Moodle User Guide for faculty members

07. Using forums　Contents

07. Using forums

Moodle has two types of forums: "Announcements," which acts as a bulletin board for contacting course students and the regular "Forum" that provides a platform for discussions.

Announcements (see "06. Contacting students")
This is used for communication from the teacher to the students. Posts made as an announcement will be sent to all students by email, providing an efficient way to contact students participating in the course (see section 06.1Simultaneous communication using announcements).

Forums (explained in this section)
Students as well as faculty members can make posts, providing an opportunity for mutual learning in which students can express their questions and opinions on matters related to the class. Use it to promote discussion among students. Instructors can pick a discussion topic to encourage discussion.

The types of forums available in Moodle are shown in the table.

07.1 Creating a forum

Adding a forum/adjusting settings

Add a "Forum" to the course section.

After launching edit mode, click "Add activity or resource" in section to display a list of available activities/resources. Once you are in edit mode, click the "+ button" and "Activity or Resource" in the section to display a list of available activities and resources.

From there, select "Forum."

Set up the added forum.

① Enter the forum name.
② Enter the forum description.
③ Select the "Forum type".

There are five types of forums that can be used, but in general, please use the "Standard forum for general use" (the features of each are explained below).

In the standard forum for general use, students can also create discussion topics and post to them.

After adjusting the settings, click "Save and return to course" at the bottom of the screen to save the settings.

07.2 Posting in a forum

The method of posting and replying to messages differs depending on the type of forum. This section explains the differences between each forum type.

Using "Standard forum for general use", "Standard forum displayed in a blog-like format" or "Each person posts one discussion"

Differences between these three forums

・The two standard forums allow users to create as many discussion topics as they wish.

・"Each person posts one discussion" There is only one discussion topic.

・Other than that, all three can be used in the same way.

Starting a topic

From the course, select the "Forum" you wish to adjust by clicking it.

The forum will open.

Initially there are no discussion topics or posts.

Click "Add discussion topic".

The forum posting window will open.

Enter a discussion topic subject and message content, and click "Post to forum".

Viewing and replying to messages

From the course, select the "Forum" you wish to view by clicking it.

The list of forum posts will be displayed.

The area "Discussion" corresponds to the "Subject" you inputted when creating the discussion topic.

Click the discussion topic you wish to view.

Here allows you to view the posts.

If you are enrolled in the course as a teacher, you can "Edit", "Delete" and "Reply" to discussion posts.

Here is an example using "Reply".

To reply, click "Reply" in the lower right corner of the screen.

Click "Reply" to display the "Write your reply..." field.
Enter your reply and click "Post to forum".

Your post and reply will be visible to all teachers and students participating in the same forum.
(If you have specified a group at the "Restrict access" setting, your reply will be visible only to the group you have specified.)

Editing a message

Access to the list of posts to the forum through the same process as for "Viewing and replying to messages" described in previous section to show your post.

Select "Edit" from the items displayed at the bottom.

The "Edit discussion topic" window will appear.

You can change the subject, message, attachments, display period, etc.

In the figure, the text as indicated by the red frame is being added to the original post .

After editing, click the "Save changes" button.

Using "A single simple discussion"

If you select "A single topic simple discussion" when setting up the forum, you can reply only to the first discussion topic set, and you cannot add a new discussion topic (the button "Add discussion topic" will not appear).

Using a "Q&A forum"

To use a Q&A Forum, click "Add discussion topic" and fill in the "Subject" and "Message" by your question.

However, in order to view other students' answers in the Q&A Forum, you need to post your own response first.

If the responses of the other students are not displayed immediately after posting, please check again after the editing grace period (set to 30 minutes) has passed.

When you haven’t posted your own response:

If you try to browse before posting your own response, a message "This is a question and answer forum. To see other replies, you must first post your reply." will be displayed and you will not be able to read other people's responses.

After posting your response:

The figure on the right is a screenshot of "Student 05" after his/her first response.

As shown the student becomes able to also view the responses of other students (in the red frame).

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