This article describes how each type of forum works and how they appear to students. For basic instructions on adding a forum to a course page, please see Adding forums. 

Standard Forum for general use

In a standard forum, anyone can post a new discussion topic or reply to existing discussions at any time. Standard forums are great for students to use as a means to discuss topics in the course, seek help from other students in the course, all while being monitored by the instructor to ensure academic integrity is being maintained. 

Standard Forum displayed in a blog-like format

Much like the standard forum above, anyone can begin a new discussion (or reply to existing discussions) at any time. The only difference is that the front page of the blog-like forum shows each discussion message, rather than just the title.

Q&A Forum

In a Q&A Forum, the instructor would ask students a question. Students would then be required to answer the question in order to see other student responses to that same question. An instructor can add as many discussion questions as they would like. 

Each person posts one discussion

As the name suggests, each student can post only one discussion to the forum. They can, however, reply to any already posted discussion within the forum. 

Single simple discussion

In a single simple discussion forum, the instructor would post one discussion that students can then reply to. Students would not be able to start any additional discussions.