How to Moderate a Discussion in Brightspace

Relevant to: faculty and staff

This article contains information considered accurate at the time of publishing. Technology updates, changes in University security practices, policies and procedures may effect the information in this article - updates to articles are scheduled on a periodic basis and will address any required changes.

Introduction

Discussions are an important interactive component of many online courses at SUNY Empire. As an instructor, you may wish to moderate your discussions by approving all student posts and replies before they can be seen by the entire class, hiding a discussion forum or topic, or locking a discussion forum or topic. This article will further explain these processes.

Moderating discussions

You must manually approve posts and threads on topics that require approval. Once you approve a post or thread, it is visible to all course users. To hide the post or thread, you must unapprove it.

To moderate discussions:

1. On the navbar, click Discussions.
2. Do any of the following:
   • Click the Approve Post link beside the post you want to approve.
   • Click Approve Post from the context menu of the post you want to approve.
   • Click Approve All Replies in Thread to approve all posts in a thread.
   • Click Unapprove Post from the context menu of the post you want to unapprove.
   • Click Unapprove Thread from the context menu of the thread you want to unapprove.

Hiding a discussion forum or topic

1. On the navbar, click Discussions.
2. From the context menu of the forum or topic, you want to hide, click Hide from Users.

Lock a discussion forum or topic

1. Click Discussions on the navbar.
2. Click Edit from the context menu of the forum or topic you want to lock.
3. Choose your Locking Options on the Restrictions tab:
   • Visible with access restricted before start/end.The forum or topic is visible to students before or after the start or end date, but they cannot access it.
   • Visible with submission restricted before start/end.The forum or topic is visible to students before or after the start or end date and they can access it, but they cannot post new threads or replies.
   • Hidden before start/end. The forum or topic is hidden from learners until the start or end date.
4. Click Save.