If you are using online discussion forums in your courses you may be interested in a new tool called Ed Discussions. Ed Discussions has been integrated into Brightspace so your students do not need to create and manage a secondary account to login. Creating, managing, and monitoring discussions in Ed is streamlined and intuitive. Importantly, unlike other 3rd-party discussion tools such as Slack, Discord, and Campuswire, NYU has vetted Ed Discussions for FERPA/GDPR and accessibility compliance. Ed Discussions can be enabled in your course site(s) by using this request form.
The discussion tool reduced the number of emails I received from students significantly!…It’s a fantastic tool, and I’m thrilled with it overall.
Professor Craig Kapp, Computer Science
Both you and your students can post messages with attachments, embedded videos, annotatable images, math notation using the visual editor or LaTeX, and Markdown formatting. You can organize threads into categories (e.g., Q&A, Course information, etc.) and create custom categories as needed, making it easier to organize discussions. Comments can be set to “staff-only” allowing instructors, section leaders, and TAs to have private discussions within threads. Filtering threads by category and/or criteria (read, unread, private, etc.), as well as searching by category or keywords facilitate timely feedback for your students.
An especially useful feature is thread templates — preset prompts that guide students when posting messages (e.g., prompt students to include specific information when posting questions). Additionally, threads can be made private allowing designated areas for private discussion among instructors and teaching assistants.
One of the most powerful features in Ed Discussions is the ability to write runnable code within a discussion post and most common programming languages are supported. This feature has been successfully implemented by Computer Science in their intro and intermediate courses. Beginner coding instruction is greatly facilitated by allowing students to post code and receive feedback from peers and instructors. Students may post anonymously, encouraging those who might be hesitant to ask for help.
…The ability to post runnable programs in discussion posts was incredibly helpful in explaining concepts in my Intro to Computer Programming (Python) class…I used the forum to maintain a thread of “CS / STEM opportunities” across campus (internships, hackathons, talks, etc.) – students loved this, and this was, by far, the most popular thread on the forum…
Professor Craig Kapp, Computer Science
Please note that grading is not currently available for discussions, but Ed Discussions provides user-friendly analytics. It is easy to view overall course activity as well as individual student activity with detailed information available for each student. Data can be exported to csv and JSON for further analysis. Additionally, instructors can request Ed Lessons which includes quizzing, as well as Ed Workspaces, a dedicated collaborative coding environment.
Currently over 6000 NYU students in 63 classes are using Ed Discussions with this number growing each semester. Ed Discussions (as well as Lessons and Workspaces) is currently available by request and if you are interested in using Ed Discussions in your course please reach out to your ed tech liaison for more information on getting started with this excellent discussion platform.