Info for moderators

docs/en_us/course_authors/source/cohorts/cohorts_discussions.rst

@@ -4,30 +4,48 @@
 Managing Discussions in a Course with Student Cohorts
 ##########################################################
 
-The experience that students have in the course discussions is different in
-courses that do, and do not, enable the cohort feature. Additional features are
-also available to the staff members and community TAs who moderate the course
-discussions. This section describes how students and staff can :ref:`find out
-who can read a post<Finding Out Who Can See a Post>`.
+In a course that has the cohort feature enabled, every post has an indicator of
+who can read it: either everyone, or only the members of a single cohort group.
+For students, this is the only noticeable difference between discussions in
+courses that include cohorts when compared to courses that don't. You can share
+the examples in the :ref:`Read the Cohort Indicator in Posts` section with your
+students, along with the :ref:`Discussions for Students and Staff` section of
+this guide.
 
-.. to come in a separate PR: a better introduction, info on how a moderator can post into one cohort or all cohorts, how students see posts in a course with cohorts, more
+Staff members who have the discussion admin, discussion moderator, or community
+TA role see the same indicator of who can read each post. Unlike the students,
+however, the discussion staff members can read and contribute to every post,
+regardless of the cohort group assignment of the student who posted it.
+
+.. note:: Students who have the Community TA role can read and 
+ contribute to all posts.
+
+In courses that enable the cohort feature, members of the discussion staff can
+also:
+
+* Choose who will be able to see the posts that they add to divided topics. See
+  :ref:`Choosing the Visibility of a Post`.
+
+* Filter the posts that are listed on the **Discussion** page by cohort group.
+  See :ref:`Viewing the Posts of a Cohort Group`.
+  
+All of the other options and features described in the :ref:`Discussions`
+section continue to be available to the discussion staff.
 
 .. _Finding Out Who Can See a Post:
 
 ********************************
-Finding Out Who Can Read a Post
+Identifying Who Can Read a Post
 ********************************
 
-In a course with the cohort feature enabled, all posts include a cohort
-indicator above the title. This indicator appears after a student or staff
-member adds each post. Other than choosing the cohort group names carefully
-when you add them, no configuration is necessary to include this identifier.
-You can share the information in the :ref:`Read the Cohort Indicator in Posts`
-section with your students.
+In a course that includes cohorts, all posts include a cohort indicator above
+the title. This indicator appears after any student or staff member adds a
+post. Other than naming the cohort groups carefully when you add them, no
+configuration is necessary to include this identifier.
 
-For students to see who will be able to read their posts before they add them,
-you can name the discussion topics so that they identify who will be able to
-see posts. See :ref:`Apply Naming Conventions to Discussion Topics`.
+Optionally, you can name your discussion topics to show students who will be
+able to view their posts. See :ref:`Apply Naming Conventions to Discussion
+Topics`.
 
 .. _Read the Cohort Indicator in Posts:
 
@@ -36,7 +54,8 @@ Read the Cohort Indicator in Posts
 ==================================
 
 Every post includes a sentence that identifies whether everyone can see and
-contribute to it, or only the members of a cohort within the course.
+contribute to it, or only the members of a cohort in the course. Examples
+follow.
 
 .. image:: ../Images/post_visible_all.png
  :alt: A discussion topic post with "This post is visible to everyone" above 
@@ -46,13 +65,9 @@ contribute to it, or only the members of a cohort within the course.
  :alt: A discussion topic post with "This post is visible to" and a cohort name
        above the title
 
-.. image:: ../Images/post_visible_default.png
- :alt: A discussion topic post with "This post is visible to Default Group" 
-       above the title
-
-You see this identifier after you add your post. The responses and comments
-that others add to a post are visible to the same group of people as the
-post itself.
+You see this identifier after you add your post. All of the responses and
+comments that other contributors add to a post are visible to the same group of
+people as the post itself.
 
 .. _Apply Naming Conventions to Discussion Topics:
 
@@ -60,29 +75,25 @@ post itself.
 Apply Naming Conventions to Discussion Topics
 =========================================================
 
-All of the content-specific discussion topics that you add to units in Studio
-are divided by cohort. However, course-wide topics can either be divided by
-cohort or remain unified (all students can read and react to all posts).
+Optionally, course team members can give students the audience context of their
+posts before they add them. Indicating who will be able to read posts in the
+names of the topics themselves can be useful when a cohort is particularly
+sensitive about the privacy of their conversations.
 
