How to Assign Due Dates for Discussion Boards in My Course?
Is there a way to assign a due date for discussion boards? Dicussion boards are integral parts of my instruction. I need to be able to assign due dates.
Best Answer
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We love that you’re reaching out to the Brightspace Community with this question!
Currently, our discussion tool doesn’t have that functionality.
We really value feedback like this from our clients and would be grateful if you could upvote the idea within our Product Idea Exchange so that it can be considered for future releases. You can access the Quick Links widget found on the community's main homepage.
Best,
Roqeeb
Answers
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@Roqeeb.O.922 is correct there is not a due date concept in the Discussion board- but there is an availability concept.
This means that you can set a date that the Discussion is available for and when it will no longer be available for, and announce that timeline to your Learners through the Discussion Description ex.
You could then also add reminders to the Course Calendar to help Learners stay on track with their discussions ex.
Just note that, the availability doesn't automatically appear in the Discussion or Calendar for Students- you will need to add this via the Discussion description field, and by creating those events in the calendar.
Just in case it's handy, I'm linking here the documentation on setting availability in
New Content ExperienceClassic Content Experience (Use Dates and Restrictions)
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Thank you @Stefanie.B.518.
It's an interesting idea, but I don't use availability dates. I let my students submit late (with a late penalty). Also, many of my students depend heavily on the Student Work to Do widget, so it's very important for the disussion boards to have due dates.
I upvoted the link @Roqeeb.O.922 indicated.
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I completely agree and it is very frustrating that something as simple as adding a DUE date to the Discussion tool seems so difficult. It would be a simple addition and both student and faculty friendly.
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Hi @Rob.C.890 and @Stefanie.B.518,
I up voted the PIE referenced above, however that PIE is from 2014. Per D2L documentation here, it shows due dates added to discussion posts showing up in the Student Work To Do Widget as of 2023 (Originally Published 2022). The image below shows a discussion board post with a due date. Did something change after that?
It's a really poor student experience to not be able to show due dates for discussion boards in the Student Work To Do Widget. The recommended work around of adding start and end dates does make the discussion appear in the widget, however it hurts student learning to lose the ability to post and continue the discussion past the due date.
There are quite a few PIE requests related to this topic: D11820, D11955, D11267, D11077, D7468 and then multiple posts after marked duplicate.
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HI @Monica.W.5050
From what I can see in both Community Discussions and PIE Items there doesn't appear to have been a recent change to how dates are set in Discussions.
I have shared your feedback with our Product Team working on Discussions and with your Account Team here at D2L for their awareness.
I do understand what you're saying about wanting students to have access to the discussion beyond the availability date. Today, Special Access is not available for Discussions. I've also raised this with those teams. (There is a PIE Item for adding special access to discussions D10000)
If you use Classic Content, it does look like you could add the discussion as a content topic, and then add a due date to the content topic that is the discussion. I have to confess I haven't tested this with the Work To Do Widget but wanted to share a sneaky tip I've picked up while asking around a bit more about this.
I don't think this works in New Content Experience, as I don't believe that due date field exists in the User Interface of the Content Topic Page there.Sharing together in Community this way can help us find new paths and highlight obstacles- so I'm grateful to everyone who's participated here to share both opportunities and challenges.
