Discussion forums

Course-related discussion forums

For topics related to the teaching of a specific course. The teacher decides whether it is mandatory to keep track of the forum.

General discussion forums (faculty-wide and university-wide)

For general school-related topics. It is not obligatory to read them.

Note

The discussion forums are for discussion. Do not post e.g. challenges, invitations or advertisements in them; that is what the Noticeboard is for.

Topic-based discussion forums

Topic-based discussion forums are set up by users who have a serious long-term discussion intention. It is not obligatory to read them.

Off-topic discussion forums

Relaxation discussion forums may include topics unrelated to the operation of the school, as long as the content or manner of discussion does not bring PCU into disrepute.

A course-related discussion forum is automatically created for each course taught in a particular semester. Only teachers of the course and students enrolled in the course can contribute to the forum. Students can use the forum without the teacher's involvement. The settings of the course-related discussion forum cannot be changed.

You can access the course-related discussion forum via:

If the post is related to the course, post it in the course-related discussion forum. It is not desirable to overwhelm other discussion forums. Such posts will be deleted elsewhere by the system administrators.

The teacher may set up topic-based course-related discussion forums within the course.

In the section "Start a thematic discussion forum under the selected course(s)", click on the link with the name of the course and enter the form, where you fill in the data necessary to create a discussion forum and its settings. The teacher usually explains the purpose and rules for using the discussion forum in the header. The teacher can restrict the ways of contributing to the discussion forum in various ways. Topic-based course-related discussion forums are used for e-learning, i.e. it may be mandatory to post certain posts in the discussion forum in a timely manner or to rate others' posts, etc. – all according to the teacher's instructions.

If the teacher does not force this forum to be tracked by students (see question Teacher: What is the purpose of the "Force forum to be tracked by students" option?), students can find it in the application:

Discussion forums are listed under a given course, similar to a general course-related discussion forum.

Off-topic discussion is used for relaxation purposes. Start a thread in off-topic discussion forum if you want to chat, basically it doesn't matter who you chat with. Start a thread in the general discussion forums if you want to solve a specific problem, are interested in a serious debate on an issue related to the operation of school, want to have a discussion on a topic, etc.

For topic-based discussion forums, access rights can be used to define who can read the forum, who can post, and who the moderators are. A topic forum is therefore also suitable for cases where you need a closed discussion (e.g. people working together on a project, employees of a certain workplace, etc.).

The topic-based discussion forum can also be made available to anyone from the Internet (for reading and contributing). You can create your own discussion forum using

Fill in and select the forum parameters (name, rating, reading and posting restrictions, moderators, rights). Click "Save" to create the forum.

It is the duty of the discussion forum moderator to prevent any potential damage to the reputation of the schooly by the content or manner of communication in the discussion forum.

You can just save the discussions you want to return to in the Favourites. You can find all your favourite discussions in

In the "Discussion forum of courses (and their seminar groups) taught this term" section, click on the name of the course-related discussion forum. Next to the list of threads, under the tooltip icon, you can find a menu and the option "Force students to follow the group", which will add the discussion forum to students' followed discussion forums. This will make it easier for them to access this course-related discussion forum.

More detailed settings for sending an email (whether it will be brief, complete or at what interval) can be selected in the Events application:

An overview of the posts marked with an asterisk can be found on each page of IS PCU in the upper right corner under the asterisk icon. When a post expires in the discussion forum, the asterisk will be deleted and the post will no longer be available in the overview of marked posts.

Discussion forums are divided into threadhs. The person who starts a thread is the owner. of the thread. The owner clearly defines the topic of discussion in the thread title. In Discussion Forums you are obliged to stick to the topic (so called being on-topic). It is forbidden to make posts with little informational value (called chatting).

The thread owner may delete posts, that violate the rules described here. The thread owner is the authority who decides what level of discussion they want to have in the thread. Do not contact the system administrator to protest the deletion of a post; if you feel restricted, start a competing thread. What discussion is "proper" is highly subjective.

The thread owner function is exercised outside the course-related discussion forums. On a course-related discussion forum, only the course teacher may delete an entire thread or sub-thread.

VDiscussion thread branches automatically disappear after one month without new posts (does not apply to course-related discussion forums). A post cannot be deleted by the author if it has already been responded to (but can be edited). Posts may be deleted by the thread founder. Authors are automatically notified by email when posts are deleted.

Use the course-related discussion forums for posts on specific courses of study. It is not the responsibility of students, faculty, or school officials to read or respond to posts here.

Rules for using the Discussion Forums

form and content of the post

Do not violate the laws of the Czech Republic, including the Copyright Act (Act No. 121/2000 Coll., on Copyright, on Rights Related to Copyright and on Amendments to Certain Acts, as amended; hereinafter referred to as the "Copyright Act"). Contribute primarily in Czech (Slovak). Write in English only if there is a reason (e.g. you are inserting a copy of the English text). If you post in another language for a compelling reason, include a brief translation into Czech (exception – conversational foreign language threads in course-related discussion forums).

Do not post challenges, invitations or advertisements in the discussion forum, that is what the Noticeboard is for.

Do not use CAPITAL LETTERS, it gives the impression that you are shouting. Don't be vulgar.

concise title/subject of the post

It is very important to give a concise title, so that it describes what the post is about and others can better navigate. Do not use headings like "Help", "Question", "Problem", "Advise".

copying posts

Do not copy posts from another thread, system or private mail unless you are sure the author agrees. It is appropriate to explain the context of the original post.

repeating a post in multiple threads – crossposting

Don't post in multiple threads at the same time, save others time.

posts with little informational value

Formulating a simple agreement, disagreement, amusement, etc. with a post containing a mere abbreviation (e.g. comma, hash, LOL, smiley face) is prohibited. Express this via a positive or negative rating of the post.

chat posts and threads, chatting

For chat posts and threads, there are off-topic discussion forums. Please respect the readers who don't have time to read the chat threads.

discussion topic – on topic/off topic, fair use

Stay on topic. Don't bother others. If you are reprimanded, comply. Do not address any disputes with the thread owner directly in the thread.

