Discussion Board: Forums and Threads Defined
A Discussion Board Forum is a portion of a Discussion Board that has a specific topic. For example, a Forum might be called "Introductions" and include a prompt outlining expectations for the conversation.
A Discussion Board Thread is a response to the Forum and all replies to the Thread.
Participants create Threads in response to the Forum topics.
Selecting the Reply option allows participants to comment on threads.A Forum can contain multiple threads, and users may contribute to more than one Thread.
And option to require a participant to start a thread before viewing and replying to other participants is an option for the instructor to set up.