WCB forums enable on-line discussion similar to electronic bulletin boards or news groups. Instructors or students post messages which others in the class can read and respond to. The title of each posted message is a hypertext link to that message, followed by the name of the author of the message and the date it was sent. A sample discussion forum created using WCB is shown in Figure 6-1.
Users can also post responses to follow-ups, which then themselves are further indented.
WCB allows multiple discussion forums to be created for a class. Each forum can be given a name and can optionally be accompanied by a brief description, instructions for use, or other pertinent information. This allows the instructor to create discussion forums for specific topics or assignments. Alternately, there can be just one discussion forum for the whole course. The Learning Links page and form are discussed in Chapter Seven.