Your LMS forums are a hub for communication between you, your classmates, and your instructor. They are used as an online platform that fosters discussion between different members of a class regardless of the modality (online or traditional).
The Forums tab allows for easy communication with your instructor and other students. To access the Forums, select Forums in the Connect tab on the Navigation Menu.
After selecting Forums you should be able to see your Discussion Question, Private, and Questions to the Instructor Forum.
Please note, you can only use the special characters or emojis provided through LMS; emojis added from your mobile device or computer do not allow you to post.
Discussion questions (DQs) help to facilitate conversations in the classroom and contribute toward your grade. There are a few different ways you can access your Discussion Questions: directly from the Dashboard’s Weekly Calendar or from the Navigation Menu’s Path, Planner, or Forums under Connect.
If you access a forum topic via the Weekly Calendar, Path, or Planner, then you will see the option to Add a Post. If you access a forum topic via the Forums in the Navigation Menu, you will see the option to Reply to the post.
Add a DQ Post through the Path
If you select a Discussion Question from the Dashboard’s Weekly Calendar or Planner, you will be directed to where the DQ is in the Path. You can also go to the Path directly from the Navigation Menu.
Once in the Path tab, click on your Topic for the current week. After clicking on your Topic, select Tasks.
In Tasks, click on the Discussion Question to which you would like to respond. After you have selected a discussion question, you will be able to see the content of the question. To reply to the discussion question, click Add A Post.
Once you have typed your response, you may either click Post Reply, Save as a Draft, or Cancel. When you save your post as a draft, it is only visible to you. It will be available for you to edit for the next 24 hours.
After clicking Post Reply, you will see your official response with a time stamp.
Begin by selecting Forum under Connect from the Navigation Menu.
From the LMS Forums, you can reply to topics in the Discussion Question forum, the Private Forum, and the Questions to Instructor Forum.
After locating the topic, you want to reply to, read the Description of the topic, and then select Reply under the topic Description.
Once you have typed your response, you may either click Post Reply, Save as a Draft, or Cancel. When you save your post as a draft, it is only visible to you. It will be available for you to edit for the next 24 hours.
After clicking Post Reply, you will see your official response with a time stamp.
Reply to a Classmate's Post
When answering discussion questions, you will often be required to respond to classmates’ posts for participation. Begin by accessing the classmate’s post that you would like to respond to.
After you click on a DQ response, you will be able to see the content of the response. To submit a response, click Reply.
Once you have typed your response, you may either click Post Reply, Save as a Draft, or Cancel. When you save your post as a draft, it is only visible to you. It will be available for you to edit for the next 24 hours.
Once submitted, your post will appear underneath your classmate’s post with the time stamp!
Post Icons
You can determine if a post was made by your instructor, if it has been graded, or if it was marked as substantive by the following icons:
Post was made by instructor
Post has been graded
Post has been marked as substantive
Tracking Participation
To track how many responses or posts you have made for your discussion questions, begin by selecting Connect from the Navigation Menu.
Then, click on Forums.
By default, you will be taken to the Discussion Question forum. Here it will provide you with a list of all your discussion questions sorted by the earliest to the latest topics for the course. In the My Posts column, it will provide you with the number of posts and responses made for each discussion question.
Once you post a reply for a discussion question, you will have the options to Edit or Delete your post. You will not be able to edit or delete your post if:
- Your post has been graded by the instructor,
- Your post has been marked as substantive, or
- A student or instructor has replied to your post.
- The post was made over 24 hours prior.
The Private Forum allows for private communication between yourself and the instructor or a classmate. You may ask questions in the Private Forum that you wish for only the instructor to see.
To initiate a discussion with an instructor or classmate, click New Topic in the upper right-hand corner.
After selecting the student or staff you would like to contact, you must enter a Title and Description; if desired, you may attach a file to your message. To send the message, click Submit.
You may Edit or Delete a topic if it has not been replied to.
The Questions to Instructor Forum allows for class-wide communication. Topics in this forum are visible to all instructors and students in the class.
To initiate a discussion, click New Topic in the upper right-hand corner.
You must enter a Title and Description; if desired, you may attach a file to your message. To send the message, click Submit.
You may also Edit or Delete a topic if it has not been replied to.
Posting Options
To change how your text looks, such as the font, size and style, you can use the top panel of your discussion question.
You can hyperlink and remove hyperlinks using the chain and broken chain icons.
While copying and pasting an image into your Discussion Question may cause an error, you can insert and image into your DQ by clicking the Insert/edit image button.
While you cannot copy and past equations into your discussion question from Word, you can use your DQ’s built in equation editor to add your equation.
The preview button gives you the ability to see how your post will look before you submit it.
To spellcheck your response, click on the ABC button.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sometimes, when you go to submit to the forum, you will get the error null:
This error can happen when your browser isn't working properly, you have a browser extension that is interfering with the post, or other browser related issues. To avoid this error, you can try to submit your post via a private or incognito window using the instructions on our General Browser Troubleshooting article or disable the extension blocking you from posting with our article Managing Your Browser Add-ons and Extensions.
A Processing Request message that loads indefinitely may occur if you add emojis to forum posts or if the post is too long (around 60000 characters but the exact limit depends on system). To solve this, simply remove the emoji, make sure your post is not too long, and try posting again. If you do not want to shorten your post, you can try attaching a Word document with your post contents to your reply.
Please note, you can only use the special characters or emojis provided through LMS; emojis added from your mobile device or computer do not allow you to post.
Also, it is worth checking if your post contains a URL / hyperlink. If entered incorrectly, a URL / hyperlink may cause the Processing Request message to appear. To address it, try re-entering the link using the hyperlink tool in LMS or converting the link to a plain text format.
Once your course ends, you will no longer have access to make posts within the Discussion Questions forum. You can still create new topics in the Questions to Instructor forum and Private forum.
To access the CLC Group Forums, see Viewing Your CLC Group Forum.