Moodle Guide

Forums

The forum activity allows for the possibilities of reflection, collaboration, and social learning in an online or face-to-face environment.

Types of Forums

Standard forum for General Use: this is the default type of forum. In this type of forum, students will read an introduction text in a separate area above the list of discussions. Students can then click on a button to start a new discussion thread or can post a reply to a thread.

Single Simple Discussion: in this type of forum, the teacher will post a question or discussion topic, and then each student can reply to your topic. In this forum, students cannot start a discussion topic.

Question and Answer Forum: the instructor first poses a question or discussion topic. Each student must post a reply to the question or topic before viewing posts of peers.

Standard Forum displayed in a blog-like format: this is similar to the Standard Forum for General Use. However, the first post of each discussion is displayed in a blog like format with a link to “discuss this topic” near the bottom right of the post.

Post to Discussion Forum (Standard for General Use)

All types of discussions will have a reply and/or a Post to Forum Textbox that appears in line with the Discussion.

Step-by-step Instructions for Setting up a Discussion

Step 1:

Select Forums from the Add an Activity or Resource Pop-up.

Step 2:

Name the discussion board, include a description of it, and review the preferences.

Discussion Form Preferences

Availability
Here you can give the discussion board a Due Date and a Cut-off Date. If you wish to add a date that the discussion board opens, you can add a Restriction.

Attachments and Word Count
Set maximum size allowed of attachments and the number of attachments. If you require a specific word count for the discussion you can set the Display Word Count setting to Yes.

Subscription and Tracking
If students subscribe to forum posts then they will receive notifications of updates. You can change this setting to optional, forced, auto, disabled. When setting this think about how often you want students to check for updates. If Read Tracking is set to optional student will have the option of highlighting new posts in the discussion.

RSS
If enabled, you will create a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed to the discussion. This feed can be accessed a number of different ways online.
Post Threshold for Blocking
The default setting is to allow students to post any number of times to a discussion board. If you would like to limit the number of times students are allowed to post you can adjust it using this settings. You can also include a warning when students are about to be blocked from posting.

Turnitin Plagiarism Plugin Settings
Here you can enable and adjust the TurnItIn settings and use it for the Discussion Board.

Whole Forum Grading
Adjust how the forum is graded. Forums can be graded by a point system or a scale. Moreover, discussion boards can be graded using a Rubric, Marking Guide, or Checklist.

Common Module Settings
Some of the Common Module Settings to pay attention to include Group Mode (visible: student access all groups, separate: students only view posts within their own group, no group: students are single participants in discussion).

Restrict Access
You can set a number of restrictions on discussion boards. For instance, if you want the discussion board to be available at a certain date you can add a Date Restriction.  

Activity Completion Settings
This is where you can set the Activity Completion. You can either have students manually mark it completed or you can set specific conditions for Activity Completion (e.g. you can set the number of posts or the number or replies as a condition.)