How to participate in a discussion board

To reply to a post, simply choose the post title and then select the Reply button in the message box located on the right hand side of your screen. You may also choose to reply with a quote; which will copy the previous post into the body of your new message.

You can now enter a reply in the textbox provided.

If you need to see the Parent Post to the item you are responding to, simply click “Show Parent Post” or “Hide Parent Post” to hide it.

If your instructor has enabled it, you can attach files to discussion boards. To attach a file, simply select the “Attach a file” link and a Browse box will appear so you can find the document to attach.

When you are finished with your reply, click Submit. You will then see your response nested with the other thread responses.

To add a new thread to answer your instructor’s initial question, click the Create Thread button.

You will need to enter a subject for the thread and your message. The subject should be concise yet descriptive.

If you typed out your response in Microsoft Word, at this time, you can paste in your response into the message box. Simply highlight the text in Word, go to Edit -> Copy.

Next, go into the Blackboard and click in the Message area. You will see an icon that looks like clipboard with a piece of paper over it. Click this icon and your copied text will appear.

If you receive an error message, you can also hold down Control on your keyboard and press the small letter v on a Windows computer or by holding down command and pressing a small letter v on a Mac computer.

You can also type directly into the message box.

When your message is complete, click Submit. It’s important to note that once you press “submit”, you may not be able to edit your post again so make sure it is ready to be public.