Discussions allow you to have conversations online. Sometimes an instructor sets up a discussion so that you can't see what others have posted until you submit your response. So don't wait to see someone else's reply before submitting your own. Often an instructor will attach a rubric or scoring guide to a discussion that they will use to score your participation. Be sure to look at that before composing your reply. See the information below on discussion board netiquette.

Tip: You should compose your discussion posts locally on your device, using Word for example, and then copy/paste it into Canvas. When composing online, it’s too easy to inadvertently click the back button or lose your connection and then lose all your work.

You can access a discussion from the Modules index page, the Course Navigation page if it has the Discussions link, the Assignments page, the Calendar, or the Syllabus.

To enter your response to a discussion prompt, click the Reply link [1]. You can add links, images, equations, and/or media. If you reply to a discussion, you will automatically be subscribed to discussions and will be notified of updates.

To display only the replies that you haven't read, click the Unread button.

You can reply to a comment posted by another student. Locate the post you want to reply to and click the reply icon below it [2]. In discussion replies, a blue dot [1] indicates the reply is new and unread. As you read new Discussion posts, Canvas will mark them as read (changing the indicators from blue to white) as you scroll down the page.

Below is a visual adaptation of the Core Rules of Netiquette. A universally accessible text version of this image is available at http://bit.ly/NetiquetteRules.