Instructions for using the Discussion Board

Please send suggestions and questions on the how-to to Bob Barber at barberb@lanecc.edu. Thanks!

Overview

How-To

For more detail, click here for relevant sections of the vendor’s online how-to manual.

Items not enabled to start
Avatars (personalized icons)
Private Messaging
Announcements and Sticky Topics in Forums (Administrator only)

1.   Register. Only required information is name and email address.

Start by clicking on "Register" in the upper right hand corner of the main screen
http://teach.lanecc.edu/facultycouncil

Fill out the fields that are required and the others that you wish to use.

Notes regarding the Registration Form:

The User Profile Information Section is public to logged-in users

Hide your online status controls whether your presence when logged in is shown on the front page of the web board, visible to other logged-in users.

Always Notify me of replies is a way of having a message come to your email when someone else has replied directly to your post (not all replies in the discussion). Note that a reply notification can be enabled inside a specific posting, if you don't wish to enable it globally here.

BBCode is an internal formatting tool somewhat similar to HTML.

Private messaging is disabled.

2. Confirming your registration

After you submit the registration form, a message will appear on the screen telling you about a confirmation email that will arrive to your mailbox.

The confirmation message should arrive shortly. In your email, respond to the message as instructed and your web board access should be enabled.

3. Logging in after you have registered

Go to http://teach.lanecc.edu/facultycouncil

The login and password boxes are at the bottom of the main screen

You can choose to be automatically logged in each time you open that page.


3. Structure of the Board:

To put it one way, a forum may have many topics, and each topic may have many posts from individuals.

To put it another way, a post is a single message. A topic is a collection of posts. A forum is a container for topics.

Forum

Topic

Post

Broad Area of Discussion

One Specific Thread of the Discussion

Individual Message

Example: Governance

Example: Faculty Realm of Authority

Example: Your reply to a colleague’s comment

To begin with, we have established an All-Faculty Forum with two topics, Governance, and Strategic Plan. Everyone is encouraged to post in both forums.

Entering a Forum

Once logged in, click on the name of the forum you wish to enter. This environment is web-like so the mouse arrow should change to the hand figure when you point at the forum name.

Once in a Forum, you can return to the list of forums by clicking the php logo in the upper left corner.

Posting Messages and Replies

Once inside the forum, you can click on an existing Topic to enter that discussion stream, or start a new topic by clicking on the New Topic button.

            If you chose New Topic, your Post becomes the first in that topic area.

            If you enter an existing topic, you can reply to the discussion of the topic by licking on the Post Reply button, or start a new Topic by clicking New Topic.

To reply to and include the text of a specific post , click on the Quote button.

There is an internal formatting code called BBCode which can be used to add bold, italics, etc. to messages. Here is a quick reference to BBCode:  BBCode Examples

To edit or delete one of your postings, click on the Edit button. At posting cannot be deleted if it has been specifically replied to.

Using the Poll Feature

Polls are initiated as part of a posting.

Define Options by typing in each option, then clicking Add Option. Add Option is not a look-up.

Must be at least two options.

After you vote, clicking on the poll link shows you the current results.

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Watching a Topic

In the page listing the posts on a topic, a “Watch this topic for replies” link at the lower left corner allows you to “subscribe” or “watch” a topic, meaning that any time a new post is made on that topic, you receive an email notification. Fortunately, only one notification of a new posting is sent until you log in to the discussion board again. You can “unsubscribe" to a topic by clicking the “Stop watching this topic link.”