Configure Open edX Discussions#
To open the Open edX discussions configuration page, follow these steps.
Open your course in Studio.
Select Content, then Pages & Resources.
3. Click on the gear icon on the top-right of the Discussion tile (as seen below). This will take you to the discussions configuration page, where you can select a discussion provider.
4. Select Open edX as the discussion provider by checking the box on the top-right of Open edX tile. Click Next.
5. This is the Open edX discussions configuration page. All configuration options for Open edX discussions can be found here.
Create Course-Wide Discussion Topics#
All courses include a page named Discussion. When you create a course, a course-wide discussion topic named “General” is already included by default.
You can add additional course-wide discussion topics to guide how learners share and find information during your course. Such course-wide topics might include Introduction and Announcements, Feedback, or Troubleshooting. Discussions in these topics can begin as soon as your course is available.
Note
Make sure each discussion topic in your course has a unique name, whether it is a course-wide topic or a content-specific discussion topic that you add as a discussion component. If different discussion topics share the same name, learners might be confused as to which discussion topic they are participating in. For example, do not add a content-specific discussion topic named “General”, because a course-wide discussion topic named “General” already exists in every course.
To create a course-wide discussion topic, follow these steps.
Navigate to Open edX discussion provider configuration page (see Configure Open edX Discussions).
2. Scroll down to General discussion topics. You would see a topic named General already there. This topic cannot be deleted but can be renamed.
Click on Add topic and add a topic name (e.g. “Course Q&A”)
Click Save.
When learners select the Discussion page for your course, the drop-down Discussion list now includes the topic you added.
Note
In courses that use cohorts, the course-wide discussion topics that you add are unified. All posts can be read and responded to by every learner, regardless of the cohort that they belong to. You can optionally configure these topics to be divided by cohort. For more information, see Divide Course-Wide Discussion Topics.
Enable Discussion on a Course Unit#
Discussion can be enabled for a course unit, which is equivalent to adding a content-specific discussion topic in that unit in the legacy version of the forum. To enable discussion on a course unit:
Open unit’s configuration in Studio.
Check the Enable discussion checkbox.
Click Save.
Discussions will be enabled on the unit within 1 minute. Units that have discussions enabled for them will show a Discussion enabled label in Studio.
Note
To enable discussion for units in subsections marked as graded (but not Timed Exams), first enable the Enable discussions on units in graded subsusections toggle on discussion configuration page in studio (see Configure Open edX Discussions).
Note
Discussions can not be enabled for units belonging to subsections marked as Timed Exams.
Users can participate in these discussions using the Discussion tab or via the discussion sidebar visible alongside the course unit.
To disable discussion for a unit, uncheck the Discussion enabled checkbox in the unit’s configuration and click Save.
If the discussion topic for this unit contains at least 1 discussion thread, it will appear under the Archived section in the Topics tab in the Discussion tab. Otherwise it will be deleted.
If discussion is enabled again for this unit, the archived topic will be restored along with the threads contained within it.
Warning
If Enable discussions on units in graded subsections toggle on the discussion configuration page (see Configure Open edX Discussions) is turned off, any discussion topics associated with units belonging to graded subsections will be archived or deleted (if they don’t contain any threads). Enabling the toggle again will restore archived topics and replace deleted topics with new ones.
Warning
If a subsection is marked as Timed Exam, any discussion topics associated with units belonging to this subsection will be archived or deleted (if they don’t contain any threads). Un-marking the subsection will restore archived topics and replace deleted topics with new ones.
Allow Learners to Make Anonymous Discussion Posts#
By default, when learners participate in a discussion, their usernames are visible in the discussion. You can allow learners to make discussion posts that are anonymous to other learners i.e. their usernames are not visible to other learners.
To allow anonymous discussion posts in your course, follow these steps.
1. Navigate to Open edX discussion configuration page (see Configure Open edX Discussions).
2. Toggle the Allow anonymous discussion posts to peers to enable learners to make posts that are anonymous to everyone other learners.
Click Save.
Once the toggle has been enabled, forum users will have the option to create posts that are anonymous to other learners, as seen below.
See also
About Course Discussions (concept)
Best Practices for Configuring Course Discussions (concept)
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 |