Accessing and Using WebCT Discussions
Step One: To access discussions, click on the Discussions link in the Course Menu or click on the Communication Tools icon.
Note: If the Course Menu is not displayed in a column on the left hand side of your screen, click the green triangle to display it or use the drop-down menu to locate the Discussions link. 
Step Two: Click on the topic title link to access the discussion postings for that topic.
Note: If you clicked on the Communication Tools icon on the homepage, you will see a discussions icon on the Communication Tools page.. If the pins are red, there are new discussion postings. If the pins are white, you have read all of the discussion postings. Click on the discussions icon to access the discussion page above, then click on the topic title.
Step Three: On the Discussion Messages page for the selected topic, you will see the subject title of the new posting in blue. You will also see the author of the post and the date and time stamp indicating when the message was sent. Click on the blue subject title to access the posted message.
Note: The envelope icon to the left of the subject line is closed, indicating that this posting is unread. Also, notice the indented arrow, which indicates that this post was written as a reply to the posted message above it.
Step Four: Read the posting. To reply to the post, click the Reply button.
A new browser window will open displaying the Reply to Message box. Type in your message and click Post.
Note: To see your new posting in the Discussion topic message list, click on the Update listing button. Your message subject line will then be displayed in the list.
Composing a New Message: To start a new thread, click the Compose message button.
This opens the Compose Discussion Message window. The Subject line is empty. You need to type in a new subject in the Subject: text box and type in your post in the Message: text box. When you are finished, click Post.
When the new thread is posted, the Subject line will appear as a black heading in the discussion list. Headings are not links. In order to view the posted message for the new subject, click on the green arrow to reveal the message links below.
Click on the blue subject title of the message to read it.
To read all of the messages in a discussion topic, it is sometimes easier to compile them. To do this, first click in the box between Status and Subject. This puts a green check mark next to all of the messages in the topic. Then click the Compile button at the bottom of the page.
This opens a new window displaying all of the messages. This new file can be downloaded and/or printed for easy reading.
