<commit_before>.. _Discussions:

############################
Discussions
############################

Discussions, or discussion forums, foster interaction among your students and between students and course staff. You set up discussion topics and categories when you create your course, and then run and moderate discussions throughout the course to guide participation and develop course community. 

Discussions are also excellent sources of feedback and ideas for the future.

For options you can use to run and moderate discussions, see the following topics:

* :ref:`Organizing_discussions`

* :ref:`Running_discussions`

* :ref:`Moderating_discussions`

.. _Organizing_discussions:

*************************************************
Set up discussions for your course
*************************************************

Discussions in an edX course include both the specific topics that you add to course units as discussion components, and  broader forums on course-wide areas of interest, such as Feedback, Troubleshooting, or Technical Help, that you can add as discussion categories. 

============================================
Add units with a discussion component
============================================

Typically, all units are added during the design and creation of your course in Studio. To add a component to a unit, follow the instructions in :ref:`Working with Discussion Components`.   

This type of discussion is subject to the release date of the section that contains it. Students cannot contribute to these discussions until that date.

=====================================
Create discussion categories
=====================================
All courses have a static page named **Discussion**. When you create a course, a discussion category named General is available for you to include by default. You can add more discussion categories to guide how students share and find information during your course. Categories might include Feedback, Troubleshooting, or Technical Help. Discussions in these categories can begin as soon as your course is available.

To create a discussion category:

#. Open your course in Studio. 

#. Select **Settings** > **Advanced Settings**.

#. Scroll down to the Policy Key labeled **discussion_topics**. By default, its Policy Value is:

 | {
 |    "General": {
 |        "id": "i4x-test_doc-SB101-course-2014_Jan"
 |    }
 | }

4. Add a comma between the two closing braces.

 | {
 |    "General": {
 |        "id": "i4x-test_doc-SB101-course-2014_Jan"
 |    },
 | }


5. Copy the three lines provided for the General discussion category and paste them above the closing brace:

  | {
  |   "General": {
  |       "id": "i4x-test_doc-SB101-course-2014_Jan"
  |   },
  |   "General": {
  |       "id": "i4x-test_doc-SB101-course-2014_Jan"
  |   }
  | }

6. Replace the second "General" with the quoted name of your new discussion category.

#. Change the second id value to a unique identifier. For example, append a reference to the category name:


 | {
 |   "General": {
 |       "id": "i4x-test_doc-SB101-course-2014_Jan"
 |   },
 |    "Questions about the course": {
 |        "id": "i4x-test_doc-SB101-course-2014_Jan_faq"
 |    }
 | }

8. Click **Save Changes**.

When students click the **Discussion** static page for your course, the drop-down list includes this new category.

 .. image:: Images/NewCategory_Discussion.png
  :alt: Image of a new discussion category

.. _Assigning_discussion_roles:

==========================================
Assign discussion administration roles 
==========================================

You can designate a team of people to help you run course discussions. Different options for working with discussion posts are available to discussion administrators with these roles:

* Forum moderators can edit and delete posts, review posts flagged for misuse, close and reopen threads, pin posts and endorse responses, and, if the course is cohorted, see posts from all cohorts. Responses and comments made by moderators are marked as "Staff".

* Forum community TAs have the same options for working with discussions as moderators. Responses and comments made by community TAs are marked as "Community TA".

* Forum admins have the same options for working with discussions as moderators. Admins can also assign these discussion management roles to more people while your course is running, or remove a role from a user whenever necessary. Responses and comments made by admins are marked as "Staff".

**Note**: Discussion responses and comments made by course staff and instructors are also marked as "Staff".

Before you can assign roles to your discussion administrators, you need their email addresses. 

* To get the email address for a staff member, on the Instructor Dashboard click **Membership** and then select Course Staff from the drop-down list.
* To get the email address of a student, on the Instructor Dashboard click **Data Download** > **List enrolled students' profile information**.

**Tip**: These instructions are for the new Instructor Dashboard: click **Try New Beta Dashboard**.

To assign a role:

#. View the live version of your course.

#. Click **Instructor** then **Try New Beta Dashboard**.

#. Click **Membership**.

#. In the Administration List Management section, use the drop-down list to select Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, or Forum Community TAs.

#. Under the list of users who currently have that role, enter an email address and click **Add** for the role type.

#. To remove an assigned role, view the list of users and then click revoke access (the **X**) next to that email address. 

You can also use the older version of the Instructor Dashboard. You need the usernames of your discussion moderators or students. Click **Forum Admin**, enter the username in the appropriate field, then click the **Add** button for the role you want to assign.  

.. _Running_discussions:

*********************
Run a discussion
*********************

On an ongoing basis, discussion administrators run the course discussions by making contributions and guiding student posts into threads. Techniques that you can use throughout your course to make discussions successful follow.

========================
Seed a discussion
======================== 

Before you contribute to a discussion, you can decide whether you want to be identified as a staff member or community TA, or to appear like other students' work. Depending on the subject and your purpose, one or the other might be more appropriate to spark discussion and inform students.

You can also post anonymously. Regardless of your role, you can choose to make a post anonymous. However, you may want to discourage your students from posting anonymously, and therefore choose not to use this option yourself.

* To identify your posts with your role, log in with your discussion administrator email address and add the post or response. The responses and comments that you make include a colored banner with either "Staff" or "Community TA".
 <commit_msg>Update discussions documentation LMS-2092<commit_after>.. _Discussions:

############################
Discussions
############################

Discussions, or discussion forums, foster interaction among your students and between students and course staff. You set up discussion topics and categories when you create your course, and then run and moderate discussions throughout the course to guide participation and develop course community. 

