Users can subscribe to the discussion forum and receive e-mail copies of all new forum messages. The entire forum is searchable by keywords. The forum can be protected so that only users who know the password can view and use it. Uses Students can discuss course material outside of class. Students can post questions that can be answered by instructors or peers.
Instructors can seed the forum with discussion topics.
These discussions can extended over a long period of time. Unlike classroom discussions, messages can be bolstered with hyperlinks to supporting documents and websites. Instructors can post a wide variety of course material to the forum including assignments, answers, grades, notices etc. It is much easier to post to a forum than it is to ones own webpage. Once posted, a message will remain accessible to your students for as long as needed.