Conversations in Blackboard are forums which can be enabled on a specific item in your course. Unlike Discussions they cannot be graded. Conversations can be used to streamline queries from students, for example by enabling it for a Document with assessment details or to facilitate a discussion in the context of a particular learning resource, for example a research paper, case study or video.
Discussions or Conversations – which one to choose?
There are two essential questions in making a choice between these two tools:
- Is this activity graded? If yes, the choice is Discussions.
- Is this activity related to a particular resource in your unit, such as a specific assignment, paper you uploaded or a lecture recording? If yes you may want to use Conversations. If not, Discussions may be the better choice, particularly that Discussions have its own tab on the top menu of your unit, making it easier for students to navigate to them.
The same design principles and engagement strategies that apply to Discussions also apply to Conversations. Regardless of which tool you decide to use, you need to make it clear to students how they are expected to engage with it.
Add Conversations to course items
You can enable Conversations for these content items:
- Documents
- Assignments
- Tests
- Course Tools content and activities (such as Re/Play, Turnitin or Padlet)
To switch on Conversations, click on the three dots More Options icon next to an item and choose Edit. Find the cog icon in the right top corner of the page, click on it and tick the Allow class conversations option.
Use Conversations
Once you’ve enabled conversations, go to the conversation icon in the top right corner of the page.
You can type your response, reply to other users and see who contributed to the conversation by looking under Engagement on the right.
You can return to a Conversation by either opening the item and clicking on the Conversation icon as described above, or by clicking on the three dots More Options icon next to the item and choosing Conversation.
It is not possible to follow Conversations but new posts will be flagged by a purple bubble next to the item.
Once you open the Conversation, new posts will also be highlighted with a purple NEW label.
