I'm not sure if this has been asked -- is there a way to notify the classmates via email when a new message has been posted in the forum? It would make them visit the site more often when they know that there are new messages posted. My class got used to the yahoo group messaging where all messages are posted directly to their emails. Thanks in advance.

We are working on a threaded forum for 2009, we are still working on that functionality.

I don't know what a "threaded" forum is, but I do this all the time. I recently put a message regarding our music playlist and how to use the pop-out feature in the Message Forum to get people there. Then I used the "Email the Class" function to let them know the updated information was on the Message Forum Page. I guess you'd call it a "tease."

Threaded forums, now in beta, are essentially what you see here, including the ability to subscribe to all new posts, or subscribe to specific forum threads.