Talk channels

Talk channels are iQualify’s version of forums where announcements can be made and student discussion take place. Course builders don’t have the ability to set these up and they aren’t visible in the ‘create’ environment.

Open Polytechnic courses have several talk channels set up by default:

• Announcements
• General
• Assessments
• Library & Learning Centre Support.

Groups can also be set up for either automatic allocation or selected allocation. This must be requested through iQualify support.

Key points

1. Only the course leader can post to the Announcements channel. Students can reply to a post here.
2. Students are alerted to new posts in the Announcements channel through the notification bell.
3. Students can post in the other channels.
4. Responses to posts are one level deep. Bear this in mind when designing discussions. Take the example of an introductory activity aimed at building a sense of community, where you want students to introduce themselves to one another and comment on two posts from students who live in the same area.
5. Five posts can be displayed at a time. Select Load more to read older posts. This will load an extra five posts at a time. If running the introductory activity outlined in point 4, Load more may have to be used a lot.
6. Basic formatting is available, along with the ability to upload files using the Add file button. The Add file option is only available in posts, not replies.

More information

For more information on talk channels visit Overview of talk channels and How to customise the Talk channels for individual course offerings on the iQualify knowledge base.