Discussions are also excellent sources of feedback and ideas for the future.

For options you can use to run and moderate discussions, see the following topics:

* :ref:`Organizing_discussions`

* :ref:`Running_discussions`

* :ref:`Moderating_discussions`

.. _Organizing_discussions:

*************************************************
Set up discussions for your course
*************************************************

Discussions in an edX course include both the specific topics that you add to course units as discussion components, and  broader forums on course-wide areas of interest, such as Feedback, Troubleshooting, or Technical Help, that you can add as discussion categories. 

============================================
Add units with a discussion component
============================================

Typically, all units are added during the design and creation of your course in Studio. To add a component to a unit, follow the instructions in :ref:`Working with Discussion Components`.   

This type of discussion is subject to the release date of the section that contains it. Students cannot contribute to these discussions until that date.

=====================================
Create discussion categories
=====================================
All courses have a static page named **Discussion**. When you create a course, a discussion category named General is available for you to include by default. You can add more discussion categories to guide how students share and find information during your course. Categories might include Feedback, Troubleshooting, or Technical Help. Discussions in these categories can begin as soon as your course is available.

To create a discussion category:

#. Open your course in Studio. 

#. Select **Settings** > **Advanced Settings**.

#. Scroll down to the Policy Key labeled **discussion_topics**. By default, its Policy Value is:

 | {
 |    "General": {
 |        "id": "i4x-test_doc-SB101-course-2014_Jan"
 |    }
 | }

4. Add a comma between the two closing braces.

 | {
 |    "General": {
 |        "id": "i4x-test_doc-SB101-course-2014_Jan"
 |    },
 | }


5. Copy the three lines provided for the General discussion category and paste them above the closing brace:

  | {
  |   "General": {
  |       "id": "i4x-test_doc-SB101-course-2014_Jan"
  |   },
  |   "General": {
  |       "id": "i4x-test_doc-SB101-course-2014_Jan"
  |   }
  | }

6. Replace the second "General" with the quoted name of your new discussion category.

#. Change the second id value to a unique identifier. For example, append a reference to the category name:


 | {
 |   "General": {
 |       "id": "i4x-test_doc-SB101-course-2014_Jan"
 |   },
 |    "Questions about the course": {
 |        "id": "i4x-test_doc-SB101-course-2014_Jan_faq"
 |    }
 | }

8. Click **Save Changes**.

When students click the **Discussion** static page for your course, the drop-down list includes this new category.

 .. image:: Images/NewCategory_Discussion.png
  :alt: Image of a new discussion category

.. _Assigning_discussion_roles:

==========================================
Assign discussion administration roles 
==========================================

You can designate a team of people to help you run course discussions. Different options for working with discussion posts are available to discussion administrators with these roles:

* Discussion moderators can edit and delete posts, review posts flagged for misuse, close and reopen threads, pin posts and endorse responses, and, if the course is cohorted, see posts from all cohorts. Responses and comments made by moderators are marked as "Staff".

* Discussion community TAs have the same options for working with discussions as moderators. Responses and comments made by community TAs are marked as "Community TA".

* Discussion admins have the same options for working with discussions as moderators. Admins can also assign these discussion management roles to more people while your course is running, or remove a role from a user whenever necessary. Responses and comments made by admins are marked as "Staff".

**Note**: Discussion responses and comments made by course staff and instructors are also marked as "Staff".

Before you can assign roles to your discussion administrators, you need their email addresses. 

* To get the email address for a staff member, on the Instructor Dashboard click **Membership** and then select Course Staff from the drop-down list.
* To get the email address of a student, on the Instructor Dashboard click **Data Download** > **List enrolled students' profile information**.

**Tip**: These instructions are for the new Instructor Dashboard: click **Try New Beta Dashboard**.

To assign a role:

#. View the live version of your course.

#. Click **Instructor** then **Try New Beta Dashboard**.

#. Click **Membership**.

#. In the Administration List Management section, use the drop-down list to select Discussion Admins, Discussion Moderators, or Discussion Community TAs.

#. Under the list of users who currently have that role, enter an email address and click **Add** for the role type.

#. To remove an assigned role, view the list of users and then click revoke access (the **X**) next to that email address. 

You can also use the older version of the Instructor Dashboard. You need the usernames of your discussion moderators or students. Click **Forum Admin**, enter the username in the appropriate field, then click the **Add** button for the role you want to assign.  

.. _Running_discussions:

*********************
Run a discussion
*********************

On an ongoing basis, discussion administrators run the course discussions by making contributions and guiding student posts into threads. Techniques that you can use throughout your course to make discussions successful follow.

========================
Seed a discussion
======================== 

Before you contribute to a discussion, you can decide whether you want to be identified as a staff member or community TA, or to appear like other students' work. Depending on the subject and your purpose, one or the other might be more appropriate to spark discussion and inform students.

You can also post anonymously. Regardless of your role, you can choose to make a post anonymous. However, you may want to discourage your students from posting anonymously, and therefore choose not to use this option yourself.

* To identify your posts with your role, log in with your discussion administrator email address and add the post or response. The responses and comments that you make include a colored banner with either "Staff" or "Community TA".
 
{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.12515865181215624, 'fraction_numerical': 0.007615286983500212, 'mean_word_length': 4.5251266069341645, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 24, '<': 3, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 7, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 2, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
{'dir': 'git-commits-cleaned', 'id': '4256805', 'n_tokens_mistral': 3485, 'n_tokens_neox': 3227, 'n_words': 1833}