Forum FAQ

How do I enable students to rate forum posts?

In Settings > Forum administration > Permissions click the + symbol opposite the capability to rate posts and allow the role of student.

How can I create a teacher-only forum?

A teacher/tutor-only forum may be added to a course by creating a hidden forum. Teachers are able to view hidden course activities whereas students cannot.

How can I remove the news forum from a course?

Delete the news forum from the course homepage.
In Settings > Course administration > Edit settings set "News items to show" to 0.
Delete the Latest news block.

How can I remove test messages from a new forum?

There are several options (Here is a nice graphic). Remember you can

Move the discussion/thread to another forum
Edit the post with your moderator powers
Delete the post with your moderator powers
Split the thread at a particular post and move it to another thread
Split>move>delete your test messages.

How can I set a display period for news forum announcements?

Timed posts are disabled by default, but the feature can be enabled by checking the forum_enabletimedposts checkbox in Settings > Site administration > Plugins > Activity modules > Forum. Timed posts can then be created by users with the capability to view hidden timed posts (normally managers and teachers).

Why are email copies of forum posts not being sent?

The most likely reason is that the cron is not set up. Please refer to the cron instructions.

Tips:

Try the default settings in Settings > Site administration > Plugins > Message outputs > Email. This generally works.
Make sure that allowuseremailcharset in allowuseremailcharset is set to No. Setting this to Yes can cause a problem in some versions of Moodle.

Why can't students in separate groups reply to a forum discussion started by a teacher?

When using groups, teachers are given the option of adding a new discussion topic for all participants or for a selected group. To enable students in separate groups to reply to a discussion, the teacher must copy and paste their discussion topic for each separate group, selecting each group from the dropdown menu at the top left of the forum page before clicking the "Add a new discussion topic" button.

How do I enable guests to post in a forum?

It's not possible to enable guests to post in a forum, though there is a workaround. Please see the section 'Guests and posting in a forum' in Forum permissions for details.

How can I close/archive a forum?

A permissions override may be used to close/archive a forum so that students may no longer start new discussions, nor add replies, but may still read all the discussions. For further details, see Forum permissions.

Can I subscribe to just one discussion in a forum?

Not at present, though please see MDL-1626.

Documentation