copy command to copy your responses to your computer's memory.

b) Within the Create Message window, click in the message body then use the appropriate key stroke commands to Select All, Edit, and Paste to paste the contents of the message to the message body.

Adding Attachments:

Step 1: Create message (Steps 1 and 2 above) then click the button. The Content Browser pop-up window appears.

 

Step 2: Click on the My Computer icon. Your computer's file browser or the Upload Files from Your Computer screen appears. Locate and select the files (you may double-click on the file to select them).

Note:You may repeat Steps 1 and 2 to attach multiple files.

 

Step 3: Click the button.

Reading Messages:

In the example below there is one message within the Example Topic 1 and one message in Example Topic 2.

 

Step 1: Click on the topic title (i.e., Example Topic 1) to see the messages within the topic.

 

Step 2: Click on the subject of the message you wish to read. The Message pop-up window appears and the message is displayed.

 

Note: If a message may contain an attachment. Notice the Attachments: area, with a file (CowdenAssignment1.doc) in this example.

 

To view or download the file attachment, click its file name. If you have the application program that created the file on your computer, the attached file opens. (In the above example, you would need Microsoft Word to successfully open the file.)

Replying to or Forwarding Messages: 

After reading a message, you may respond by either Reply or Forward the message.

 

If you want to reply to the message, click Reply. The Reply pop-up window appears.

If you want to forward the message to a user's Mail inbox, click Forward. The Create Message pop-up window appears (see WebCT Mail tool Tutorial).

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Developed by Belle Cowden
UNI Continuing Education