Body
Ed Discussion is a platform that houses online discussions for learners and instructors to engage with a variety of topics within the confines of course enrollment, and that engagement can happen both asynchronously and synchronously. Learners have a chance to collaborate with their peers and instructors on course content and skills, but it's all happening within a space that only those enrolled in the specific course (where Ed Discussion is being used) can access the conversations. With Ed Discussion in use, all of the course communications can happen in one location, and everything can be easily categorized.
Why Use Ed Discussion
- It can reduce the number of emails or repeated questions that the instructor answers.
- Access is asynchronous, which allows more students to participate.
- Students are able to express ideas with equations, code, annotations, etc.
- The data analytics can provide useful information.
Where to Start
Get Ed Discussion Put Into Canvas
This part is easy. Email learning.design.tech@dartmouth.edu, and Ed Discussion will be put into Canvas for you!
Setup Wizard
When you select the Ed Discuss hyperlink from your Canvas shell for the first time, you'll be taken to Ed Discussion and prompted by the course setup wizard.
You'll need to select Continue for the wizard to proceed to the next screen, which is the Welcome Announcement screen. The Welcome Announcement will be the first thread (an ice-breaker of sorts) that your learners will see as they are introduced to Ed Discussion. What you'll see below is a sample that's provided, but you can easily update and personalize this announcement.
Once you've edited the announcement to your liking, click Post Announcement to continue. Everyone enrolled in the course will be sent an email, notifying them that there is a new announcement. If there are no users enrolled, only you will receive the email.
Add Students
From the Course Admin page, which can be accessed via the gear button in the navigation bar at the top of the page of Ed Discussion, you can add your students. Use the Sync with LMS button underneath the table of users. Click that button, and the users will be added from the roster in Canvas.
Scroll down to the Users section and select Sync with LMS. Then you can see the users in Canvas also populate into Ed Discussion.
How to Use Ed Discussion
Starting a New Thread in Ed Discussion
Create the new thread using the New Thread button. 
Select one of the following thread types:
Ask a question - best used when inquiries have a clear answer; can be marked as resolved once an answer has been provided
Create a post - for discussion of general topics, such as a link to an interesting video that connects to a topic being covered in class
Make an announcement (only instructors can utilize this function) - for sharing important messages to all participants; this can also be used to send an email notification of the new announcement to all users
Visibility Options
Students can post 2 types of threads:
- Private: only the person who posts this thread and the instructors of the course will see threads of this type.
- Anonymous: students appear anonymous to one another (and not to instructors).
Instructors have a few more options:
- Pinned: this will pin the thread to the top of the discussions.
- Anonymous Comments: any comments on the thread will be anonymous.
- Megathread: creates a thread where each comment becomes a question that can be individually resolved.
Navigating Ed Discussion
Dashboard
Active courses--those available in the current term--will be listed at the top underneath the Courses heading. Any archived courses will be listed underneath a heading with the respective year and term information.
Thread Types
The list of threads will show each thread's type, title, category, author, and the time since the thread was originally posted. There are visual indicators, too, to give you information about the threads:
- Threads with a blue dot
are unread. These are threads that you have not yet. seen.
- Threads with a green tick
are questions that have been resolved/answered.
- Threads with a purple pushpin
have been pinned, with pinned threads typically being reserved for important information or announcements.
- Threads with a blue ribbon
have been endorsed by the course instructors (usually used to distinguish high-quality content).
Create Polls
If you want to do a quick class survey, set up a poll. You can up to 10 options, and you'll choose whether users can give single or multiple answers.
You can set a time at which the poll will close. After the user has participated, they'll be able to see the results.
Organizing Ed Discussion
Set Up Categories
The categories you set up will aid you in keeping the course organized. Students will be much more able to find relevant information, since the threads will be classified into different topics. To set up categories in your course, navigate to the Course Admin page--which can be traveled to by selecting the gear icon in the top navigation bar.
Once you've entered into the Course Admin page, select Discussion. In the Categories text box, you can begin defining the various categories you would like to use in your course. Each line in the text box is a separate category. You can also add sub-categories by creating a new line under the category you want to be the parent category and indenting using the TAB key. Want to add sub-sub-categories? Just indent twice.
How categories will look as you enter them in Course Admin:
How the same categories listed in Course Admin look when in use in Ed Discussion:
Editor Toolbar
The ability to edit content is a great feature in this tool. You can easily input all different types of content in really well-structured, clear ways.
Possible Content Types:
Paragraph Styles
Use the dropdown menu to alter the style of the text.
Text Formatting
Utilize bold, italicized, underlined, or monospaced formatting.
Hyperlinks
Converts whatever text you've highlighted into a hyperlink so that you can connect to external resources!
Bullet Points & Numeric Lists
Insert bullet points or numbered lists.
Inserting Images & Videos
Embed images and videos using URLs. You can also drag and drop images to insert them, as well as uploading.
Inserting Files
Attach files directly to your post by using the paperclip button.
LaTeX Equation Editor
Insert LaTeX math equations using this interactive equation editor.
Code Snippets
This tool allows for code snippet embedding.
Image Annotation
Annotate any uploaded images!
