You can access your course’s discussion forum from the ‘Discussion’ tab in the top menu within your course on edX.org.

There, click the ‘Add a Post’ button.

If there’s no ‘Add a Post’ button, the discussion forum may be closed. Some instructor-paced courses may temporarily close the forums during an exam period. We also recommend checking if the course has ended.

When you add a new post in a course discussion, you choose:

• The topic of the post
• The type of post: question or discussion
• Where to post: on the Discussions page or (for content-specific topics only) in the course unit.

Note: We don’t recommend posting personal, private information such as your phone number or address in the forum.

Deciding on the topic for your post #

Every post in a course discussion must be associated with one of the topics that the course team has created. You choose a topic from the list when you create your post. Before you add a post, look through the list of topics in the course discussions so that you can decide which topic is the most appropriate for your post.

Deciding on the type of your post #

Decide whether you want to ask a question or start a discussion. 

• Question posts raise an issue so that course team members, TAs, or other learners can provide answers.
• Discussion posts start a conversation by sharing thoughts and reflections, and invite community participation.

Think about whether you want to get concrete information (a question) or start an open-ended conversation (a discussion). If you are asking a question about the course and need an answer from the course team, be sure to create your post as a question, so that the course team sees that a response is required and responds appropriately.

In the discussion navigation pane, the post type is indicated by an icon, so you can easily find question or discussion posts. A question mark icon identifies question posts, and a conversation bubble icon identifies discussion posts.

For course-wide discussion topics, you can add a post on the Discussion page. For content-specific discussions in a course unit, you can add a post either on the Discussion page or directly in the course unit.

Add a post on the discussion page #

You can add a post for course-wide or content-specific discussion topics on the Discussion page.

1. On the Discussion page, select Add a Post. If the Add a Post button is not available, check if the course is archived.
2. Determine the type of post you want to make, and select Question or Discussion.
3. Determine the most appropriate topic for adding your post to, and select the topic from the Topic Area list.
4. In the Title box, enter a short, descriptive title. The title is the part of your post that others see when they are browsing on the Discussion page or scrolling through one of the content-specific topics.
5. Enter the text of your post. To format the text or to add links or images, use the formatting options above the text box.
   Any text formatting or images that you add are only visible when others read your post in a web browser. The edX mobile app currently does not display added formatting or images.

Add a post in a course unit #

If you come to a discussion as you work through the units in your course, or if you know where in the course a particular discussion originates, you can add a post for that discussion from the unit in your course.

The following steps apply only to content-specific discussions.

1. From within your course, open the unit that includes the discussion topic that you want to add a post to, and then scroll to the discussion.
   The title and the first line of each post is shown in the list of posts.
   To read an entire post and view its responses and comments, select any part of the post preview.
2. To contribute a new post to the discussion, select Add a Post and follow the same steps that you use to add a post to the discussion page.
   To respond to an existing post or comment on an existing response, follow the steps described in Adding responses or comments in a discussion.

Note: If you include an image with your post, include a description so that learners who use screen readers to access the course can understand the image’s content and purpose. The description also displays in place of the image if problems occur with the image file. If the image has no functional purpose, leave the Description field empty and select This image is for decorative purposes only and does not require a description. The maximum size for an uploaded file is 1 MB.

Note: In some courses, you can add posts, responses, and comments anonymously. If this is the case, a Post Anonymously option is available under the field where you enter your text. When you post anonymously, the discussion moderation team can see your username, but other learners cannot.

Note: In some cases you might want to enter mathematical or scientific expressions in a discussion post. For information about how to enter plain text so that it appears as a formatted mathematical expression, sign in to edx.org and refer to Adding Math Expressions to Course Discussion Posts in the DemoX course wiki.