The “Discussions” tool in Canvas works very similarly to the “Forums” tool in Moodle. This tip will discuss a handful of useful settings for discussion assignments, some of which existed in Moodle and others that are brand new. There are two categories of settings:

individual forum settings, which only apply to individual discussion forums and can have different settings depending on the forum, and
central discussion settings, which apply to all discussion forums within a course.

INDIVIDUAL FORUM SETTINGS

These settings only affect the individual discussion forum in which you set them. They can be set differently for each discussion forum, depending on your needs. To access these settings, create a new discussion or edit an existing one and scroll down to the section labeled “options.”

1. Allow threaded replies – To thread, or not to thread? What does threading even mean? Threaded discussions allow participants to respond directly to each other, in a nested chain of responses. Unthreaded discussions, called “focused discussions” are not nested, and only allow students to create one level of side comments to an initial posting. Threaded discussions are likely what you were familiar with in Moodle. They are the most common type of discussion and are highly recommended for discussions in academic courses. To allow threading, click the checkbox next to “Allow threaded replies” [1].

2. Users must post before seeing replies – This setting requires students to post an initial post to the discussion forum before they can see anything that their fellow students have posted. This can be helpful if you would like to see responses from students without seeing the influence of the thinking of others in the class. It can also help to reduce performance anxiety in courses if students can't compare their initial work to the work of others. To require students to make an initial post before seeing their classmate’s responses, click the checkbox next to “Users must post before seeing replies” [2].

CENTRAL DISCUSSION SETTINGS

These settings affect ALL discussion forum within your course. To access these settings, click the gear icon at the top of the “Discussion” main page.

3. Edit and delete their own posts – In the central discussion settings, you can enable or disable students' ability to edit and delete their own posts. They can only delete their own posts, not the posts of other students. Note that you can't see what they've deleted, nor what the edited post used to say, only that the post has been edited or deleted. If you do not enable this setting, students will not be able to make any changes to their posts once they are submitted, even if they’ve made a mistake. To allow students to edit or delete their own posts click the checkbox next to “Edit and delete their own posts” [3].

4. Attach files to discussions – Students cannot include attachments in their discussion postings unless you allow them to. To allow students to attach files to discussion posts, click the checkbox next to “Attach files to discussions” [4].