For many faculty, this is one time required process. You can keep all your discussion topics in the same forum. Or you can make one forum for whole class discussions and one for small group discussions.
Get to the Discussions tool
Visit COURSE ADMIN then select DISCUSSIONS
Create the Discussion Forum
Select the NEW button and select New Forum
Now add a Title. For example, Whole Class Discussions is a good title because it indicates that the discussion topics in this forum will involve the whole class.
Don't select the Create a new topic in this forum with the same title. It is better to make a new topic after we create the forum.
Best practice is to leave the rest of this page set at the default. All other setting will be configured during creating the DISCUSSION TOPIC
Select SAVE and CLOSE button
Now you are ready to create a DISCUSSION TOPIC .