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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.

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

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:

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

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.