Click Edit from the context menu of the forum or topic you want to add post approval to and select A moderator must approve individual posts before they display in the forum in the Properties tab to ensure that you have the ability to approve posts activated.

If a topic requires post approval, posts only appear to users with permission to approve them. You must manually approve these posts to make them visible to all users. Users with permission to approve posts in a topic can create posts automatically without requiring their approval.

You can enable and disable post approval from the Properties tab when creating or editing a forum or topic. Once you enable post approval,  Moderated appears beside the forum or topic name.

If a post is not appropriate for the topic and you do not want to approve it, you can do any of the following:

• Leave the post unapproved.
• Edit the post before approving it.
• Delete the post.

Approving threads and posts

Approve a thread

Click Approve Thread from the context menu of the thread to approve all posts in the thread.

Approve a post

Click the Approve Post link inside the post you want to approve, or click Approve Post from the context menu of the post.

Unapproving previously approved threads and posts

Unapprove a previously approved thread

Click Unapprove Thread from the context menu of the thread you want to unapprove.

Unapprove a previously approved post

Click Unapprove Post from the context menu of the post you want to unapprove.

Finding posts that require approval

You can find unapproved posts in the following ways:

• On the Discussions List page, the number of unapproved posts displays beneath each topic that requires post approval. To see only topics that contain unapproved posts, select Unapproved from the Filter by tool navigation area.
• Inside a thread, unapproved posts display an Approve Post link at the top of the post.

Editing a post allows you to change the subject or text, add or remove attachments, or change whether the post is pinned. You cannot make a post anonymous or change the name of the author. Users who edit a post appear in a list in the post’s history log.

Identify edited posts by the Last Edited icon in the post header.

Note In order to edit other users' posts, you must have the Edit Any Post permission enabled for your role.

Edit a post

1. Select Edit Post from the context menu of the post you want to edit.
2. Make your changes.
3. Click Update.

Statistics give you an overview of user activity in your discussion topics and forums. You can use this information to determine which topics stimulate conversation and which do not, or which students post frequently and which hang back. As the semester unfolds, you can use statistics to pinpoint topics in need of conversation-starters and to follow the participation levels of different users. You can send email reminders to users who have not been participating or ask overly vocal users to slow down and give others a chance to contribute. When the semester ends, statistics help you identify the topics that were most effective and the ones you might want to omit or modify for the next course.

View statistics for a specific forum or topic

Click View Topic Statistics or View Forum Statistics from the context menu of the forum or topic you want to view.

View statistics for the entire course,

On the Discussions List page, click Statistics from the tool navigation.

You can export statistics to a CSV file and then import the data into a spreadsheet application to perform further analysis.

Export statistics

1. On the Discussions List page, click Statistics from the tool navigation.
2. Click Export to CSV File.
3. Once the file has finished processing, click the file name to download the file.

When a post is edited, the post history log records all previous versions of the post, its editors, and when it was approved or unapproved.

View a post’s history

Click View Post History from the context menu of the post.