For some of these tips you will have to use the Discussion Board Options buttons.

If you do not see these, make sure you are in a forum, then click on the Show Options button.

Tip 1: "Collect" the postings for readability and easier printing. To do this, select the posts you want to read (or use the Select All button to choose all the posts). Then click on the Collect button.

Tip 2: Usually Blackboard groups posts by thread, and then lists posts within a thread by date. However, you can sort the posts by Author (if you want to see how much a participant has posted), by Date or by Subject. You can find the Sort By menu at the bottom of the Forum window below all the threads.

Tip 3: If you want to have an overview of the threads in a forum, click on the Collapse All button at the top-right side of the Forum. Only the first posting of each thread will be visible on the screen. Click the little plus sign to the left of a thread to expand it, or expand all the threads by clicking on Expand All.

Tip 4: If you want to view only new messages that you haven't read, click on View Unread Messages at the top-left side of the Forum. To go back to viewing both read and unread messages, click on the same button, which will read View All Messages.