Course Web Site Development: Additional Website Components: Online Discussion Tools: Asynchronous: Threaded Discussion Boards (Intrasun and Facweb)

The discussion boards demonstrated on this page may only be created if you have an Intrasun or Facweb account.  If you are using a campus standard UNIX account, click here for directions on how to set up a discussion board specifically designed for you.

Threaded discussion boards are a fantastic way to facilitate online discussions.  With this technology, you and your students have the ability to communicate with one another online without having to coordinate your schedules.  Plus, your e-mail Inbox will not become inundated by the voluminous amounts of mail that can sometime be generated through the use of an e-mail discussion list.

Listed below are a few examples of how Threaded Discussion Lists are being used here at TCNJ.  Click on any one of them to view your desired list.

List	Description
FrontPage 2000 Test Discussion Board	This is a test board that was set up to give you an idea of what can be done using the FrontPage 2000 discussion web wizard.  The board was set up in less than 2 minutes (it was timed!).

To request to have Instructional Technology Services create a board for you, click here.

Since you will be developing your web site using either the Intrasun or Facweb systems, then you may use the internal "Discussion Web Wizard" feature of FrontPage 2000.  To successfully create a discussion board using your Intrasun or Facweb account, follow these steps.

1. Open up FrontPage
2. Click on the File menu, and choose New -> Web.  The following window will appear.
   
   
   
   
3. Click once to highlight the Discussion Web Wizard icon.  Check the box labeled Add to current Web.  Then uncheck the box.  In the text box labeled Specify the location of the new web, append a unique one word name to describe your discussion board.  In this case, the word "disc1" is being used.  Click the OK button when you have finished.  The following window will appear.
   
   
   
   
4. Click the Next button.  The following window will appear.
   
   
   
   
5. It is customary to include all of the components listed on this page.  If you wish to omit one or more of them, uncheck those boxes, and click the Next button when you're done.  The following window will appear.
   
   
   
   
6. Give your board a name.  In this case, we'll be naming it "Test Board".  Click the Next button when you're done.  The following window will appear.
   
   
   
   
7. Subject and Comments are usually enough in the way of input fields.  If you wish to capture information such as "Category" and "Product", feel free to check them off.  Click the Next button when you're finished.  The following window will appear.
   
   
   
   
8. At this point you may designate your discussion board to be a "open" or "closed".  The main advantage of having a closed discussion list is to limit access to a small group of people.  Unfortunately, you must create a separate account for each person using your discussion web (see Secure Websites for more information).  This process can be very time consuming if you have more than a handful of users.  It is recommended that you create your discussion board such that anyone is allowed to post.  If you wish to limit access to your board, simply create one "generic" login that will permit all of your students to users the system.  Click the Next button when you're finished.  The following window will appear.
   
   
   
   
9. Choose how you would like messages ordered on your message board.  When you have finished, click the Next button.  The following window will appear.
   
   
   
   
10. The table of contents should be the first page that your users see when they enter your message board.  Click the Next button.  The following window will appear.
    
    
    
    
11. This option allows you to define the information that gets returned when you search for a particular item.  Subject, Size & Date are standard, so click the Next button to continue.  The following window will appear.
    
    
    
    
12. If you wish to use a pre-made FrontPage 2000 theme, click the Choose Web Theme button.  Otherwise, click the Next button.  The following window will appear.
    
    
    
13. Choose the type of interface you wish to use on your board.  The standard interface is Content beside current article.  Click the Next button.  The following window will appear.
    
    
    
    
14. You're done!  Click the Finish button!  You may link your discussion to your web page through the address you specified in Step #2.  Good luck!