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New discussions experience comprises of a better looking user interface along with following changes/new features:
Tabular layout
My Posts tab shows posts authored by the current user.
All Posts tab shows all posts in the course.
Topics tab shows hierarchy of discussion topics (categories and subcategories).
Learners tab shows list of enrolled learners, forum stats and enables viewing forum activity of a particular learner.
Learners tab is only visible to course teams and forum moderators.
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Aggregated filters and sort
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Filter for post type (Discussion or Question) has been added.
In near future, a filter for Discussion type posts having no response, will be added.
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Endorse a response
Users having moderation privileges can endorse a response, similar to how they would mark a response as answered.
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This reason will be visible to other users having moderation privileges and to the content author.
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Learner stats and sort
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A sort menu in Learners tab allows sorting by
Most activity,Recent activityandReported activity
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(visible to moderators only).
Count of posts authored by the learner in this course.
Count of total content (posts, response or comments) authored by the learner in this course.
Count of content that is currently in reported state.
Count of content that was reported in reported state, but was later marked as un-reported.
Back button to go back to the list of learners.
Name of the selected learner.
List of threads that the selected learner has interacted with.
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Stats for user will start to appear once a user makes contribution to the forums using the new experience. Until then, all their stats will appear as zero. |
Topic stats
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Course-wide discussion topics will be shown on top in the topics list.
Content-specific discussion topics will be listed as a 2 level hierarchy: category and subcategories.
Count of discussion type posts in the topic.
Count of question type posts in the topic.
Breadcrumb bar can be used to navigate categories and subcategories.
Upgraded search experience
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Partial usernames can now be searched.
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Content view refactored
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Type of thread is now represented alongside avatar; a question mark for a question type thread.
Time elapsed since the post/comment/response was created, with following abbreviations:
1 second: 1s
1 minute: 1m
1 hour: 1h
1 week: 1w
1 month: 4w
1 year: 1y
Cohort visibility info is moved towards bottom right of the post view. Mouse over on the icon will display cohort that this thread is visible to.
Reported info is now shown in a bar on top of the reported post, response or comment.
Endorsed or answered info is visible in the bar on top of the reported response.
“Vote” has been renamed to “Like”. Functionality is the same.
Follow option has been moved towards bottom left of the post view.
“Mark as answered” option has been moved inside the actions menu of a response.
Comment can now be added on a button
Username colour is according to their role. A role icon for staff and TA has been added.
Interactive post summary card
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Username of post author is now visible on post summary. Users having course staff, course admin, discussion admin, discussion moderator role will have red text colour and a staff icon next to the username. Users having community TA and group community TA role will have grey text colour and a staff icon next to the username.
Number of likes on a post are visible on its summary. The like icon itself can be used to like/unlike the post. In case the current user has liked the post, the icon is filled.
The star icon can be used to follow/un-follow a post. If the post if being followed, the icon is filled.
A question mark next to the avatar indicates that the thread is of type question.
Hovering over the people icon indicates that cohort that this post is visible to.
“Reported” indicator appears on a post’s summary if the post itself is reported or any of the responses or comments on the post have been reported.
“Answered” indicator appears on a post’s summary if the post was of type question and it has a response that has been marked as answer.
Indictor for total number of responses or comments on a post. Icon is filled if a response or comment has been added after the post has been read.
Institution icon with “Staff” appears next to post author’s username if the author has course staff, course admin, discussion moderator or discussion admin role. In this case, username text colour is red. Academic cap icon with “TA” appears next to post author’s username if the author has community TA or group community TA role. In this case, username text colour is grey.
Pinned indicator is moved to top right of post summary and space is added between pinned posts and other posts.
Time elapsed since post creation is now visible on post summary.
Unread post is now indicated by white background with bold post title.
Discussion xblocks, viewed in course content, will still render the legacy experience. These xblocks will eventually be deprecated with the rollout of discussions sidebar (details here).
Known issues
Image added in a post/response/comment on Discussion page does not show up when that post/response/comment is viewed from within the course content.
Hyperlink added in a post/response/comment on the Discussion page does not show up when that post/response/comment is viewed from within the course content.
Some LaTeX commands are not supported in the new experience.
Future upgrades
A discussions sidebar will enable learners to interact with forums alongside course content (details here). Beta testing is in progress.
Forum notifications will be rendered in an in-platform notifications centre, and also dispensed via email and edx mobile app using a 3rd party delivery service. Discovery is in progress.
A UI upgrade to increase content density. Development in progress.
Short demo of new discussions experience
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