Is it possible for me to respond privately to a student's Discussion post without approving the post

Susan.K.9589

I use Discussions for students to post answers to reading questions. I moderate the posts and approve them after they're due. The goal is for students to be able to refer to their classmates answers to study for tests. But I'd like to be able to privately respond to students' answers. I can't do that on approved or unapproved posts. I'd like to be able to correct students' answers without publishing their errors to the whole class. Right now I'm having to use the feedback area in Grades, and it's not ideal.

Bharti.B.332

Hello @kattwinkels@cofc.edu

Thanks for reaching Brightspace Community.

To privately respond to a student’s Discussion post in Brightspace, you can assess the thread and use the Feedback area by clicking “Assess Student” or selecting the student’s name to open their evaluation page.

Alternatively, you can create a private “Single User, member-specific” group and assign a restricted topic as that student’s journal however the discussion is only visible to the student and the instructor.

Best regards,

Bharti

Susan.K.9589

Thanks, but I'm not sure what you mean by "assess the thread." Do you mean create a grade for it? I've done that. And I can leave feedback for individual students there, but it's a lot of back and forth between Grades and Discussions. Within the Discussion area there's not an option to select the student's name and open their evaluation page.

Bharti.B.332

Hello @Susan.K.9589 ,

If you have added an assessment to a discussion topic, you can assess a student’s participation in their discussion threads.

Here’s a step-by-step guide in our knowledge base for your reference:
Assess Users in Discussion Threads

Thanks and Regards,

Bharti