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Discussions are used within Canvas for students to communicate with one another in collaborative ways. The possibilities within Discussions are that they can be whole-class or group-based (small-group) and have initial and/or reply posts.
Discussion Tool Bar Features
The features while viewing and interacting with Discussions are as follows:
Search for keywords or by author
Filter by All or Unread replies
Sort by oldest or newest
View Split Screen to view threaded replies in a split screen alongside the whole discussion
Expand Threads to expand or collapse all threaded replies
View Inline to view all of the replies within a thread
Group List icon that allows you the ability to view just replies from specific groups at a time
Resources
If you’re curious what your students see, reference this Discussions article that is student-facing. If you would like to see Canvas' documentation directly, you can find that at How do I use Discussions Redesign as an instructor? (once on this page there are other questions from the Instructor Guide to view related to Discussions Redesign).