Add Discussion Board to SharePoint Online

In this SharePoint tutorial, we will discuss what is a discussion board in SharePoint Online, and how to add a discussion board to SharePoint Online classic site. Also, we will see, how to use the discussion board in SharePoint.

Note: Discussion board app is only available on the classic SharePoint sites.

SharePoint is about engaging teams and building relationships with colleagues and organizational information. Microsoft provides a feature as a discussion board as a list, that we can use to discuss with colleagues in the organization.

Discussion Board in SharePoint Online

The discussion board is a place, where we can add to our SharePoint Team site for team collaboration where people can share their views and ideas.

In the SharePoint Online site, the Discussion Board can have a number of discussion topics if needed.

Functions of SharePoint Discussion Board

The Discussion board is a place to communicate with teammates about a particular product or project. Used to deliver ideas, ask a question, or present a suggestion.  When we post a topic, users can comment, users can reply to each other’s comments, users can ask questions, or “like” the post. It creates social connections.

Example: Asking a question to the team about “Hey Everyone”, we already had a webinar session on SharePoint, Please submit feedback on your opinion.

Create a Discussion board for a SharePoint Online Classic Team site

Here we are going to create a Classic SharePoint Team site Discussion board:

• Navigate to the SharePoint team site where you want to add the discussion board, that you have created, Navigate to https://sharepoint.com/sites/ Example: https://tsinfotechnologies.sharepoint.com/sites/RENAHumanResources
• On the Team site HomePage, in the left corner of the page, you can find the Site contents Select it as shown below:

• From the Site contents page Click on the +New button, it shows the list of options. Select App

• It Displays the list of custom apps that are allowed by our organization, but if we need built-in apps, they can be found in the classic experience, Discussion board is the built-in app so Click on the classic experience.

• It displays the Built-in apps, scrolls down, or search the Discussion Board and Click on it.

• Give a name to the Discussion Board which should be related to your Team site. Example: I am giving a name as Human Resources later Click on the Create Button.

• Now you can find the Human Resources Discussion Board is created. Click on the Human Resources list as shown below:

• Now it displays the Human Resources Discussion Board, Click on the +new discussion Button to create a new discussion.

• The New Discussion Dialog box opens up having some fields listed below:
  • Subject: Provide the Question for new discussion. Example: HR-related questions (We are planning a Trip for our Team please suggest us a place?)
  • Body: Give a description, we can format the text here in Bold, Italic and this supports rich tags.
  • Question: It’s a Checkmark that allows an individual to respond to a question.
• Click on the Save button.

• Now we see our Discussion Board and who responded to it.

This is how to add a discussion board to a SharePoint Online team site.

Setup an Alert on SharePoint Online Classic team site in a Discussion Board

Here we are going to see how to set an Email alert/Mobile notification when things change to a SharePoint Discussion Board.

• Open the Discussion Board, in the left corner of the page we can find Items fields -> Select it as shown below:

• In the Item fields, we can find Alert Me -> Select Manage My alerts

• It displays the Alert Site, Click on the Add Alert
• Add Alert Displays the Document Library, on which site do we need to set alerts, choose Human Resources (Discussion Board name) -> Click on the Next

• Now we can set Alerts to the Discussion Boards.
• Next, we need to configure the Alert settings as:
  • Alert Title: Provide the name of the SharePoint Discussion board.
  • Send Alerts To: Provide the user names or emails and also we can provide multiple users by separating them with semicolons.
  • Delivery Method: We can set alerts on how it can be delivered by Email or Text message also we can specify to send a URL in a text message(SMS)
  • Change Type: We can specify the type of alert by sending us an alert when All changes, New items are added, Existing items are modified else items are deleted.

• It continues with Alert settings as
  • Send Alerts for these changes: We can specify whether to filter alerts based on criteria, also we can restrict our alerts to only include items that show in a particular view.
  • When to send Alerts: We can specify how frequently we want to be alerted by sending notifications immediately, sending a daily summary else to send a weekly summary. (Mobile alert is only available for immediate send)
• Click on the OK button.

• Now, after setting an Email alert when things change to the SharePoint Discussion Board. We will receive an email to a specified person, as shown below:

This is how we can set up an alert on SharePoint classic team site in a Discussion Board.

Conclusion

In this SharePoint tutorial, we discussed what is a discussion board in SharePoint Online, and how to add a discussion board to a classic SharePoint site. Also, we discussed how to use the discussion board in SharePoint.

You may also like:

• SharePoint Online vs on premise
• How to Convert SharePoint Classic site to Modern site?
• How to Share a SharePoint Online Site
• How to follow a SharePoint site