Moderate Discussions

Moderate Discussions#

Tags: educator how-to

Edit Messages#

Team members with the Discussion Moderator, Discussion Admin, Community TA or Group Community TA role can edit the content of posts, responses, and comments. Messages that include spoilers or solutions, or that contain inappropriate or off-topic material, should be edited quickly to remove text, images, or links.

  1. View the live version of the course.

  2. On the Discussions page, open the post with the content that requires editing. You can select a single topic from the drop-down list of discussion topics, apply a filter, or search to locate the post.

  3. For the post or for the response or comment that you want to edit, select the “More” icon and then Edit.

  4. Remove the problematic portion of the message, or replace it with standard text such as “[REMOVED BY MODERATOR]”.

  5. Communicate the reason for your change. For example, “Posting a solution violates the honor code.”

Delete Messages#

Team members with the Discussion Moderator, Discussion Admin, Community TA or Group Community TA role can delete posts, responses, or comments. It might be more appropriate to delete rather than edit posts that consist of spam or include abusive language.

  1. View the live version of the course.

  2. On the Discussion page, open the post with the content that requires deletion. You can select a single topic from the drop-down list of discussion topics, apply a filter, or search to locate the post.

  3. For the post or for the response or comment that you want to delete, select the “More” icon and then Delete.

  4. Select OK to confirm the deletion.

Important

If a message is threatening or indicates serious harmful intent, contact campus security at your institution. Report the incident before taking any other action.

Respond to Reports of Misuse#

Learners have the option to report contributions that they find inappropriate. Team members with the Discussion Moderator, Discussion Admin, Community TA or Group Community TA role can check for messages that have been flagged in this way and edit or delete them as needed.

  1. View the live version of your course and select Discussion at the top of the page.

  2. In the discussion navigation pane at the side of the page, use the filter drop-down list (set to Show all by default) to select Flagged.

  3. Review listed posts. A post is listed if it or any of its responses or comments has been reported. The reported contribution includes a Reported identifier.

  4. Edit or delete the post, response, or comment. Alternatively, remove the flag: select the “More” icon and then Unreport.

View Profile Information for Discussion Participants#

To find out more about a specific discussion participant, you can view that learner’s profile from their linked username on discussion posts.

To access a learner’s profile from a discussion post that they contributed, follow these steps.

  1. On the Discussion page, select a username in a post, response, or comment.

  2. On the discussion page for that learner, select the linked username.

The learner’s account profile page opens. Learners can have either a limited profile or a full profile.

Block Users#

If a learner repeatedly misuses course discussions despite being warned, you can unenroll that learner from the course. For more information, see Unenroll Learners from a Course. The learner cannot re-enroll in the course if the enrollment period for the course is over.

Close Discussions#

Note

You can only close discussions when you work in a web browser. You cannot close discussions when you work in an Open edX mobile app.

To define when discussions are closed to new contributions and when they reopen, follow these steps.

  1. Navigate to Open edx discussion configuration page

  2. Scroll down to Discussion Blackout Dates field.

  3. Create a new blackout date range by clicking on Add blackout date range.

Option for configuring discussion blackout dates.

  1. Add start and end dates and times in the format specified.

Note

The dates and times that you enter are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), not in your local time zone. You might want to verify that you have specified the times that you intend by using a time zone converter.

Note

To close the course discussions permanently, specify an end date and time far in the future.

  1. You can add more than one blackout date ranges using step 3 and 4 above.

  2. Select Save Changes.

See also

About Course Discussions (concept)

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)

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)

Setting up Discussions in Courses with Cohorts (how-to)

Maintenance chart

Review Date

Working Group Reviewer

Release

Test situation

03/17/2025

Leira (Curricu.me)

Sumac

Fail (openedx/docs.openedx.org#926)
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