About Anonymous Discussions


About Anonymous Participation

  • Discussions can be one of two participation types: Standard Participation, where participant usernames are visible as normal for all users; or Anonymous Participation, where participants’ username and avatar is replaced with a randomized color-animal combo such as “Purple Penguin.”
  • In Anonymous Discussions, Owners and Admins’ names are not anonymized and they are able to view the “real” usernames of all participants in the discussion if desired (see here).
  • Participants in an Anonymous Discussion are informed of their newly assigned username upon entering the discussion for the first time.
  • Once a discussion is set to Anonymous Participation, it cannot be reverted back to the Standard Participation type.
  • Discussions can be set to Anonymous Participation either when creating a new discussion or using a Topic Template (i.e., be anonymous from the start), or discussions can be converted to Anonymous Participation from Standard Participation at any point.
  • Users have different anonymous identities in separate discussions. For example, if a user is “Purple Penguin” in one Anonymous Discussion, they might be “Orange Cat” or “Blue Octopus” in a different Anonymous Discussion.
  • Students can work out the identity of other participants if they reveal any personally identifiable information, such as in a comment or the discussion chat.
tip
Tips:

You may wish to remind students that as discussion Owners and Admins, educators are able to view the real usernames of all participants.

How to Anonymize a Discussion

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Reminder:

Once a discussion has been set to Anonymous Participation, it cannot be reverted back to the Standard Participation type.

To anonymize a new discussion:

  1. Navigate through the new discussion prompts until you reach the ‘Participation type’ section.
  2. Select Anonymous Participation.
  3. Continue through the rest of the prompts.

To anonymize an existing discussion:

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Note:

Only discussion Owners and Admins can anonymize a discussion.

  1. Click the Settings icon in the top-right of the discussion.
  2. Scroll down to the ‘Anonymous Participation’ section and click Change Participation Type.
  3. Select Anonymous Participation, then click Save.

Viewing Real Identities in Anonymous Discussions

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Note:

Only discussion Owners and Admins are able to view the real usernames of users in an Anonymous Discussion.

Owners and Admins in a discussion can toggle whether they view the anonymous or real display names for users. To do so, toggle the Show Account/Anonymous Names icon in the top-right of the discussion. Regardless of this setting, other users in the discussion will continue to see anonymized names in the discussion.

Owners and Admins can also display a list of the usernames of all anonymous users in the discussion:

  1. Click the Settings icon.
  2. Scroll down to the ‘Anonymous Participation’ section.
  3. Select List Deanonymized Users.

To download a .csv file of anonymous names and their real counterparts, click the Download icon.

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