Communication & Collaboration
Enhancements to discussions – 3900.116
Impact: Instructors and students
Updated Help Page: Discussions (for instructors), Discussions (for students)
Idea Exchange ID: LEARNU-I-5098
Instructors and students
We made several enhancements to discussions to improve the user experience and make discussions more engaging and efficient.
- Updated wording: We used to call discussion contributions "responses" and "replies." We changed this to "posts" and "replies."
- Improved input field text: Previously, the text within the input field was "Type a response." The text within the input field is now "Post a response to the discussion."
- Avatar update: We previously included the user's avatar beside the input field. We removed the avatar to increase the area for adding content to the discussion.
Image 1. The Respond button is now labelled Post. There's no avatar included beside the input field and the text within the field instructs users to post a response.
- Streamlined response entry: The text field for entering a response is now directly below the discussion topic for a more intuitive experience.
- Instructor indicator: When an instructor posts in a discussion thread, an indicator beside their name now identifies them as an instructor.
Image 2. The instructor indicator appears beside the instructor’s name.
- Aligned draft indicator: The Draft indicator is now aligned with the user's name, enhancing clarity.
- Enhanced search field: The search field for participant names now includes a magnifying glass icon for better visibility.
Image 3. The magnifying glass icon appears before users select the Participant name field.
- Simplified group discussions: The large banner beneath group discussion posts has been removed. Users can now directly select their group without distraction.
Image 4. The menu for selecting a group is directly after the discussion post.
Administrators
Availability: Available for all Ultra courses.
Activation: None needed.
Configuration: None needed.