How lesson discussions work depends on which course builder you are using. In the new course builder, discussions are powered by a linked community space and discussion posts appear in both the lesson and the community. In the classic course builder, discussions are standalone to the lesson.
If your site was created on or after January 28, 2026, you have access to the new course builder, in addition to the classic course builder. Learn about new features, improvements, and how to try it out: Introducing Thinkific's New Course Builder
How to Enable Lesson Discussions in the New Course Builder
In the New Course Builder, lesson discussions require a community space to be linked to the course first.
When a community space is linked to a New Course Builder course, and discussions are enabled on a lesson, students will see the Discussion option when viewing a lesson. They can open the discussion panel and make a post. Posts made on that lesson become posts in the linked community space. The connection is bidirectional — replies, reactions, and moderation actions made in either place are reflected in both. However, posts made directly in the community space will not appear under a lesson. If the space is later disconnected or discussions are disabled, existing posts stay in the community but no longer appear in the lesson view.
You need an active community with at least one space. If you haven't set one up yet, see: Get Started with Thinkific Communities.
Step 1: Link a Community Space to a Course
You can connect your community space to a course (both built using the Classic Course Builder and the New Course Builder) to allow students to easily navigate between the course and the community space. For New Course Builder courses, this is also required before you can enable community-backed discussions.
Follow the steps here: Customize and Manage Your Community Spaces.
Step 2: Enable Discussions on Lessons
Once a community space is linked to a New Course Builder course, you can turn on discussions per lesson — or across all lessons at once.
To turn the discussions on for all lessons:
- From your Admin Dashboard, go to Products
- Select Course
- Find the course you linked to the space in the previous step
- Click on the course name or select Edit
- If you see the Course Manager screen, select Edit content
- Select Settings
- Select Linked space
- Confirm that the course is connected to the right space
- Select Enable all lesson discussions
- Confirm your selection by clicking Enable discussions
Note that it is not possible to disable all lesson discussions at once, you will need to disable them individually
To turn the discussions on an individual lesson:
- From your Admin Dashboard, go to Products
- Select Course
- Find the course you linked to the space in the previous step
- Click on the course name or select Edit
- If you see the Course Manager screen, select Edit content
- Open a lesson you want to enable discussions for
- Turn the Discussions toggle on or off to enable/disable discussions on an individual lesson.
Discussion posts made on the lesson will now appear in the linked community space, and vice versa.
Managing Lesson Discussions in the New Course Builder
As an admin, you can manage discussion posts from the community space or directly from the lesson view. Site Owners and Site Admins receive email notifications for new discussion activity.
Important Considerations for Discussions in the New Course Builder
- Community-backed discussions are available for New Course Builder courses only — classic course Discussions work the same as before and are not affected.
- At the moment, you can link one community space per course.
- Draft courses cannot be linked to a community space.
- @space mentions are not supported in lesson discussions.
- Learners will only receive community notifications when a new discussion post is made in the new course builder.
- If a community space is disconnected from a course, existing posts stay in the community space but no longer appear in the lesson view. They are not deleted.
- You can link a community space to a course without enabling discussions. Learn how here: Customize and Manage Your Community Spaces.
How to Enable Discussions in the Classic Course Builder
On-lesson discussions are enabled per lesson within your lesson settings. To enable on-lesson discussions:
- From your Admin Dashboard, select Products
- Select Courses
- Click on the course you want to add a discussion to or hover over the course image click Edit
- Select Edit content
- From the left-hand menu under the Curriculum tab, select a lesson
- Check the box that says Enable discussions for this lesson
- (Optional) If you want to enable discussions for the entire course, select Apply to all lessons in this course
- Click Save lesson
Your students can access the On-lesson discussions through the badge that appears on each lesson that has discussions enabled.
Your students have the ability to include images (under 10MB) using the Insert Image button, and even upload files (under 30MB) using the Upload File button in their posts and replies!
Managing On-Lesson Discussions in the Classic Course Builder
Our discussions admin area allows you to search and sort your discussions, so that you can stay on top of all of the on-lesson discussions happening in all of your courses. To manage your discussions:
- From your Admin Dashboard, select Users
- Select Discussions
- Click on the Discussion title of the discussion you would like to manage
As an admin, you are also able to start a new discussion thread. Simply preview your course as a student, open a lesson's Discussions, and click to Create New Post. Any discussion posts created from an admin account will be labeled as having been created by an Instructor.
You can reply directly through our admin area! You can also mark any post or reply as Hidden if it is no longer relevant for your students.
Notifications for Discussions in the Classic Course Builder
The Site Owner, Site Admins, and creator of the discussion post will receive email notifications for any activity on the post made in the Classic Course Builder. This means students who create discussion posts will receive notifications for any replies to their posts.
Important Considerations
- On-lesson discussions are visible to any students who enroll in the course unless you have marked a post or reply as hidden.