Course discussion and announcements

Students talk in two places: under each lesson, in its comments, and on the course's Discussion page, where they start posts and reply to them. Members who can edit the course send announcements from the same page. What students write is plain text, with web addresses made into links.

Who sees what

• Students with access read and write in the course's discussion. In a course taught in cohorts, each cohort sees its own comments and posts, and what instructors write to every cohort.
• Members who can edit the course read everything, send announcements, and approve, hide, pin or delete what students write.
• The course's instructors and teaching assistants, the team's admins and its owner also comment and reply. Their comments are marked Instructor.
• Members who can only view the course see announcements and what instructors wrote, and how many posts and comments students wrote, never what students wrote.

Lesson comments

Under each published lesson, students with access comment and reply to comments. A student can change their comment for 15 minutes after posting it, and delete it at any time.

The lesson's editor has a Discussion band with all of its comments, including those waiting for approval and those hidden. An instructor comments in the box above them; in a course taught in cohorts, they choose one cohort or every cohort. Each comment's ⋯ menu has:

• Approve comment, for a comment waiting for approval.
• Pin comment: it shows first. Pinning another comment on the lesson unpins it.
• Hide comment takes it away from students; Show comment brings it back.
• Delete comment asks first, then removes its text. A comment with replies keeps its place, saying it was deleted.

Comments in the lesson's Lesson settings turns comments off for that lesson: the comments already there stay readable, and nobody can add new ones (Write lessons and add videos).

Posts and the Discussion page

The course's Discussion tab lists announcements and students' posts, pinned first, then by newest activity. All, Announcements, Posts and Comments on lessons narrow it; a comment opens the lesson's editor at that comment. In a course taught in cohorts, the list can be narrowed to one cohort.

Students start a post with New post on the course's Discussion page at your school, and reply to posts and announcements. A post's page shows its text and replies; an instructor replies under it. Its More menu has Approve post while it waits for approval, Pin post, Close replies or Reopen replies, Hide post or Show post for a student's post, and Delete post. Deleting a student's post removes its title and text.

Course discussion, in the Discussion band of the course's Settings, turns posts off: students no longer see posts and cannot start or answer them. Announcements still reach them, and lesson comments follow each lesson's own Comments setting.

Announcements

1. On the course's Discussion tab, choose New announcement.
2. In a course taught in cohorts, choose who it goes to under To: every student of the course, or one cohort.
3. Enter a Title and write the Message in the Notes editor, with formatting, links and pictures from Your images.
4. Choose Send announcement. Magpie asks first, naming how many students will be emailed.

The announcement is shown at the top of each student's course home until they mark it read, and stays on the course's Discussion page. It is emailed to the students with access, from your school, except those who turned off emails from it. An announcement cannot be changed once it is sent; delete it and send another.

Approval and reported comments

With Comments wait for approval on, in the course's Discussion band, students' new comments and posts are shown only once a member who can edit the course approves them. A comment that was approved and is then changed waits again. New courses start with your school's choice (Set up your school).

To review, in the Courses section of the sidebar, gathers what waits in every course of the team you can edit:

• Comments: comments and posts waiting for approval, each with Approve or Hide.
• Reported: comments a student reported. A reported comment stays shown until you choose Keep comment, Hide comment or Delete comment. Keeping it clears its reports.

Students report another student's comment with Report comment; nobody can report an instructor's. Instructors get an email about new comments, posts and reports as Your notifications in Courses settings says (Set up your school).

When a student is removed and erased, their comments and posts keep their place and read "Removed." (Course students and reports).

If a comment or post does not appear where you expect it, Contact support.