{"id":4675,"date":"2025-10-28T16:08:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T16:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/?p=4675"},"modified":"2025-10-28T16:08:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T16:08:55","slug":"student-guide-using-discussions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/student-guide-using-discussions\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Guide:\u00a0Using Discussions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Discussions are often set up within your courses to provide a space where you can ask tutors questions and engage with other students. Discussions are usually a more efficient way to raise course-related queries than emailing individually, as everyone can see the responses – therefore preventing repeated questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quick steps below guide you through accessing course discussions, posting and replying to messages, and managing notifications efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Step 1:<\/strong> To access course discussions, first open your Canvas course.
Step 2:<\/strong> In the left-hand menu select Discussions<\/strong>.
Step 3: <\/strong>Courses will often include pre-set discussion threads created by your tutor. Select the one relevant to your comment or question.
Step 4: <\/strong>The bookmark<\/em> icon on the right-hand side allows you to subscribe<\/strong> to the discussion, so you will receive email notifications to your student email address when a new response appears. This can be useful if wanting to keep track of replies to your comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Note that in order to receive discussion notifications, you will need to have course notifications turned on<\/strong> (accessed via the home page as shown below in step 5), and also have discussion notifications turned on in your account settings <\/strong>(accessed via Account<\/em> in the global navigation menu, as shown below in step 6).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Step 5<\/strong>: In the course menu on the left, click Home<\/strong> to navigate to the course home page. Select View Course Notifications<\/strong> in the right-hand side menu to access the course navigation settings. Ensure course notifications are enabled<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Step 6<\/strong>: In the global navigation menu on the left, click Account<\/strong> to access your Canvas account settings; then select the Notifications<\/strong> link. Scroll to the Discussions<\/strong> section and ensure that email notifications are turned on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Once you have entered your chosen discussion, you will be able to see further available options. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 7: <\/strong>Use the 3 dots on the right-hand side to mark the entire discussion as read\/unread<\/strong>.
Step 8: <\/strong>Click the Reply<\/strong> button to add a message to a thread. This will open a textbox to enter your message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Step 9:<\/strong> Use the Rich Content Editor<\/em> to format your message, add attachments, or include links and media content. Click Reply<\/strong> to post your comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Step 10: <\/strong>Select the 3 dots to the right of any comment to perform additional actions such as report, mark read\/unread,<\/em> and copy link<\/em>. If it is your own comment, you can also edit<\/em> the comment.
Step 11: <\/strong>If threaded replies are enabled, you can click Reply<\/strong> to respond directly to someone\u2019s comment within the thread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This student guide shows you how to use Canvas Discussions to post and reply to messages, and stay updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,58,33],"tags":[57,35],"class_list":["post-4675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assessment","category-communication-tools","category-student-guide","tag-discussions","tag-student-guide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4675"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5184,"href":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4675\/revisions\/5184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}