Don't post an unrelated comment, or various P.S. If someone responds to an unrelated comment, they will start an off topic subthread.

thread moderation

Try to keep the level of discussion as high as possible. Do not limit the plurality of opinions. Penalize (by reprimanding and deleting posts) diversions from the topic. Penalize violations of the rules. Answer questions from contributors when you can. Even a chat thread can be monothematic – use examples to inform contributors of the level of off-topic and information ballast that is acceptable to you. The thread is your calling card, take care of it so people like to visit it.

The moderator of the discussion forum has the duty to prevent any possible damage to the reputation of the school by the content or manner of communication in the forum.

rights of system administrators

The administrators of the system reserve the right to make any interventions and changes aimed at better fulfilling the mission of the Information System - ensuring quality communication on university. The administrators will delete posts (including any responses to them) that do not comply with the rules. Administrators may prohibit those who repeatedly violate the rules from posting to the Discussion Forums and Off-topic Discussion Forums.

If you have a thread with more than one post displayed on the page, the area to the left of the post is used to remind you of the parent posts to help you navigate the discussion more clearly.

The post can be edited using the tooltip icon. Select "Edit the post" in the menu displayed and confirm the edit by clicking "Save". You can cancel a post as long as there are no responses to it. To cancel a post, select "Delete post". The owner of a thread in a non-course discussion forum can cancel (entire sub-threads) at any time, in a course-related discussion forum only the teacher can do this.

It's only appropriate to edit the meaning of a post in a more fundamental way shortly after it has been posted, otherwise you confuse readers who have already read it (it is marked as read for them). Later on, you should rather make a new post.

If you want to cancel an entire discussion forum, you can only do so for the Topic-based Discussion Forum. To cancel a discussion forum, click on the tooltip icon at the top of the row next to the discussion forum name and select "Discussion settings", then at the bottom of the form there is an option to "delete this forum". To avoid confusing readers, it is not advisable to delete a forum if they have already contributed to it. Only the discussion forum owner has the right to cancel the discussion forum.

Click on the tooltip icon next to the post and select "Mark as unread" in the menu that will pop up. What is this operation for? For example, if you want to respond to a post later and you don't want to search for it among the unread ones.

To insert an image, drag and drop it into the text box when creating a post or use the HTML editor when creating a post.

You can insert mathematical formulas using the HTML editor with the "Insert mathematical formulas" function. They are entered in TeX typesetting system.

When setting up a topic-based discussion forum

just check the option "list on the discussion forums main page" in the settings. The discussion forum will appear among new discussion forums in the Topic-based section if it is set to anyone logged in to IS or anyone from the internet has read access.

Start a thread, make the first post. After saving it, you have the option "Pin thread to top" after clicking the tooltip icon – all threads marked as such will be displayed first in the discussion forum. This option is only available to the moderator (i.e. the teacher in course-related discussion forums). The option can also be enabled later, again for the first post of a thread.

To prevent posting and editing, threads in topic-based and course-related discussion forums can be locked. Locking/unlocking can be done by the thread founder or discussion forum moderator (or teacher in the case of a course-related discussion forum) at the top level of the thread by clicking on the "Lock the thread" option in the tooltip menu. Only threads that have at least one response can be locked. Locked threads can still be read by users.

The discussion forum can be used for students to submit assignments, such as short comments on a topic. The teacher has the opportunity to score these posts and count them towards the student's overall grade.

Setting up a topic-based discussion forum for submitting assignments:

• Enable scoring. A field will then appear next to the posts for entering the number of points. This will be saved in a notebook with the same name as the discussion forum name. In addition to the course teachers, discussion forum moderators can also score posts.
• If you don't want students to be influenced by their classmates' contributions at the beginning of the discussion, choose the option "posts can only be read by those who have made at least one contribution to the discussion".
• If it's just a collection of short statements and not for further discussion, choose "everyone can only make one post".
• If students are asked to write a text of a certain length, select the option "display the number of characters and words for posts".

Create a new topic-based discussion forum in the course, and put the topic of discussion and evaluation conditions in the header.

Setting up a topic-based discussion forum for scored student discussion:

• Enable scoring. A field will then appear next to the posts for entering the number of points. This will be saved in a notebook with the same name as the discussion forum name. In addition to the course teachers, discussion forum moderators can also score posts.
• Leave the disable mutual rating by participants option unchecked. You can further use student ratings of posts, for example to add bonus points to posts with the highest ratings.

Students have a course discussion forum in each course. If a discussion is sparked here (e.g. on homework) or encouraged and sparked by the teacher or lecturer in the course, it is possible to set up the possibility to score students' posts in this discussion. The points and any verbal comments are saved in the students' notebook.

In the course discussion forum

at the top of the list of all threads under the tooltip icon, select the discussion settings option:

The scoring option settings will appear and you can enable the scoring. A text field will then be displayed below each post for all course teachers to evaluate. This will be saved in a notebook with the same name as the discussion forum name. Students will not see this notebook and the evaluation. If you want to make this feedback available to them, select "students can view the notebook".

In the course discussion forum of a course you are enrolled in, you can switch the semesters in which the course was taught and access discussions from earlier periods.

Posts expire (disappear). In the Discussion Forums, posts that have not been responded to for one month disappear. In the Off-topic Discussion, posts that have not been responded to for two weeks are disappearing. The discussion forums archive can be searched using the search box on the front page of the discussion forums.