Participating in discussions Task list Taking class discussions outside the classroom Class discussions don't have to stop when the bell rings. The Discussions area of FirstClass ED lets you communicate with classmates on class topics in your own time. Here are some scenarios where you may use the Discussions area: •     The teacher poses a question about the lesson for discussion. •     You don't understand something in the lesson, so you post a question about it to your classmates. •     You found a great web site related to a class topic that you want to share. This example shows multiple Discussion areas where a number of conversations are occurring. Each conversation within a discussion area is kept separate by threading. Learn more about threading. A chat room can be a learning tool A chat room is an ideal forum for you to ask questions of the teacher and get extra help. Your teacher may set "chat hours" so you can go online at that time and ask questions. Further, your teacher may use the class chat room to host simulations and role-playing events, or present transcript-based assignments. If the teacher uses a chat room, you can access it in the Discussions area. How to Starting a discussion Replying to a discussion Starting a discussion To start a new discussion: 1 Open the Discussions area or the relevant area within the Discussions area. 2 Click New Message. 3 Populate the message and click Send. Replying to a discussion To reply to a discussion in progress: 1 Highlight the message you want to reply to. 2 Click Reply. 3 Add content and click Send. You can also use standard messaging features like Reply with quotes. For more information about quoting original messages in replies, click here.