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Discussion TipsThe discussion group feature with Manila is really quite effective. My first words of wisdom here are "be patient".
I learned a great deal about the discussion feature by going to the De Anza Manila Support site and "Joining" to become a member. I then participated in the discussion group to learn things about Manila and to get a feel for how the discussion group worked. I recommend doing this as a place to start. Look over the guidelines at the support site, experiment, and muddle through setting up a discussion group on your site. Things can be tweaked as you go and I can help you.
If you are too shy to join the support site group, try becoming a member of this site and exploring the discussion group. You can find the link to the left.
Things I've learned (Hopefully this list will continue to grow)
Multi-Page Discussion Theme
Use this theme for your site if you plan to include a discussion group. The theme comes with the left hand menu all set up with the discussion and membership links ready to go.
Setting Up Your Discussion "Prefs"
The prefs area is what you use to set up your discussion group to look and behave the way you would like. One thing that is a little confusing and annoying for some people is that when they first activate the discussion group on their site, they notice that every story and picture they ever created shows up as a topic in their discussion group. All that can be turned off in the Prefs/Discussion Group area. Go to that area and set up your preferences like this:
Membership Prefs
Students must become "members" of your site in order to participate in the discussions. Anyone can view discussion topics and responses but only members who are logged in can post responses and new topics. In the "prefs" menu there is a link to "Membership". You should set up the membership prefs this way:
Receiving e-mail notification
As the instructor, you will automatically receive e-mail notification when a message has been posted. You can even designate a separate e-mail address to receive those notifications to avoid cluttering up your regular mail box. In the Prefs/Editorial section under Email Notification, I suggest this set up:
If you want email notifications to go to a mailbox of your choice, go to the "Send notification to:" item and insert the email address that you want to receive the messages.
Students can also receive notification of responses to their messages. After they post their message, they need to reopen (edit) their message and scroll to the bottom of the page. They will see a box that they can check to receive e-mail notifications. With this enabled, they do not have to check the discussion board to see if anyone has posted a message responding to their message. An illustration can be viewed below.
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