Online discussion groups - Technology Support for Courses at Stanford

	Online discussion groups Online discussion groups are a convenient way to continue class discussions, online, outside of class.
	What's Available Product Features About Signing Up

What's available?

CourseForum is an open source discussion tool available through CourseWork, Stanford's course management system. Anyone with access to CourseForum can post topics. CourseForum is ideal for collaborative projects because it supports private forums and forums for specified user groups. Its rich search feature allows instructors to find student-specific postings that can then be printed for grading. CourseForum synchronizes with CourseWork's user list information, thereby eliminating the need to add users to the forum manually.

Stanford newsgroups are just like regular Internet newsgroups, except that only Stanford affiliates have access to the discussions. To participate in discussions on Stanford newsgroups, you'll need a news reader. There are several free newsreaders to choose from: Netscape Communicator and Internet Explorer both have news readers built-in. Unix-based readers include trn and the Pine email program. Here's information about how to read newsgroups.

Product Features:

CourseForum

Features/Advantages/Benefits	Comments
Message retrieval	Students must check CourseForum for new postings. It is possible to set up email notification of replies to one's topics.
Offline access	No
Software required	Web browsers such as Netscape or Internet Explorer
Visibility	If an instructor requests a CourseForum with a CourseWork course then anyone with access to that CourseWork course can access CourseForum
Attachments	Yes
Threaded (original posting is linked to all its replies, which are displayed in hierarchical topic structure)	Yes
Instructor control over topic structure	Yes, it is possible for instructors to lock a topic
Announcements (a message that all users will see when they visit the group)	Yes, admins and moderators can post topics as announcements that users can see when they enter a forum
Multiple discussion folders	Yes

Stanford Newsgroups

Features/Advantages/Benefits	Comments
Message retrieval	Students must check newsgroup for new postings
Offline access	Yes
Software required	Newsgroup reader such as those included with Netscape or Internet Explorer
Visibility	Public to everyone in the Stanford community
Attachments	Yes
Threaded (original posting is linked to all its replies, which are displayed in hierarchical topic structure)	Yes
Instructor control over topic structure	No
Announcements (a message that all users will see when they visit the group)	No
Multiple discussion folders	Yes, if you request multiple newsgroups

About signing up:
	CourseForum To request a CourseForum you must first sign up for a CourseWork course web site. On the Coursework course request form select the "Discussion" checkbox under course setup. Stanford newsgroups To sign up, just go to the Leland Course Registration form and elect to receive a Class newsgroup. Don't forget to list all class instructors, TA's, etc. on the top part of the form.