Managing Discussion Forums

Discussion forums can be a very effective way for course participants to interact outside of the classroom. These can be helpful to students as well as the instructor. The course instructors should moderate forums to keep the discussions focused, to answer any questions that may arise, and to make sure postings are appropriate and do not misinform. The courseware makes it easy for instructors to monitor a forum by giving participants the option of receiving copies of forum postings via email. This help file explains how to edit or delete student postings in a forum, how to move a posting, how to configure the settings for receiving email, and how to lock a forum from further postings. Locking forums is a useful management tool, especially as course topics change and new forums are introduced.

There are several forums in the Stage 2/3 Exemplar Course. For example:

• Announcements
• General Discussion forum
• Job Search Discussion
• Forum: Volunteering

1. Click on a discussion forum activity on your course page.

2. The forum discussion prompt is displayed.

3. Click the Add discussion topic button.

4. Type a subject for the posting in the Subject text box.

5. Type the message of the posting in the Message text box.

6. Click the Post to forum button.

A message appears indicating how much time is available to edit the posting. The post continues to the forum page automatically.

Note: There is no time limit for a teacher to edit a posting; however, the posting will be emailed after the time limit expires.

1. Click on a discussion forum activity.

2. Open a forum posting by clicking on the subject in the Discussion column.

3. Click Reply in the lower right corner of the posting. Note the Display options drop-down at the top of the forum post.

4. The student types in their response to the forum post.

5. Click on the Post to forum button.

6. The 30-minute warning to edit message shows automatically.

The reply post appears indented below the original posting.

1. Click on a forum with student postings.

2. Click on the post you would like to edit.

Note: Teachers can see the links in the lower right corner of any forum post.

• Show parent – displays the original posting that a message is replying to.
  
  
• Edit – allows a teacher to change a student's forum posting, e.g., correct any typos or misinformation.
  
  
• Split – this moves an 'out of context' posting into a new discussion thread in the same forum. It will also move any replies to the message being split. After clicking Split, the teacher can provide a new subject/discussion name.
  
  
• Delete – this will permanently delete a posting. There is a prompt to confirm the posting will be deleted.

There are more settings options that an instructor can control in forums. Click on the forum in the course main page.

Click on the vertical ellipsis or settings icon to the right.

If there are posts in this forum, the instructor can choose to:

• star a discussion to indicate that it is important
  
  
• pin a discussion to the top of the forum
  
  
• lock the discussion so no more posts can be added

It is possible for teachers to view all of a particular student's forum postings in the course on one page.

1. Click Participants in the Course menu.

2. Locate and click the target student's name.

The student's profile page appears. In the Miscellaneous section, you will find two forum-related links.

• Forum posts links to a page displaying all forum postings by the student that were replies to other student postings.
  
  
• Forum discussions links to a page displaying all discussions started by the student.

Moodle Documents: Forum Activity

Moodle Documents: Forum FAQ