ARCHIVED: In Oncourse, how can I post to a discussion forum?

UITS no longer supports original Oncourse. Oncourse CL is Indiana University's current online course environment.

To post to a discussion forum in Oncourse, follow the steps below:

1. Log into Oncourse and select the appropriate course.
   
   
2. Click In Touch.
   
   
3. Scroll down to the "Discussion Forum" heading. Select a forum.
   
   
4. If the frame on the right doesn't say "Post a New Message", go to the left-hand frame and click the folder with the name of the forum.
   
   
5. In the "Subject" field, enter a subject for your message.
   
   
6. In the "Message" field, enter your message.

   Oncourse discussion forums use a specific text-formatting system called Smart Text. This is the default option and will automatically interpret emoticons and create hyperlinks from URLs. Your other options are Plain Text, which does not format the text at all, and HTML. To use either Plain Text or HTML formatting, click the appropriate radio button below the message box.

7. To post the message, click Send. If you do not want to post the message, click Cancel.

   Note: Once you post a message to a forum, you cannot edit or delete it.

To reply to an existing message, view the message to which you'd like to reply. In the "Message" field, enter your reply, and click Send.

Note: To see all existing messages for a particular topic, in the left-hand frame, click the folder with the name of the forum. To see all existing messages for every topic, in the left-hand frame, click Expand All. To collapse (i.e., hide the contents of) a particular topic, click the folder again. To collapse all topics, click Collapse All.

You can also add attachments. To add an attachment to a discussion forum posting, follow these steps:

1. Follow steps 1-6 above to begin your message.
   
   
2. Click the blue plus sign icon next to "Add Attachment". On the next screen, click the blue arrow icon next to "Upload a File".
   
   
3. Enter the path to your file, or click the Browse... button to find the file. If you are in the right directory but can't see the file in the File Upload window, make sure that "Files of type:" is set to All Files (*.*) . When you've located the file, double-click the filename or highlight the file and click Open. Then click Add to Upload List.
   
   
4. If you want to add multiple files, repeat step 3 and select additional files.
   
   
5. When you've listed all the files that you want to attach, click Upload Now. It may take a moment for the files to upload. When the upload is complete, you will see the message "File upload completed."
   
   
6. Click Return to Attachments. Then click the blue arrow next to "Done".
   
   
7. If you want to add or delete files, click the icon next to "Add/Delete Attachment". When you're satisfied with the attachments and the text of your message, click Send to post the message.

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