Discussion are a set of published comments by members of a group about a topic.  A topic can be an assignment, an event, or a news item, or a discussion can be started in a custom group.  A custom group is created using the Groups tool.  Groups like classes, or role-based groups such as "teachers", are formed automatically.

Discussion in School Loop Standard (Standalone or Unified)

In School Loop Standard, there are no parent or student accounts.  Members roles include teachers, school staff, and administrators.  Since all discussions are among members, in School Loop Standard, all discussions are staff-only, and only include non-staff members of those people who have intentionally been added.  Note: In School Loop Standard (Unified), you can form groups cross-district, so discussion might be among all 4th grade teachers in a district depending on the group.

Discussions in School Loop Plus

In addition to all the benefits of School Loop Standard, School Loop Plus includes parents and students as members.  Students are automatically members of their classes, and can participate in all class discussions.  Parents are not allowed into class discussions. 

Discussions can be held in a variety of circumstances:

Assignment-based discussions

In School Loop Plus, all assignments automatically include a discussion among the teacher and all the students assigned the work.  This enables students to clarify assignments, seek and provide help.  All active discussions appear on the teacher's dashboard, and the teacher can delete or edit posts.

Group Discussions 

All groups contain a discussion element.  Discussion titles appear on the My Portal page of all group members, and all posts are emailed to all members. Members can opt out of the email from the Group, or inside the email.

News or Event Discussions

When publishing news or events, the author can check a box to enable a discussion.  Be cautious with this feature if the news or event is published broadly (say to all students and parents).

Interventions

All Student Records contain an Intervention discussion among all the teachers of a student.  These discussions are only viewable by certified school personnel.

Once created, all discussions work similarly.  The person who starts the discussion can edit or delete any post.  People in the discussion can reply to any post, and posts are nested so readers can see who said what about what.  In addtition, people in the discussion can attach a file or a link.

Finding Discussions

Every member has a My Portal page, and all active discussions for a member appear in a special box on My Portal.  Discussions also appear in other places.  They are listed in the Groups homepage of a custom group, assignment discussions, are on a teacher's dashboard, and Interventions appear on the Student Record of the appropriate student.

Replying to a Discussion

Click the discussion title, and find a post that you would like to reply to.  You can reply to any post, or to the top post.

Editing Discussions

If you created the discussion, you can edit or delete any post.  If you do, your name will appear as the new publisher of the post.

Deleting Discussions

You can delete an entire discussion by deleting the top post, the news or event post, or the discussion itself.  You can delete any individual post as well.  If you delete a post, all responses to that post will be deleted.

Discussion occur in groups, and in School Loop, by definition, all groups must be created by a member of the school or district staff, and have at least one member who is a part of the school or district staff.

Language

School Loop uses a language filter, but the reality is that people can easily get around them by using symbols, spaces, and other obvious techniques.  Our main "filter" is accountability: When you publish in School Loop, you publish in your own name.  It is very effective.

Moderating Discussions

All discussions occur in groups, and all group must have a staff member among them.  The creator of the group (teachers own their couses and classes, and those are groups as well), can edit or delete any post.  Since discussions are pushed to the My Portal page of all users, and to teacher dashboards, it's easy to keep tabs on active discussions.

Discussions Among Parents and Students

School Loop has many rules that restrict interaction between parents and students.  Pretty much, they cannot communicate.  The only exception is discussion in custom Groups. So if there is a group called Fund Raising that has as members parents and students, discussion can occur.  These discussions though are pubilc to the group, and all groups have moderators.