A conference designates the broadest categorization of the discussion you would normally ask that a conference be set up for each course that you are teaching.
Forums represent the topic areas that are being discussed within the conference.
Threads represent the specific conversations within each topic area. This structure allows you to have multiple conversations on multiple topics within your class, while providing an easy way to keep track of them visually. Threads are represented by indentation, while forums appear as topic headings, and the conference is defined by the web page. To read messages , click on the name of the thread, then on the title of the message you want to read. To post a new message , first decide if the message is part of an ongoing conversation.