Instructor-generated threads allow you to create a "starter" discussion thread for students to reply to. Starter threads are useful if you'd like to allow students to choose in which prompt they respond to. They can also be used to organize responses to discussions with multiple prompts on the same board. Because discussion boards can sometimes get lengthy in Canvas, it can be useful to provide links to specific threads, allowing students to jump directly to a specific thread. This article provides step-by-step instructions for creating linked discussion threads in Canvas. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

• Part One: Creating Starter Threads
• Part Two: Generating Links 

Part One: Creating Starter Threads

1. Click in the Reply text box underneath the discussion instructions and enter your discussion starter. When creating a discussion starter, it is helpful to start the post with a title in Heading format. This article provides information on changing text style.
   
   Note: You can add heading colors to further highlight the prompt title by adding the following HTML code in the Canvas HTML editor. See: How do I use the HTML view for more information on HTML view. 

   <h1 style="background-color: #1474cc;"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><span>Enter Title Here</span></span></h1>

   
   

2. Click post reply to post the thread.
   
   
   
3. Repeat steps 1 - 2 for each starter thread.

Part Two: Generating Links

To locate links for each starter thread follow these steps:

1. In the discussion search bar, enter the title or a keyword from the title of your starter post.

2. Next, right-click View in discussion below the post and click Copy Link
   
   
   

3. Insert the link in your discussion instructions. For more information on inserting links, see How do I create hyperlinks to external URLs?

Related Resources

• How do I create hyperlinks to external URLs in the... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com) 

• How do I use the HTML view in the Rich Content Edi... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)