How do I delay posting a discussion until a specified date in a course?

You can delay posting a discussion topic until a specific date by changing a setting in your discussion. This lesson shows how to set posting dates, also referred to as availability dates, for non-graded discussions.

Note: In graded discussions, the availability date fields shown in this lesson do not apply. Graded discussions include separate availability dates that are set when assigning a discussion to specific course users.

Open Discussions

In Course Navigation, click the Discussions link.

Add Discussion

Click the Add Discussion button.

Create Discussion

Create your discussion by using the following options:

Enter your topic title in the topic title field.
Use the Rich Content Editor to format your content.

Add Availability Dates

To make your discussion available on a specific date or during a specific date range, enter the dates in the Available From and Until fields, or click the calendar icons to select dates.

You are not required to enter dates in both of these fields, so if you want to delay your posting but do want your post to appear indefinitely, you can leave the Until field blank.

Note: These fields only apply for non-graded discussions; If you create a graded discussion, these date fields do not apply.

Save and Publish

If you are ready to publish your discussion, click the Save & Publish button [1]. If you want to create a draft of your discussion and publish it later, click the Save button [2].

When your discussion is saved in a draft state, you can return to the page and publish it at any time by clicking the Publish button.

View Discussion

View the discussion and the posting date.

Student View

When a student views the details of a locked discussion, they will see "This topic is locked until [date] at [time]." Students will not be able to the view or contribute to the discussion until it becomes available.