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Canvas: Discussions

Discussions Overview

The Canvas discussion tool allows students to engage in a discussion board with the entire class or in groups. It can be created as an assignment or used as a communication tool.

Uses and Strategies

Discussions are a way for students to engage in dialog on a course discussion board. Discussions can be especially useful in creating engagement in online courses.

Some uses include:

  • Teacher/students introductions. 
  • Discuss projects, readings, assignments and get peer feedback.
  • Students can post presentations for peer feedback.
  • Pose questions to students (graded or not).

Unthreaded discussions can:

  • Share thoughts about an article or other reading.
  • Answer a question.
  • Share resources.
  • Collect resources from some sort of research activity.

Threaded discussions can:

  • Share ideas.
  • Debate an issue.
  • Problem solve complex problems.
  • Discuss case studies.
  • Students can post presentations for peer feedback.
  • Pose questions to the students (graded or not).

Creating Discussions

Summary: This video reviews the process of building a discussion and review the discussions options.

Duration: 1 minute, 29 seconds

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Additional Support

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