About Course Discussions#
Discussions in an Open edX course include both course-wide topics of interest to all learners (such as “Feedback”, “Troubleshooting”, or “Technical Help”) as well as content-specific topics that you add to course units as discussion components. You can create both types of discussion topics in Studio.
For information about creating discussion topics, see the following sections.
For information about creating discussions in which learners in a group (cohort) only interact with posts from other learners in the same group, see About Divided Discussions.
For information about running and moderating course discussions, see Best Practices for Configuring Course Discussions and Best Practices for Moderating Course Discussions.
Understanding When Learners Can See Discussion Topics#
The names that you specify as the category and subcategory names for discussion components are not visible on the Discussion page in the LMS until after the course has started and the unit is released.
However, “seed” posts that you create in content-specific discussion topics before a course starts, or before the unit is released, are immediately visible on the Discussion page, even though the containing category or subcategory names are not visible. The recommendation is that you do not create posts in content-specific discussion topics before a unit is released. For more information about release dates and the visibility of components, see Guide to Controlling Content Visibility and Access.
In contrast, course-wide discussion topics that you create on the course discussions configuration page in Studio, including the default “General” discussion topic, are immediately visible, regardless of whether the course has started. They are not associated with any particular section or subsection of the course, and are not subject to release dates.
Discussions in the Open edX Mobile App#
Learners can participate in course discussions using the Open edX mobile app of your instance as they do on the website, but there are some differences in the actions that moderators can take in discussions using the mobile app. To perform moderation or administrative tasks for your course discussions, you need to work in a web browser.
The following actions are not supported on the Open edX mobile apps.
Pinning posts
Marking responses to question posts as answers
Endorsing responses to discussion posts
Closing posts
The Upgraded Discussion Forum#
Course runs created on or after May 16, 2023, use an upgraded version of the Open edX discussion forum. Learn more about it here.
Content-specific Discussion Topics (Legacy)#
To create a content-specific discussion topic, you add a discussion component to a unit. Typically, you do this while you are designing and creating your course in Studio. Follow the instructions in Configure Open edX Discussions - Legacy. The result is a discussion topic associated with a unit and its content. Learners can access content-specific topics both in the course unit and on the Discussion page.
Warning
Follow the recommended steps to add discussion components. Do not create discussion topics by using the Duplicate button in Studio, and do not reference the same discussion ID in more than one place in your course. Duplicated discussion components result in discussion topics that contain the same conversations, even if learners post in different discussion topics.
For information about the visibility of content-specific discussion topics, see Understanding When Learners Can See Discussion Topics.
Note
In courses with cohorts enabled, when you add discussion components to units in Studio, these discussion topics are by default unified. All learners in the course can see and respond to posts from all other learners. You can change content-specific discussion topics to be divided, so that only members of the same group can see and respond to each other’s posts. For information, see Divide All Content-Specific Discussion Topics.
See also
Best Practices for Configuring Course Discussions (concept)
Configure Open edX Discussions (how-to)
Configure Open edX Discussions - Legacy (how-to)
Best Practices for Moderating Course Discussions (concept)
Assign Discussion Moderation Roles (how-to)
Moderate Discussions (how-to)
Toggle Anonymous Discussion Posts (how-to)
A Learner’s View of the Discussion (reference)
About Divided Discussions (concept)
Guide to Managing Divided Discussions (reference)
Set Up Divided Discussions (how-to)
Maintenance chart
Review Date |
Working Group Reviewer |
Release |
Test situation |
2025-03-20 |
Documentation WG |
Sumac |
Pass |