1. Class Discussion Student Lounge Anonymous Discussion Team Discussion Team/Teacher Discussion

2. This tour of Manhattan’s Discussion Modules assumes you’ve already taken the Handouts/Notices and Post Office tours. You’ll find that although there are lots of different ‘modules’ within Manhattan, they have much in common. Once you know how to send a Post Office message, for example, you know how to send a message in any of Manhattan’s modules. We won’t go into great detail about features that have already been covered in those presentations.

3. Let’s take a moment to learn some of the basics of Manhattan. A Manhattan classroom consists of up to 13 separate areas called ‘modules’. Each module provides a different way of communicating.

4. You’ve already learned about the Lectures, Handouts/Notices, and Self-tests modules. These modules provide a place for your teacher to put messages and files for you to read. As a student, you cannot post messages in these areas.

5. You should also have taken a tour of the Post Office. The Post Office is intended for private messages addressed to one or more people within your classroom. Manhattan’s Post Office does not provide for incoming or outgoing email to other systems. It is a private system.

6. An important aspect of the online classroom is the ability to freely exchange messages and ideas in an open forum. Within Manhattan, these five modules provide that ability, each with a slightly different focus.

7. Later, we’ll briefly describe the other four Discussion modules. We’ll concentrate on the Class Discussion module.

8. Keep in mind that a Manhattan classroom might not have all 13 modules available. Your teacher may choose to not use the Anonymous Discussion, Team Discussions, or Student Lounge, for example.

9. The Class Discussion is an example of a discussion forum. Anyone, student or teacher, can post a message here that is seen by everyone in the class. As always, a red star on a module’s button means there is one or more unread messages posted.

10. Click!

11. Class Discussion messages are organized into topics. This discussion currently has five topics.

12. There are two types of messages in Manhattan’s discussion groups...

13. …there are topics...

14. …and there are messages that people have added to the original topics, “replies”.

15. You’ll get a standard screen for composing a new message. Use this “New Topic” button only when you want to start a new topic for discussion.

16. Avoid using the “New Topic” button when you just want to reply to an existing topic. To reply to an existing topic, start by reading a message in the topic. Click!

17. Here’s the topic we’re reading. Either of these commands will add a message to the topic providing you with a standard composition window. You will learn the difference between these two options shortly. For now let’s return to the topics listing. Click

18. The numbers in this column refer to the number of replies posted to each topic, with one (1) being the original topic posted. This topic has four replies plus the original posting for a total of five (5) messages. Continuing with Manhattan basics…

19. The red star next to the ‘5’ indicates that you have not read at least one of the four replies to this message.

20. If you click on the + sign next to a topic, the topic is ‘expanded’ to show all of the messages/replies associated with that topic. Click!

21. After ‘expanding’ the topic, we can see the subjects of all four replies to the topic.

22. Note that the ‘+’ is now a ‘-’ symbol. Clicking on a ‘-’ symbol ‘collapses’ the topic again. Click!

23. All topics are collapsed. Let’s expand all the topics!

24. Click!

26. These topics don’t have ‘+ ‘or ‘-’ symbols because they each have only one message... the original topic. All the topics are expanded once again.

27. You can use these buttons to quickly ‘expand’ or ‘collapse’ all of the topics at once.

28. Click!

29. All topics are collapsed.

30. All topics are expanded once again.

31. The “Gather” command works as it does elsewhere in Manhattan. Notice that ‘unread’ is the default choice in the ‘Gather’ list.

32. In order to ‘gather’ all of your unread messages…. You can tell from the red stars that most of these messages are unread. Click!

33. All of the ‘unread’ messages are displayed on one page. Use your web browser’s scrollbar to move around.

34. Click to Return! In a ‘gathered’ view different topics are separated by an alternate colored background. This makes is it easier to distinguish different topic headings. This view provides much of the same functionality as the default module view. You can read and reply to any of the gathered messages.

35. Notice that the red stars are gone! We just opened all of the unread messages! By ‘gathering’ messages, even if you may not have read them, all are essentially marked as opened.

36. You also can use the ‘gather’ feature to view all of the messages posted by any one person on the same page. Click on the drop-down arrow.

37. Select the name from the drop-down list to gather messages from that person. Then click the Gather button.

38. The green ‘G’ is also for ‘Gather’...but not by the person who posted. Click on the ‘G’ to gather messages for a specific ‘Topic’. Click!

39. Now we’ve gathered all of the messages for this one topic. Click to return.

40. Remember, by ‘gathering’ messages, all red stars are removed, meaning messages are marked as having been opened, whether you actually read them or not.

41. Click! Let’s take a look at how to respond to a topic. First, open the topic which you wish to respond. Let’s start with the first topic.

