We would like to get a feel of how everybody else thinks about where the "create forum" button is for course-wide discussion forums...
For course-wide blogs, wikis & journals, their respective "Create" buttons are always within their respective links inside the Control Panel -> Course Tools area.
But for the Discussion Board, the "Create Forum" is instead only in the "Discussions" course menu item or through the "Tools -> Discussion Board" still via the course menu.
Not having the "Create Forum" within the Course Tools area seems to be a bit inconsistent on how the other tools are "Created" and does not fit on what the text even says under the "Course Tools -> Discussion Board" page:
This page lists every discussion board, including those that are specific to groups. Click a Discussion Board to access the forums.
(oddly, contrary to what the above text says, only group-based discussion boards are listed in this page, with the course-wide discussions rather accessed only via the course-menu "Discussions" link)
BEENET,
The discussion board is a tool that's been part of Blackboard for a very long time, while the blogs, journals, and wikis are fairly new, so the design is a little different between the two. However, in my Blackboard version (9.1 SP7), when I go to Control Panel > Course Tools > Discussion Board, I see a list of all the discussion boards in the course, with the main course discussion board at the top (identified by the course ID) and the group discussion boards below that. Clicking on any of the discussion board names takes me to the forum list for that discussion board, with the button the create a forum at the top.
With blogs, journals, and wikis, the arrangement is a little different because the organization of those things is a little different. For instance, there is nothing equivalent to a "forum" within a course-wide blog, but a course can have multiple course-wide blogs in addition to group blogs.
Does that make sense?
Mike
Thanks Mike for the quick reply.
Yes, it now makes sense, specially now realizing that the first entry under Course Tools -> Discussion Board is indeed the main discussion board (seemed to have mistaken it as one of the group-based discussion boards at first glance... I guess seeing the course ID, which in our case is similar ho how groups are named, threw us off... thanks for pointing that out!)