About course and post discussions in iTunes U for web
Use the discussions feature within the posts panes to start discussions and reply to questions in your private course. Discussions can be associated with a specific post or a general discussion about the course. Discussions play a crucial role in student learning and engagement; initiate discussions to ask questions, respond to prompts, and debate ideas. If a student has trouble understanding a lecture or completing an assignment, the student can start a discussion thread to seek help from you or other students.
You can use the discussions feature to:
Start a general course discussion in the discussions list (Posts | Discussions pane)
View all discussions added to the current course in the discussions list or discussions inspector
Manage existing discussions
View your new, unread discussions (identified by a blue circle)
To start a general course discussion, click Start a Discussion in the discussions list, then enter a topic or question and any additional details in the pop-up pane.
To scroll through all discussion threads (discussion and all replies) one at a time, click on a discussion in the discussions list, then click 
or 
in the discussions inspector.
If you enable discussions for your course, you agree to be solely liable and responsible for all related activity, including preventing, monitoring, and addressing inappropriate activity, including removal of a discussion thread and/or participant.
When working with discussions, keep the following in mind:
Discussions are only available for private courses.
When starting or replying to a discussion, keep in mind that by default you are then following the discussion thread. If you no longer want to follow the discussion thread, tap Unfollow in iTunes U on iOS.
When you, another instructor, or a student adds a new discussion or reply, iTunes U immediately sends the course name and discussion topic as a push notification to any iOS device enrolled in the course and following the discussion or reply. Push notifications trigger a refresh so discussions and replies are immediately visible to students following the discussion thread.
When you delete a discussion or reply, you permanently remove the content from your course and there is no way to recover the content. In addition, our students see a “Discussion topic removed” or “Reply removed” message in iTunes U on iOS.