-Optionally, you can use a naming convention for your discussion topics to give
-your students the audience context of their posts *before* they add them.
-Applying a naming convention can be useful if the students in your cohort
-groups are particularly sensitive about the privacy of their conversations.
-
-For example, you can use a naming convention such as "everyone" for unified
-course-wide discussion topics to distinguish them from topics that are divided
-by cohort. (You may only find it necessary to identify topics that offer a
-unified, public audience for all posts in this way. However, in this
-illustration, each topic has been given an identifier of either "everyone" or
-"private".)
+For example, you add "(everyone)" to the names of the unified course-wide
+discussion topics in your course.
 
 .. image:: ../Images/discussion_category_names.png
  :alt: The names you supply for course-wide topics in Studio appear on the 
        dropdown list of discussion topics in the live course
 
-When students visit the **Discussion** page and use dropdown lists to select
-one of the course-wide topics, the topic names indicate who can see the posts,
-responses, and comments.
+When students visit the **Discussion** page and use dropdown lists to select a
+course-wide topic, the topic names indicate who can see the posts, responses,
+and comments.
+
+(In the illustration above, every topic name includes either "(everyone)" or
+"(private)". You may only find it necessary to explicitly identify topics that
+have a unified audience for all posts.)
 
 For more information about adding and configuring course-wide discussion
 topics, see :ref:`Organizing_discussions` or :ref:`Identifying Private
@@ -97,3 +108,84 @@ you could include an identifier like "(private)" or "(small group)" in the
  :alt: The Subcategory name that you supply for a Discussion component in
        Studio appears on the dropdown lists of discussion topics in the live
        course
+
+.. _Choosing the Visibility of a Post:
+
+***************************************
+Choosing the Visibility of a Post
+***************************************
+
+If you have the discussion admin, discussion moderator, or community TA role,
+you can make posts to divided discussion topics visible to everyone who is
+enrolled in the course or to the members of a selected cohort group only. When
+you :ref:`add a post<Add a Post>`, the **Visible to** dropdown list appears
+above the **Title** field.
+
+This example shows a new post being added to a content-specific
+discussion topic.
+
+.. image:: ../Images/visible_to_contentspecific.png
+ :alt: The fields and controls that appear when a staff member clicks 
+       New Post for a content-specific topic
+
+As a discussion staff member, you can choose the visibility of your posts in
+topics that are divided by cohort. This means that you can add a single post
+with information that you want everyone to see, rather than having to write a
+separate post for each cohort group. It also means that it is possible for you
+to unintentionally share information with a different audience than you
+intended.
+
+.. note:: Students do not choose the visibility of their posts. The 
+ visibility of student posts is determined by the configuration of the topic
+ they post in. See :ref:`Options for Discussion Topics`.
+
+Posts that discussion staff members add to unified discussion topics are always
+visible to all students, regardless of cohort assignment.
+
+.. _Considerations When Editing Posts:
+
+===================================
+Considerations When Editing Posts
+===================================
+
+It may be helpful to keep these additional considerations in mind when you edit
+posts in a course that includes cohorts.
+
+* You cannot change the visibility of a post after it has been added. If you
+  notice that a post contains information that is not appropriate for the
+  cohort who can read it, edit the content of the post or delete the post.
+
+* If you change the topic that a post appears in, the visibility of the post
+  and its responses and comments **does not change**. This ensures that
+  students who are following the post, or who have contributed responses or
+  comments to it, will still be able to read it.
+
+* All of the responses and comments that are contributed to a post will be
+  visible to the same group of people as the post itself. You cannot change the
+  visibility of individual responses or comments.
+
+.. _Viewing the Posts of a Cohort Group:
+
+************************************
+Viewing the Posts of a Cohort Group
+************************************
+
+When a course includes student cohorts, you can view posts and monitor
+discussion activity for one cohort group at a time. You can also view all
+posts.
+
+Above the list of posts on the **Discussion** page, the **in all cohorts**
+filter is selected by default. You see every post when you make this selection,
+as shown in the illustration on the left. To limit the list so that you can
+view the same set of posts as the members of a cohort group, select the name
+of that group as shown on the right.
+
+.. image:: ../Images/viewing_all_or_cohort.png
+ :alt: The list of posts on the Discussion page, first showing all posts then 
+  showing only posts that members of the Univeristy Alumni cohort group can see
+
+Note that both of these lists include posts that are visible to
+everyone. When you filter the list by cohort group, you see the same, complete
+set of posts that the members of the cohort see.
+
+For other options that you can use to view posts, see :ref:`Find Posts`.

docs/en_us/course_authors/source/cohorts/cohorts_overview.rst

@@ -8,19 +8,19 @@ Cohorts create smaller communities of students within a course. Students who
 are in a cohort can communicate and share experiences privately within course
 discussion topics.
 
