Thought Industries provides numerous interactive and collaborative means for learners to not only be engaged on your site and retain information but perhaps incentivize learners to want to stay on your site. The Communities widget is a feature where you make all of this happen!
Use Case Information
The Communities Widget can be added to custom Pages & Layouts allowing logged in learners the ability to collaborate in discussion format outside of a course. You can even stack multiple Communities widgets on a single page to encourage multiple topics of discussions.
When configured Learners can:
- Start discussions
- Reply to discussions
- Like each other other's comments
- Bookmark threads
- Upload files
- Upload/Record videos
When configured Admins can:
- View & Moderate discussions
- Participate in discussions
- Delete comments
- Set the number of threads to display
- Control which pages to put include the widget
- Design the widget cleverly using HTML and/or CSS
How to Configure the Communities Widget
Please follow the below steps if you wish to include this widget on a specific page:
- From your homepage, select Site > Site Builder.
- In the left menu, select Layouts.
- Choose the page you wish to host the widget. Below is a list of pages that offer the widget:
- Homepage Layout
- Support Page
- Registration Layout
- Redemption Layout
- Dashboard Layout
- Catalog Layout
- Custom Page
- Select the Communities widget from the left sidebar of the page layout.
- Title the widget.
- Decide if the title should be center and left aligned with the Use New Title Display checkbox.
- Optionally, add a Subtitle.
- Allow Learners to create discussions?
- Enabling this setting displays a “Start Discussion” button to learners giving the option to start their own discussion threads. The setting is defaulted to disabled, which keeps discussion threads to strict topics created by admins.
- Enable 'liking' of discussion comments?
- When enabled, learners can 'like' a comment made by another learner by clicking a thumbs up icon next to the comment. Learners cannot like their own comments. Learners can only 'like' comments to thread topics. The initial thread topic is not considered a comment.
- Number of items to display:
- This numerical field is used to configure how many threads are displayed in the widget at a time. The default number is 20, and if left empty by a user, 20 threads will still display. The max number is 50, and any widgets with greater than 50 threads will have a pagination at the bottom of the widget allowing learners to navigate to the next page of discussions.
- Display Type:
- Discussions can be displayed to learners in a tile view, or a thread view.
- Create New Discussion Topic.
- By clicking ‘Add Item’ discussion topics can be added to the widget. A discussion thread title and comment are required to create the thread. A file can also be attached to the thread to allow learners to view or download.
- Click Save.
- Position the widget, using the left/right arrows, to the position on the page you would like it to appear.
Including Communities within Panoramas
01
Enabling Discussion In Your Panorama Portal
The Communities widget can absolutely be included in your Panorama portals for learner engagement and interaction. The widget can be included on the following pages within the portals:
- Panorama Learner Dashboard
- Panorama Landing Page
Below are the steps to follow if you are interested in incorporating this widget in you Panorama use case:
- From your homepage, select Panorama, and then click on the Panorama title to edit.
- In the left menu, select Settings > Primary.
- It is here where you will determine if the conversations, within the widget, should be segmented to only show discussion threads of learners assigned to the respective Panorama or if you will allow discussions between global learners of your site and the learners of the respective Panorama.
- Toggle Enable Discussions to 'Yes'.
- Once enabled, you will be provided with the setting to segment discussions or not.
- Toggle Enable Discussion Segmentation for Communities to 'Yes' if you prefer to segment the conversations to just the Panorama learners within the respective Panorama.
- If left off, it will be permissible to participate in discussions with your global learners.
- If left off, it will be permissible to participate in discussions with your global learners.
02
How to Configure Communities in Your Panorama
Now that you have decided whether or not conversations need to be segmented in the widget, let's understand how to build the widget.
- From the Panorama dashboard, select Site.
- Then choose the Learner Dashboard Layout and/or Landing Page in order to design the layouts and include the widget.
- Select Communities from the left menu of widget options.
- Title the widget.
- Decide if the title should be center and left aligned with the Use New Title Display checkbox.
- Optionally, add a subtitle.
- Allow Learners to create discussions?
- Enabling this setting displays a “Start Discussion” button to learners giving the option to start their own discussion threads. The setting is defaulted to disabled, which keeps discussion threads to strict topics created by admins.
- Enable 'liking' of discussion comments?
- When enabled, learners can 'like' a comment made by another learner by clicking a thumbs up icon next to the comment. Learners cannot like their own comments. Learners can only 'like' comments to thread topics. The initial thread topic is not considered a comment.
- Number of items to display:
- This numerical field is used to configure how many threads are displayed in the widget at a time. The default number is 20, and if left empty by a user, 20 threads will still display. The max number is 50, and any widgets with greater than 50 threads will have a pagination at the bottom of the widget allowing learners to navigate to the next page of discussions.
- Display Type:
- Discussions can be displayed to learners in a tile view, or a thread view.
- Create New Discussion Topic.
- By clicking ‘Add Item’ discussion topics can be added to the widget. A discussion thread title and comment are required to create the thread. A file can also be attached to the thread to allow learners to view or download.
- Click Save.
- Position the widget, using the left/right arrows, to the position on the page you would like it to appear.
Learner Experience
So now you have placed the Communities widget on the page (s) you desire, now let's step into our learner's shoes and understand the anatomy of the widget from a learner perspective.
Below is a list of the widget's components:
- Search Bar - Learners can search for key terms found in the discussion threads, comments, and replies.
- Start a New Discussion - If the setting "Allow learners to create discussions?" is enabled, learners can start their own threads by clicking the Start a New Discussion button.
- Bookmarking - Learners can bookmark discussion threads by clicking the bookmark icon found in the top right corner of threads. When a thread is bookmarked, the thread will display at the beginning of the discussion thread list. If there are multiple discussions bookmarked, the threads will display in order of newest to oldest creation date.
- Join - Learners join discussion threads to read more comments and to join in the discussion.
-
Liking Comments - Learners can 'like' other learner comments by clicking the thumbs up icon if the functionality is enabled. The icon will highlight in the instance's secondary color and a like count will display. Learners can only like other learner comments.
Notes, Tips, & Considerations
Here are some more details to keep in mind when using the widget:
- Reports for discussions within the Communities widget are not available at this time.
- Logged out learners who land on a page with the widget will be prompted to log in when clicking "Start new Discussion" or "reply" within a discussion.
- Attachments are permissible up to 20mb.
- Older comments are hidden if you have limits on how many to display but they do not disappear. Rather, increase the number to display to have them included within the widget.
- Discussion rules can be set at the Courses > Settings > Organization & Display area of your platform.
- Total number of discussions will be visible to the learner at the bottom of the widget.