There are a few terms essential to understanding how discussions in Brightspace are structured.
Forum
A discussion forum is a collection of related discussion topics, similar to a category in Assignments and Quizzes.
There may be several discussion forums in a course, and each forum may contain one or several topics.
A forum cannot be graded, and thus it cannot be linked to the grade book.
A forum cannot have a rubric attached to it.
Students cannot post in a forum unless it contains a topic.
Topic
Once a forum is created, an instructor has to add a topic (or topics) to it.
A discussion topic is a place where students post their responses to a question/prompt and reply to other students’ posts.
Topics have to be created within a forum – they cannot exist independently.
Topics can be graded, and can be linked to the grade book.
A rubric can be attached to a topic for evaluation purposes.
Thread
A thread is created when a student posts in a discussion topic. A discussion thread consists of the original post along with any replies to that post.
There are often multiple threads per topic (each student may start their own thread).
Reply
A reply is a response to another student’s post in a thread.
Post
A discussion post refers to any message posted in a thread.
NOTE: Students cannot create discussion forums or topics. They can only start threads and reply to posts. Thus, the discussion area has to be set up by the instructor.
Example
The image below illustrates the different elements of a discussion in Brightspace.
