Discussion Forums in Moodle

Discussion Forums in Moodle

By default, each course in Moodle has a News forum which is for general news and announcements. Additional forums can be added to a course site to promote engagement and interactivity.

Types of Forums

A News forum is automatically created for each course and is a place for general course announcements. There are four different types of discussion forums an instructor can choose from:

  • Standard forum for general use – An open forum where anyone can start a new discussion topic at any time and any student can reply to any posting.
  • A single simple discussion – A single topic discussion developed on one page (group mode cannot be used with this type).
  • Each person posts one discussion – Each person can post only one new discussion topic (everyone enrolled in the course can reply to the posted topics).
  • Q and A forum – Instead of initiating discussions, the instructor poses a question to the class. Students may reply with an answer, but cannot see the replies of other students until they have posted their own response to the question.

Important Note: A forum’s type cannot be modified after it has been created and students have posted to the forum. It is important to select the proper format type forum for an online discussion before you create a forum.

Creating a Forum

  1. Click on Turn editing on.
  2. From the Add an activity drop-down menu in the appropriate module, select Forum. #1
  3. Provide a name for the discussion forum and specify the type of the forum. #2
  4. Type a description for the forum, which provides participants with a discussion prompt and instructions on the use of the forum. #3
  5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Save and return to course to create the forum.

Forum

Additional Forum Creation Settings

Read tracking for this forum?: This option will highlight which forum postings have been read andwhich remain unread.
Allow posts to be rated?: Posts may be given a rating or a number grade. (For more information on grading Forum posts, see the Grading Assignments tutorial
Thresholds: Allows an instructor to establish a maximum number of postings per student in a given time period to a discussion forum. Once the number has been reached, a warning will be displayed that will inform the student they may not post to the forum. Setting the warning threshold to 0 will disable the warning to students. Setting the blocking threshold to 0 will allow students to post as many times as they want. #1
Group mode: Allows an instructor to create groups and restrict group members to be assigned to specific discussion forum areas. (For more information please see the Collaborative Activities tutorial.)

Note: Single Simple discussion forums cannot be used in group mode.

Visible: Allows an instructor to Show (make available) or Hide (keep hidden) a newly created forum.

 

 

 

 

Settings

 

 

 

 

Subscriptions

The "Force everyone to be subscribed?" option allows the instructor to make a discussion forum act like a listserv.  In other words, when any individual posts a message in a discussion forum, Moodle will automatically email everyone in the class.

If the instructor chooses to disable this feature, then students will not receive any emails and will see new postings each time they visit the forum. Students can also edit their personal preferences to receive alerts of new forum posts via email.

Managing Subscriptions to a Forum

  1. Click the Turn editing on button. #
  2. Click on the update icon next to a forum name. #2
  3. Click on the drop-down menu next to Force everyone to be subscribed? Choose from the following four options: #3
    • No
    • Yes, forever (this option forces participants to be subscribed)
    • Yes, initially (this option allows participants to unsubscribe if they choose)
    • Subscriptions not allowed
  4. Click Save and return to course

Turn Editing On