Pawtograder’s discussion board feature allows students and staff to discuss course content and ask questions. It is not intended to be a replacement for office hours, although there is an option to format the post as a question that needs an answer (as opposed to a “note” that does not need an answer).
Posts can be shared with the entire class, or with course staff only. Each user in a class has a pseudonym, and can choose to use their real name or their pseudonym. Staff can always see the real name of a user.Students can edit their own posts, and staff can edit any post.
The discussion board includes a karma system to encourage quality contributions. Users earn karma points when their posts receive likes and when they provide helpful answers. Karma points are displayed on user profiles and help identify active, helpful community members.
By default, users do not get notifications for new posts, but can optionally “watch” a post to receive notifications when the post is updated or receives a new reply. Interacting with a post (e.g. replying to it) will automatically watch the post.