42. You have two choices when responding to a message. “Add New Message” and “Reply”

43. Let’s try them both to see how they differ... We’ll look at “Add New Message” first. Click!

44. Using “Add New Message” brings up a blank message form.

45. The technique for composing a discussion message is the same as that for a Post Office message. The Subject (required) The Message (optional) Attachments (optional)

46. Unlike in the Post Office, there is no list of names to which you can send messages. That’s because Class Discussion messages are sent to everyone in your class automatically. ?

47. Let’s go back without sending a message. Click!

48. Now let’s see how the Reply button is different... Click!

49. When you click “Reply”, the original ‘Subject’ field and the original Message are included in your reply. You’re free to delete anything (or everything) as you compose your message.

50. Click! Let’s not bother sending a message right now.

51. Click!

52. Let’s add a new message to this topic.

53. Start by reading the topic... Click!

54. Now that we’re in the correct topic, we can add a new message. Click!

55. Type the message and send it. Click!

56. The message is sent, and we’re back to the message we were reading. Click!

57. There’s our new message, added to the end of the topic!

58. Now let’s start a completely new topic. Click!

59. Type it, and send it! Click! Remember, the subject field must not be blank.

60. There’s our new topic! Let’s take a few minutes to learn about some other icons that are used in the Manhattan Virtual Classroom.

61. Throughout Manhattan, Red Stars are used to mark messages you haven’t yet read. Paperclips mark messages that have one or more files attached. Clicking on a question mark gives more information about the message. If you are the author of the message, you can click here to find when others have read your message.

62. A Red Star in this column signifies that the posting is a new or unread Topic. A Red Star in this column signifies that there are unread replies to the Topic posting. As you can see from the Red Stars this topic has been read but some of the ‘replies’ to the topic have not been read. Click “+” to expand the topic.

63. Here is the particular reply that is new or unread within this topic. Click the reply to read it.

64. Once you have read the message, click the return button.

65. Notice that the red stars are gone from this posting – both from the Topic and the Replies. This little guy has changed too! What are these things?

66. These little faces can mean different things, depending on their appearance. They work in conjunction with Red Stars (new or unread messages) and “sleepy topics”. The concept of “sleepy topics” allows you to hide topics that contain no unread replies. This feature is especially useful in a busy Discussion module where your window can easily become congested with many postings.

67. This expression shows that the Topic is awake and there are no unread messages. This expression shows that the message is wide awake and that they are either an unread Topic or contain unread replies.

68. Let’s click these two little faces.

69. As you can see the expression has changed. The Topics are now “sleepy”! Try to click on the wide awake faces. Nothing happens! You cannot make an active Topic go to sleep. All replies must be read before bedtime!

70. Now we can choose to hide our “sleepy” Topics. Click here to hide them.

71. Notice the new message. It’s a reminder that you have “sleepy” topics that are not listed. They are hidden. As you can see the topics are no longer visible. Click here to unhide it.

72. The topics are once again visible although they are still asleep. You can wake them up again by clicking the sleeping icons. But you cannot hide them when they are awake. Let’s hide them again to learn what happens when someone replies to a sleeping, hidden, Topic. Click Here

73. The “sleepy” Topics are once again hidden. Let’s exit the module and wait for a new message. Click Here

74. There is a new message as indicated by the Red Star! Wow! That was fast!

75. Click Here This Topic is wide awake again! Sleeping, hidden Topics will wake up automatically when someone replies to them. Let’s exit to the Main Menu.

76. One final note about “sleepy” and “hidden” Topics: Nearly all modules within Manhattan support the Sleepy Topics functionality. But don’t be alarmed if you do not see the feature within your classrooms. Your instructor has the ability to disable this function in any of the Manhattan modules that support it. Now we’ll go on to the other discussion modules within Manhattan.

77. The Student Lounge is exactly the same as the Class Discussion. Some online teachers will make this area available to give students a place to talk about things not related to the class. It’s a place for distance learning students to socialize.

78. The Anonymous Discussion module is similar to the Class Discussion. The difference is that it is impossible for anyone, including your teacher, to tell who in the class posted the messages. An online teacher may make this available to encourage students to speak freely about the course, or about a particular subject.

79. Your teacher might divide the class into teams. Each team might be expected to work together to complete a common project. The Team Discussion behaves just like the Class Discussion. The difference is that the messages are seen only by members of your team. It’s a place for you and your teammates to collaborate privately.

80. The teacher normally is not a member of any team, and generally will not participate in the Team Discussion module. However, in the Team/Teacher module the teacher is a member of each team, and can monitor and contribute to your team’s discussions.

81. Remember... A message can either be a Topic, or a contribution to a Topic. Your class probably will NOT use all of Manhattan’s discussion modules. Sending a discussion message is just like sending a Post Office message, except there’s no need to select the recipients.

82. End of Module Presentation Educational Technology Center@ Western New England College