Anonymous students

blackboard > faqs > anonymous students

How do I block anonymous participation in the discussion board?

All communication postings are tracked by user ID unless the instructor has allowed anonymous posts in a discussion board forum. Preventing anonymous posts and reminding your students that the sessions are archived, greatly decreases the likelihood of harassment. As can be expected in a campus environment, the likelihood is never reduced to zero, but it is safe to predict that participants in a chat or discussion are less apt to harass others if they know they are not anonymous.

To block anonymous participation in discussion board sessions,

When setting up a new Forum:
- Select Communication.
- Select Discussion Board.
- Select Add Forum. As you are setting up your forum, you will see an option to allow anonymous posts. Be sure that this option is unchecked when you create your Forum.
To change an existing discussion board:
- Select Communication, and then Discussion Board.
- Find the link for the discussion board you want to change, and click on the Modify button that appears to the right of the link.
- One of the options you can modify will be to allow anonymous posts. Be sure that this option is not checked.

Even if some of your students have restricted their information and you know them only as "DOE37,J" or something similar, incidents of abuse reported to the abuse@utexas.edu address can be handled through appropriate channels and the student can be identified for disciplinary action.

Please contact the ITS Help Desk by calling 475 - 9400 or by submitting a help request at http://www.utexas.edu/its/help/blackboard/.