About Private (Group) Discussions:
The Discussion Tool (part of the basic course) is used for class communication and interaction. Instructors have the ability to create their own Topic areas, post a message and have reply. By default Discussion topics are "public" meaning they are viewable and accessible to everyone in the course. 

Private Discussions on the other hand are topic areas that are viewable and accessible to only a select group of student(s). This tutorial illustrates how to create and set up a Private Topic area.

To Create a Private Discussion:
1. Log into the course and select the link for "Discussions" (often located under the Course Menu or inside "Communication Tools").

2. The Main and Notes Topic areas are a default and cannot be deleted. To add a new Discussion area, select the "Create topic " button.

3. Enter a title and click "Create".

4. Once a topic area is added it is considered "Public", everyone in the course can view, access and post a message to it. To make this topic area private select the checkbox under "Private" and click "Update". 

Assigning Private Members:
1. To assign members to the topic area select the checkbox next to the topic title, on the right select the button for "Manage members".

2. Select the button for "Select members". 

3. Check off student names, INCLUDING yourself and click "Update".

NOTE: if the instructor is not selected as one of the private members he/she will not be able to access or post to that topic. 

5. Private members should now able to enter the topic area (it is a blue text link). If the topic area is black, not a link, then you will need to "Manage members" again and include yourself as part of the group. 

Compose Message:
1. To compose a message enter the topic area by clicking on topic title.

2. Select the "Compose message " button.

3. Enter a Subject (for example: Group A Project Directions) and the message (for example: expectations of group participation/interaction, grading criteria, directions and/or a question). Click "Post" when done. 

NOTE: many instructors adopt a grading scheme for postings/interactions whether they are private or public - the following link is a sample Rubric one could use/modify to assign discussion scores (created by Fort Hayes State University): http://www.hawaii.edu/talent/webctfacultysupport/discussion_rubric.pdf

4. Select the "Update listing" button to refresh the screen and view the newly posted message.

Threaded/Unthreaded Views:
There are 2 ways to view a message (this is the same for messages posted to the Mail Tool), Unthreaded and Threaded. One can jump between these views by selecting the "Threaded" or "Unthreaded" buttons located on top of the message table.

Unthreaded view will list all messages in chronological order as seen in the following screen shot. To read the message one would click on the message title. 

Threaded view will list messages based on subject header as in the following screen shot. To view the message one would OPEN the header or folder first by selecting the green arrow next to the subject title, then click on the message contained inside. 

Once a message is opened select to reply by either clicking "Reply" (message is returned to the Discussion topic) or Reply Privately (message goes to the persons WebCT Mail inbox and is not viewable within the topic area).