How do I allow students to like replies in a discussion?
You can allow students to like replies in a discussion. If a discussion allows liking, users will see a Like icon within each discussion reply. By default, liking is available to all users in the course; however, you can choose to restrict the option to graders only.
The Like icon is enabled on a per-discussion basis.
Learn how to like a discussion reply.
Create Discussion

Create your discussion. Enter a discussion title in the Topic Title field [1]. Add discussion content using the Rich Content Editor [2]. Select sections for the discussion in the Post to drop-down menu [3].
Set Liking Options

In discussion options, click the Allow liking checkbox [1].
When you allow discussion likes, you can select two additional options.
Only graders can like [2]: select this checkbox if you want to limit the liking functionality to only graders in the course, which means only users with the Edit Grades permission can see the Like link. However, all users still see the total number of likes for each reply.