Introduction

In your learning platform, you may be able to actively contribute to the training program of your company by uploading your content to channels and sharing it with your colleagues. In turn, you can take advantage of the contributions posted by other people to extend your knowledge, and organize content into playlists. Based on your platform configuration, you might also be able to receive comments and questions on your contributions, or comment and ask questions to other people on the content they uploaded. If your contribution to the training program is valuable, you can be designated as the expert for that area by your platform administrator. Let’s take a deep dive into the questions and answers mechanism, and into the possibility to use comments to interact with other users. 

Asking Questions in Channels

Depending on your platform configuration, you may have the opportunity to ask questions to channels’ experts by clicking on the Ask the Expert button on the top right corner of the channel page or from the following areas of your platform:

• The platform homepage
• The Questions & Answers page
• The Ask the Expert page
• The My Channel page
• The All Channels page

Independently from the area where you access this functionality, a slideout panel will open on the right. Type your question into the text box. You can insert links if needed. Then, choose the channel to which you would like to assign your question, so that the expert of the selected channel will be notified. Depending on your platform configuration, you may also have the option to not assign the question to any channel.

Press the Ask the Expert button at the bottom of the panel to complete your action. The question will appear in the Questions & Answers page (accessible from the main menu). If you selected a channel, only users with access to that channel will be able to view and follow the thread. If no channel is selected, the question will be visible to everyone. Depending on how the platform administrator set the platform, any user or experts only will be allowed to answer your question.

Asking Questions in Courses

Some e-learning courses offer the possibility of asking questions on the course content. You can ask questions directly from the course player page, unless the course overview page is shown. If so, move to the Questions and Answers tab. Select a training material from the dropdown menu, ask the question in the text box and press New Question. Depending on how the administrator has set up the platform, all users enrolled in the course or only administrators and experts will be able to answer the question. 

Questions will be listed in the dedicated area. From here, select a training material from the list to view all the questions and answers associated to it. Questions can only be deleted by the owner of the question and by administrators.

Answering Questions

If you are allowed to answer questions asked for courses, assets, or channels, click on Answer under the question. Insert the answer into the corresponding text box and press Send.

You can also post an answer to an answer, instead of answering the question itself. To do so, click on Answer under the answer, insert the answer into the corresponding text box and press Send.

The Questions and Answers Page

Access the Questions and Answers page from the main menu to see the questions and answers related to all the channels, courses and assets that are visible to you. Questions can be sorted from newest to oldest, or from oldest to newest using the corresponding dropdown menu. Press the Filters button at the top of the page to filter threads by various criteria, such as new questions, new best answers, open questions, your questions, your answers, and the threads you are following. Refer to the next section of this chapter to learn more about following threads. You can also filter threads by question type (whether they are linked to a course or asset), or according to the channel the thread belongs to (remember that when you filter by channel, Q&As linked to the channel, and also Q&As linked to courses and assets within the channel you selected are shown within the results on the page). The right side of the page displays the number of new questions and new best answers since your last time visiting the page, the top 10 channels in your platform by popularity (the number of questions and answers shown here includes Q&As linked to the channel, and to courses and assets within the channel), and the top 10 Q&A experts by popularity in your platform.

Please note that all of these statistics are specific to the channels on which you have visibility, except for the top 10 Q&A experts by popularity statistics which are global for your platform and not specific.

To view all of the details related to a question, find the question on the page, press the ellipsis icon in the top right corner of the question and select Go To Question Page. The question will be displayed at the top of the page. From the ellipsis menu, you may also select Follow This Thread (or Unfollow This Thread). Once you follow a thread, you will find it in your Questions and answers page by using the corresponding filter. Refer to the previous section of this chapter to learn more about filtering questions and answers.

All of the answers are listed under the question, from newer to older. Each answer displays the user’s name and photo, the response, and how long ago the answer was posted.

As a user, you can evaluate all the answers, selecting either a thumbs up or down icon at the bottom of the question’s section, depending on how beneficial you find the answer to be. Once someone has answered your question, you, as the question’s owner, are able to mark one of the answers as the Best Answer by pressing the corresponding button on the question’s item. Only one answer can have the Best Answer classification, but as the question’s owner, you can switch which answer has this classification when desired.

If you post an answer, you can edit and delete it by clicking on the ellipsis icon next to the answer and selecting Edit or Delete, while Superadmins and experts can only delete it and are not allowed to edit it.

Commenting in Courses

You may be able to leave comments for a course in a dedicated area under the course player. If enabled, write your comment in the free text area and press Comment to publish it.  Once a comment is posted, it will be listed in the area under the Comments box for other users to see. You can edit and delete the comments you posted, while administrators can only delete them.

Asking Questions and Commenting on Assets

Depending on your platform configuration, you may also be able to ask questions or leave comments on informal learning assets. On the asset’s page, below the asset player and description, press Ask the Expert to ask your question or Comment to leave a comment on the asset, type the text into the corresponding text box, then press Send.

Once the question or comment is posted, you will see it in the list of questions, answers, and comments below. You can filter the items by choosing to see only questions and answers, only comments, or both. You can also choose whether you want to view the newest to oldest, or vice-versa.

All posted comments can be evaluated by other users and deleted by you or the administrator, just like questions. Moreover, you can reply to asset comments by clicking on Reply, typing your reply in the text area that will appear, and pressing Send.

Mentioning Channels, Assets and Users in Your Questions, Answers or Comments

Depending on how the administrator configured your platform, when typing your question, answer or comment you may be able to mention other users, assets, or channels by using:

• @user to notify a specific user (e.g. @john)
• #asset to mention a specific asset (# followed by the name of the asset)
• /channel to mention a specific channel (/ followed by the name of the channel)

The mentioned users will be notified that they have been mentioned in a question, answer, or comment.

Please note: you can only mention users who have visibility on the channel in which the asset is located, and assets and channels you have the permissions to view. 

Once the comment, question or answer with the mention has been published, if you click on the name of the channel or asset mentioned, the channel or asset page will open. If you click on the name of the user mentioned, a page showing all of the assets published by the user will open.

Note on the Text Editor

The text editor embedded in the platform and used for the management of questions, answers and comments is Froala. Refer to the Froala Knowledge Base for further information on its usage.