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Discussion Board

Pawtograder’s discussion board feature allows students and staff to discuss course content and ask questions. It is not intended to be a replacement for office hours, although there is an option to format the post as a question that needs an answer (as opposed to a “note” that does not need an answer).
Discussion board showing My Feed with posts, Pinned Posts sidebar, and active help request widget

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Key Features

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Feed and Topic Organization

The discussion board uses a feed-based layout with two main views:
  • My Feed: Shows all posts relevant to you, including posts from topics you follow
  • Browse Topics: Allows you to explore posts organized by topic categories
Posts can be filtered by “Followed topics” to show only content from categories you’re interested in.

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Pinned Posts

Instructors can pin important posts that appear in a dedicated “Pinned Posts” section in the sidebar. This is useful for:
  • Highlighting frequently asked questions
  • Surfacing important announcements
  • Drawing attention to helpful resources
Pinned posts remain visible and easily accessible regardless of how many new posts are created.

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Karma and Leaderboard

The discussion board includes an optional karma system to encourage positive participation. Students earn karma points through helpful contributions such as:
  • Creating posts that receive likes
  • Providing answers that are marked as helpful
  • Engaging constructively with the community
When enabled, a leaderboard appears in the sidebar showing top contributors. Instructors can toggle the leaderboard visibility to make it less prominent or disable it entirely if preferred.

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Error Pins

Error pins automatically surface relevant discussion posts to students when they encounter errors in their assignment submissions. This feature:
  • Matches submission errors to related discussion posts
  • Displays suggested posts directly on the student’s submission page
  • Reduces repetitive questions by connecting students to existing solutions
  • Highlights instructor-pinned posts that address common issues
Pin discussion posts about common errors to ensure they appear as error pins when students encounter those issues.

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Post Visibility and Identity

Posts can be shared with the entire class, or with course staff only. Each user in a class has a pseudonym, and can choose to use their real name or their pseudonym. Staff can always see the real name of a user. Students can edit their own posts, and staff can edit any post.

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Post Metadata

Each post displays:
  • Topic tag: Color-coded category (e.g., “Logistics”, “Assignments”)
  • Author email: The poster’s identity
  • Timestamp: When the post was created
  • Reply count: Number of responses, with indicators for new replies
  • Like count: Community engagement metric
  • Answered badge: Indicates whether a question has been resolved

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Active Help Request Integration

When a student has an active help request in office hours, a widget appears in the discussion board sidebar showing:
  • The current status of their help request (e.g., “in_progress”)
  • Video call notifications when staff starts a video chat
  • A “Join Video Call” button for quick access to help sessions
This integration ensures students never miss updates on their help requests, even while browsing the discussion board.

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Notifications

By default, users do not get notifications for new posts, but can optionally “watch” a post to receive notifications when the post is updated or receives a new reply. Interacting with a post (e.g. replying to it) will automatically watch the post.