Set Up Divided Discussions

Tags: educator how-to

Note

You must set up divided discussions before your course starts. You cannot divide discussions after the course start date.

By default, all course-wide discussion topics and content-specific discussion topics are unified: all learners can interact with all posts, responses, and comments. You can change discussion topics of either type to be divided or unified on the discussions configuration page (see Create Course-Wide Discussion Topics).

Warning

If you change settings of discussion topics in a live course after learners have begun reading and contributing to discussion posts, you are changing their course experience. Learners might see posts that were previously not visible to them, or they might no longer see posts that were previously available to all learners.

For information about settings for discussion topics, see the following topics.

Divide All Content-Specific Discussion Topics

When you create content-specific discussion topics by adding 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 (cohort) can see and respond to each other’s posts. To do so, follow the steps below.

Warning

If you make changes to discussion division settings in a running course, be aware that learners will be affected by your changes.

1. Navigate to Open edX discussion provider configuration page (see Configure Open edX Discussions).

2. Turn on the toggle for Divide discussions by cohort to divide all content-specific discussion topics by cohort.

3. Click Save at the bottom-right of the configuration page.

All content-specific discussion topics in the course are now divided by cohort.

For information about managing discussions that are divided, see Guide to Managing Divided Discussions.

Divide Course-Wide Discussion Topics

When you create course-wide discussion topics, they are by default unified. All learners in the course can see and respond to posts from all other learners.

Note

To divide course-wide discussion topics, you will first need to divide content-specific discussion topics. Consequently, course-wide discussion topics cannot be divided without dividing all content-specific discussion topics.

Warning

If you make changes to discussion division settings in a running course, be aware that learners will be affected by your changes.

To specify that one or more course-wide discussion topics are divided, follow these steps.

1. Navigate to Open edx discussion provider configuration page (see Configure Open edX Discussions).

2. Turn on the toggle for Divide discussions by cohort to divide all content-specific discussion topics by cohort.

3. Turn on the toggle for Divide course-wide discussion topics to divide all course-wide discussion topics by cohort.

4. Uncheck the topic names that you want to keep unified.

5. Click Save at the bottom-right of the configuration page.

For information about managing discussions that are divided, see Guide to Managing Divided Discussions.

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)

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)

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

Maintenance chart

Review Date	Working Group Reviewer	Release	Test situation

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