Managing Discussions in Faculty Lounge (long running course)

franke
Community Contributor

Hi all,

I'm working to help a staff member who manages the Faculty Lounge for all online faculty at our college.  Among other things, right now, her most pressing issue is managing all of the discussion forums among faculty members.  Currently the discussions in the Faculty Lounge are:

  • Dealing with Academic Dishonesty
  • Conducting & Managing Discussions
  • Encouraging Discussion
  • Canvas Thoughts
  • Social Media in your Class(es)
  • Making Your Course Successful
  • Water Cooler (misc.)
  • Faculty Lounge Suggestion Box
  • Way to Go!
  • Dealing with Difficult Students
  • Teaching Small Classes
  • Teaching Large Classes
  • Assessing Student Learning
  • When Teaching Grows Tired
  • Solving Puzzles
  • Academic and Student Services: Communicate with the Advising Team
  • Deans and Program Directors: Communicate with the Deans and Program Directors
  • eLearning Services: Communicate with the eLearning Team
  • Career Coaching: Communicate with Career Advisors

The problem lies in the need to have to create NEW discussions of the same topic each 8 months or so after the discussions have grown and they need to start over again.  She is currently creating new discussion forums for each topic and closing the old discussions for comments but leaving them open in case people want to still view the content (Which is often asked for by faculty).  These discussions are all fairly well participated in--mostly by new faculty who are required to post here as part of their required orientation course in Canvas.

Does anyone have suggestions on dealing with a better solution to this issue?  She's spending way too much time re-creating the new discussion forums every 8 months or so as well as needing to maintain all the other ongoing and open discussions.  I feel like there has got to be a better way!  I've attached a screenshot of what the discussions look like now.

Thanks for any advice you can give!

-Emily