How to use Public Discussion Forum in your course platform?

This article explains how to leverage "Public Forum" feature in your course platform to increase engagement.

"Public Forum" is a discussion forum which is open to everyone. Any user who signs up on the platform can view, post or comment on the discussion forum, irrespective of being your learners.  

Steps to use Public Forum:

Visit your Dashboard, scroll down and select "Engagement". Here, you can view both the available features. Now, head over to "Public Forum" to explore the Public Discussion Forum feature.

Enable/Disable Course Discussions

Click on the button present on the top right to Enable/Disable the "Course Discussion" feature.

All: This shows the total number of posts made by all the users to date.
Started by Me:  This shows the thread of posts which were initiated by you, being the Admin.
Tagged: The posts where you were tagged by someone.
Commented by Me: This shows the posts where you have commented, being an admin.

Add New Post

To add a new post in the Course Discussion Forum, click on "+POST" placed at the top right. A new text box would pop up where you can write plain, italic, bold & underlined texts, attach an image or insert a link.
Please note that even if the box titles "Ask Doubt", you can use this forum for the purpose of announcing anything as well.
 
Write your message and click on "Post". 

Trending Tags

Using hashtags (#) in your posts to make it easier for people to search & follow what they are looking for.
Example: You can ask people to use "#AskDoubts" every time they post a doubt on the discussion forum. Simultaneously, you can go to the "Trending Tags" box & under "Search hashtag.." type #AskDoubts. All the posts made with this hashtag would appear at one place. Now you can comment on them as per your convenience.

You can also use the arrow button placed beside every post to either Delete, Hide or Pin that post.
Delete: This option will permanently delete the particular post from the Public Forum.
Hide: If you don't want a post to appear publicly, you can make it private by using the "Hide" feature.
Pin: If you want a post to appear on top, you can use the "Pin" feature to pin that post.