-When you enable the cohort feature for your course, the discussion topics
-that you include in units by adding discussion components are divided by
-cohort. This means that each post that a student makes to those 
-content-specific topics can only be read, and responded to, by members of the same
-cohort. However, any course-wide discussion topics that you set up for your
-course remain unified. This means that all posts can be read, and responded to,
-by every student. You can change some, or all, of your course-wide topics to be
-divided by cohort. See :ref:`Options for Discussion Topics`.
+When you enable the cohort feature for your course, the discussion topics that
+you include in units by adding discussion components are divided by cohort.
+This means that each post that a student makes to those content-specific topics
+can only be read, and responded to, by members of the same cohort. However, any
+course-wide discussion topics that you set up for your course remain unified.
+This means that all posts can be read, and responded to, by every student. You
+can change some, or all, of your course-wide topics to be divided by cohort.
+See :ref:`Options for Discussion Topics`.
 
 This section also describes your options for :ref:`assigning students to cohort
 groups<Options for Assigning Students to Cohorts>`. When you enable the cohort
-feature, you define a set of cohort groups to reflect the student cohorts, and
-select a strategy for assigning students to the groups. Note that:
+feature, you define a set of cohort groups to reflect communities of students,
+and select a strategy for assigning students to those groups. Note that:
 
 * Every student must be assigned to a cohort group. This assures that every
   student has the ability to read and contribute to all of the course
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ Options for Discussion Topics
 
 By enabling the cohort feature in a course, you provide students with the
 ability to ask questions of, and have conversations with, other members of
-their cohort. By offering these cohort-only discussion oppotunities, the cohort
+their cohort. By offering cohort-only discussion oppotunities, the cohort
 feature can help students develop a sense of community, provide specialized
 experiences, and encourage deeper, more meaningful course involvement.
 
@@ -241,9 +241,16 @@ when they visit the **Discussion** page or a discussion topic in the course
 content.
 
 Students who are assigned to the default cohort group see a cohort name of
-"Default Group" in discussion posts. See :ref:`Read the Cohort Indicator in
-Posts`. If you want students to see a different cohort name, add an auto cohort
-group with the name that you prefer. See :ref:`Define Auto Cohort Groups`.
+"Default Group" in discussion posts. 
+
+.. image:: ../Images/post_visible_default.png
+ :alt: A discussion topic post with "This post is visible to Default Group" 
+       above the title
+
+If you want students to see a different cohort name when your course starts,
+you can add an auto cohort group with the name that you prefer. See
+:ref:`Define Auto Cohort Groups`. (Adding an auto cohort group to your course 
+for this purpose is not recommended after your course starts.)
 
 You can check the :ref:`student profile information report<View and download
 student data>` for your course to see if any students are assigned to the

docs/en_us/course_authors/source/running_course/discussions.rst

@@ -27,8 +27,9 @@ sections:
 
 * :ref:`Close_discussions`
   
-For information about how enabling the cohort feature for a course affects the 
-course discussions, see :ref:`Moderating Discussions for Cohorts`.
+For information about how enabling the cohort feature for a course affects
+options for moderating course discussions, see :ref:`Moderating Discussions for
+Cohorts`.
 
 .. _Overview_discussions:
 
@@ -93,9 +94,9 @@ that contains it. Students cannot contribute to these discussion topics until
 that date.
 
 .. note:: In courses that include the cohort feature, all of the 
- content-specific discussion topics are private. Student posts to these topics
- can only be read, and responded to, by members of the same cohort group. See
- :ref:`Cohorts Overview`.
+ content-specific discussion topics are divided by cohort. Student posts to
+ these topics can only be read, and responded to, by members of the same cohort
+ group. See :ref:`Cohorts Overview`.
 
 .. _Create CourseWide Discussion Topics:
 
@@ -153,10 +154,10 @@ Discussion list now includes the topic you added.
   :alt: Image of a new topic named Course Q&A in the list of discussions
 
 .. note:: In courses that include the cohort feature, the course-wide 
- discussion topics that you add are public. All of the posts can be read, and
+ discussion topics that you add are unified. All of the posts can be read, and
  responded to, by every student, regardless of their assignement to a cohort
- group. You can configure course-wide discussion topics to be private. See
- :ref:`Identifying Private CourseWide Discussion Topics`.
+ group. You have the option to configure these topics to be divided by cohort.
+ See :ref:`Identifying Private CourseWide Discussion Topics`.
 
 .. _Assigning_discussion_roles: