Ed Discussion

Ed Discussion is an online communication and discussion platform that can easily integrate with Canvas to support classroom interaction and communication needs. Discussion board posts created in Ed Discussion can be organized into categories, made private or even allow anonymous posting. Students can post using everything from images, videos, math equations, and even code. TAs and Instructors can easily highlight or “endorse” student posts and provide helpful feedback. Students can support each other by answering classmates’ posts and questions. All discussions, posts, and questions can be filtered and are searchable so you can quickly and easily locate old threads. Finally, Ed Discussion has detailed analytics that provides instructors with essential information regarding student and TA participation. Ed also supports private and group messaging. 

What can Ed Discussion do?

  • Discussion board posts can be marked as ‘Read’ as in the Discussion tool, but can also be marked as ‘Unread’, ‘Starred’, ‘Answered’, ‘Unanswered’, and organized into categories that you define. These categorizations can then be used to filter the display of posts.
  • Private and group messaging with Ed Chat Links to an external site..
  • Allows for the insertion of run-able programming code snippets.
  • Discussions can be configured to allow anonymous posts, opening options for peer and instructor feedback.
  • Math equations and symbols may be added to posts by typing LaTex markup directly.
  • Ed supports the creation of Post Templates. Post templates allow you to define a structure for student posts, outlining for example the information you expect to be included in each post.
  • Integrated notifications allow you to send announcements to the entire class or to be notified when someone responds to one of your posts.
  • Commonly used replies may be saved within Ed and reused.

How do I get access to Ed Discussion?

Ed Discussion is most commonly accessed from within Canvas. However, it can also be accessed from outside of Canvas, by going to https://edstem.org/us/login Links to an external site. and login in with your GT credentials. 

Refer to the Ed Discussion Quick Start Links to an external site. guide for more information on using the tool. 

Guides & Resources