What is the difference between discussions and journals?
During a course you may want students to commentate or reflect on their progress or a topic under consideration. This may be part of either the formative or summative assessment for that course.
Journal posts allows the student to write and share their thoughts only with the tutor. For example, a component of the course may be to reflect on each week of a teaching practice, or the success of a series of laboratory experiments. In this case the journal is primarily for the student’s benefit and will only be shared with the tutor. Journal entries can be formal and structured, guided by the instructor, which is particularly important when used as part of the summative assessment.
Discussions are designed to enable other students to comment, respond and share thoughts and ideas. This facilitates sharing and development of ideas and promotes social learning. Discussions can also form part of the formative or summative assessment for a course.
Discussions
To create a discussion assignment, click on the + sign where you want to insert the discussion activity and then select Create, locate Discussion from the window on the right.
When the discussion window opens, create a discussion prompt which clearly tells the student what to write and when. In the example below, each student should create a discussion post after each of the 5 seminars. Click Save when you have completed the task.
Editing the discussion settings
To edit the Discussion Settings, click the cog on the right of the screen.
- Under the Details and Information section tick the Display on Course Content Page.
- If the students are to create a post before they can see the posts other students have made then tick the Post first, check box.
- If the students are to be given the opportunity to edit and delete entries and comments after they have been made, then do not check the Prevent editing check box.
- If you wish to allow the students to post anonymously then tick the Allow anonymous responses and replies. Note that this cannot be used if the discussion is to be marked as part of an assessment activity.
- If the discussion is to be included in the summative assessment and is to be marked, tick the Mark Discussion tick box.
- If the discussion is to be marked, under the Marking and participation section, enter the Due Date and Time.
- To enforce student participation, toggle the Participation requirement button and then enter the number of entries the student is to make.
- You can specify Post, Reply or Post or reply.
- If a second due date is required, tick the Second due date check box and then complete the details for the second date. This gives clear guidance to the students. In the example to the right the student is expected to make one post by the first deadline and then make 3 replies to other posts by the second.
- If you wish to Stop discussion activity after the due date then tick the box below the date.
- Select the Mark Category (this defaults to Discussion), Mark Using and Maximum Points.
- If you are using a Rubric, click on the link to create or attach an existing rubric. For more on this see the Rubrics help page.
- If this is to be a Group discussion, click on the link to assign to a specific group. For more on this see the Groups help page.
- When you are finished, click Save.
The Discussion Settings Summary clearly stating the deadline(s) and number of posts required.
Where two due dates have been set, these will be displayed:
- On the Course Content and Discussion pages, both due dates and their requirements appear together for quick reference (see below).
- In the Gradebook student view, both dates appear.
- Instructors also get a new Due Dates and Requirements section in the grading view for an individual student. This section shows both due dates and the student’s progress toward each requirement.
Viewing the posts and participation
The posts will appear on the left and the student’s name will indicate the new post on the right. To locate a particular student, start to type their name into the search box and then select the name from the list. The number of posts and replies are listed under the student’s name.
New improvements benefit both instructors and students.
- Improved visibility: Posts now have a grey background to stand out better against the page.
- Full post display: Long discussion posts are now fully visible without the need for scrolling, enhancing readability.
- Participation metrics: The number of posts and replies is now listed directly on the discussion home page, replacing the total response counter. This change makes important information more immediately available.
- Direct edit option: The Edit button is now directly accessible from the post, saving instructors time.
A summary of which students have posted entries and replied to posts can be found on the Student Activity tab. To mark the assignment, click on Marks & Participation. Here you will see the students who have made entries under the Student Status column.
To mark a discussion entry, click on the student name and their responses will be listed. If this is an interim review, then comments can be added using the Reply box. This may be useful if you wish to give the student some prompts to improve their post or consider for the next post they will make.
Student posts and replies now have Substantive Content and Non-substantive Content labels in the instructor discussion analysis page. The labels clarify the meaning of the green and red highlighted text indicators in student responses and improve the grading process for instructors.
When the final grading is to be provided, you will see the mark lozenge at the top right of the screen. Next to this is the + button, clicking this will open the feedback window on the left so you can add final overall comments on the student’s work. If you are using rubric, the rubric window will open here. Enter the mark in the mark lozenge and Save.
Anonymity in Discussions
Discussions can be anonymised. However system administrators or other users with the assigned system role privilege can now reveal the identity of the author of an anonymous discussion post or reply. This enhancement addresses instances where the anonymous feature is misused, such as bullying or other inappropriate behaviour. Instructors can create anonymous discussions with confidence that any misuse can be quickly resolved.
There’s now a warning that informs users that their identity can be revealed by an authorized user.
Once the post has been made anonymously, the administrator can reveal the author by selecting the ellipses and selection Reveal Author.
Once the reason for the reveal has been entered, click Reveal name.
Once the name has been revealed this will be visible to the administrator but not to other participants. Due to the sensitive nature of this action, the administrator’s user details are recorded in the system log with the reason. The information in the system log includes:
- Date of reveal
- Time of reveal
- Username of user requesting
- Course Name of revealed post/posts
- Discussion Name of revealed post/posts
- Reason given
If the administrator refreshes the page, the user is once again anonymous.
Journals
To create a journal assignment, click on the + sign where you want to insert the journal activity and then select Create, locate Journal from the window on the right.
When the journal window opens, create a journal prompt which clearly tells the student what to write. If you expect more than one journal entry then include that information too. In the example below the assessment requires 2 separate journal entries.
Editing the journal settings
To edit the Journal Settings, click the cog on the right of the screen.
- If the journal is to be included in the summative assessment and is to be marked, tick the Grade Journal check box in the Details and Information section.
- If the students are to be given the opportunity to edit and delete entries and comments then ensure the relevant boxes are ticked.
- Under the Participation and Marking section, add a Due Date and Time.
- The Mark Category will default to Journal.
- Select the Mark using, percentages and points are normally used, and Maximum points. Here the journal entries will be marked out of 100 and displayed as a percentage.
- Below these settings are the links to the Rubric and Goals and Standards sections.
- When you have entered all of the settings, click Save.
- You will be returned to the Journal screen. Here only the due date and marking information will be displayed. Below this are the Accommodations which have been entered into the Class Register.
- Ensure to make this assessment visible to the students.
When the student accesses the journal assessment they will be presented with a text box like the one below. The student should enter their response and click the Post button. Attachments are allowed too if they wish to submit supporting information such as the presentation slides they are discussing.
Viewing journal entries
When a new journal entry has been submitted, a purple indicator will appear next to the journal title in the content area.
Marking journal entries can be done from the journal assignment. Click on the Marks and Participation option and the list of students will be displayed. An indicator mark to the left of the student name will indicate who has submitted. Here the student status indicates 1 entry. This should be revisited when the student has made the second entry.
To mark the assignment open the entry. To the right of the screen is a lozenge to enter the mark and next to that a + sign which opens the text box in which comments can be added.
Comments can be added to the journal entry itself too by clicking on the Comment link beneath the student entry.
Marks are then posted in the same way as for other assessments.