I’d like to help setup Discourse for my K-12 school. If we want to split it up by class so the discussion topics don’t mix, does it means a different server for every class?
For example, in the lower grades, we expect there to be a single “grade 6” area. In the higher grades, we’d like to differentiate between “grade 9 geography” and “grade 9 math” instead of putting all the grade 9 topics together.
To achieve this, does it mean a different Discourse server for every unique class? Or is there a way to get this with a single server?
No you could use categories and groups to achieve this.
Categories have access control lists tied to groups. What kind of student record system are you using? If you have any existing IdM or sign on it can almost certainly be integrated to both create users and populate memberships.
Discourse supports two levels of category for standard installations, which gives you the option of a parent category per year and subcategories per topic.
If you’re using an LMS such as blackboard or Moodle integration between the two is easy. Integration with certain video conferencing apps has recently become a thing too.