To create a discussion in Canvas, you'll begin in your canvas course. Select the Modules tab on your left navigation in your course.
Navigate to the module that you would like to add a discussion and select the + button on that module.
A popup will appear with a drop-down menu. On the drop-down menu, select Discussion.
Select Create Topic, type your topic name, decide if you'd like to indent the item, then click Add Item.
The discussion will now appear in your module and you can select it to edit it.
Select the discussion and then select Edit.
On the Edit page, you can use the rich text editor to create the discussion. You can also add a file, select the section to post the discussion to (if applicable), select the options that you want for the discussion, and choose the due date.
After editing your discussion, if you are ready to publish you can select Save & Publish. If you are not ready to publish, you can click Save and continue to make edits until you're ready to Save & Publish.
When students respond to the discussion, if the option "users must post before seeing replies" is selected, they must post their response to the discussion first before replying to any students who have already responded.
You can also choose to have your discussion be graded by assigning points and a due date. It will appear in the gradebook just like an assignment or quiz.