Back to Discussion Board

Subscribe to Threads and Forums

What It is.

Blackboard participants may now subscribe to either message threads or discussion forums. Instructors can also choose whether subscribers should see a notification email or a message with the discussion post text contained in the email. Participants must still opt in to receive the messages.

To use the Subscribe function, you will need to enable this option in the Forum Settings when the discussion is created. Please see the instruction page for Creating a Discussion Forum.

Implications for Teaching and Learning.

Understand that you can suggest that students subscribe to a thread but that you have no way to enforce this. The Subscribe/ Unsubscribe function toggles the function on and off. Students have full control of this function.  The subscribe function could come in handy for students who are working in groups, or who are waiting for another post to a thread so that they can post a response.  The function could also come in handy for instructors who set up forums for Q and A.  The instructor would then receive an email letting them know that a student had posted a question to the forum.

How to set it up.

From the Discussion Board page, add or modify a forum.

From the Forum Settings section, select the desired option from Subscribe (do not allow, allow to subscribe to threads or allow to subscribe to forums).

Click submit.

If “subscribe to forum” is set by the instructor, you would click subscribe at the top of the screen when you first enter the discussion. Anytime anything is posted to that discussion forum, you will receive an email alerting you to the new post. 

If “subscribe to threads” was set by the instructor, you would click subscribe while reading a particular thread or post. Anytime a reply is submitted to that particular post, you will receive an email alerting you to the new post.

Back to Discussion Board