Adding Course Activities

Open Forums

An Open Forum is an activity in Moodle that is essentially a discussion board. Although Moodle offers an activity type called a Forum, you may have access to a more robust activity called an Open Forum.

Users can set up discussion forums in a number of formats, depending upon how you wish to enable communication:

- - Standard forum for general use - An open forum where anyone can start a new discussion at any time (Default format)
  - A single simple discussion - A single discussion topic to which everyone can reply (cannot be used with separate groups)
  - Each person posts one discussion - Each student can post exactly one new discussion topic, to which everyone can then reply
  - Q and A forum - Students must first post their perspectives before viewing other students' posts
  - Standard forum displayed in a blog-like format - An open forum where anyone can start a new discussion at any time, and in which discussion topics are displayed on one page with "Discuss this topic" links

Note: Each course automatically includes a Course Announcements Forum generated with it; this is a place for instructors to leaves messages and notices for students. Posting a message Course Announcements will automatically generate an email notification to all students enrolled in a course. Students cannot reply to any messages posted in this Forum.

Adding a Forum to your course

Step 1: Click Turn editing on.

Step 2: Locate the topic section (or week) in which the content will be located and click +Add an activity or resource.

Step 3: In the pop-up menu, scroll down through the many activity choices to the Resources area, select Open Forum.

Note: If Open Forum is not appearing, choose Forum.

Step 4: Enter a title in the Forum name field.

Step 5: Enter directions for the discussion in the Description field. Including explicit instructions in this field can provide helpful guidance for students, including dates and deadlines for posting original thoughts and replies to other students.

Step 6: Click the check box if you wish the description to display on the front of the course. If left unchecked, the description will display after they click into the resource.

Step 7: If desired, click the Forum type textbox and select an alternate forum type from the drop-down menu.

Note: Clicking the blue Question mark (?) icon displays an explanation of the different forum types.

Step 8: Discussion forums by default are worth no point value in your grade book. We strongly suggest changing the default grade setting to make the discussion forum worth point value.

8a. Click on Grade to open the menu.

8b. Change the Grade Type to Manual.

8c. Keep the type as Point. Adjust the Maximum Grade to reflect the number of points you think the forum should be worth.

Step 9: Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save and return to course when finished.

Creating a New Post

Step 1: Click the Open forum link on your course page.

Step 2: Once in the forum, click the Add a new discussion button.

Step 3: Under add your discussion, enter the subject in the Your subject field.

Step 4: Enter the discussion text in the Type your post field.

Step 5: Click Submit when finished.

Step 6: To view replies or edit the post, click on the forum subject line of the desired discussion.