MoodleDocs - User contributions [en]

Forum settings

2011-03-14T15:58:37Z

Sae1962: Enlarged the thumb images, and made minor corrections.

{{Forums}}
There are four sections in a forum's settings: "General", "Grade", "Post threshold for blocking", and "Common module settings".

[[Image:Adding a forum.png|550px|thumb|center|Adding a forum, showing General and Grade sections]]To add a forum:
#As an editing teacher for a course, click "Turn Editing On", and go to the topic or week section in which you want to create the forum.
#From the dropdown menu labeled "Add an activity", select "Forum". This will take you to the forum settings page titled "Adding a new forum" page.

In an existing forum, use the "Update this forum" button to see the forum settings page.

==General==

===Forum name===

A short name of the forum (e.g. "Favourite colour"), which will be displayed on the course homepage.

===Forum type===

There are four forum types to choose from:
*A single simple discussion - A single topic discussion developed on one page, which is useful for short focused discussions
*Standard forum for general use - An open forum where anyone can start a new topic at any time; this is the best general-purpose forum
*Each person posts one discussion - Each person can post exactly one new discussion topic (everyone can reply to them though); this is useful when you want each student to start a discussion about, say, their reflections on the week's topic, and everyone else responds to these
*Q and A Forum - Instead of initiating discussions participants pose a question in the initial post of a discussion. Students may reply with an answer, but they will not see the replies of other Students to the question in that discussion until they have themselves replied to the same discussion.

A [[News forum]] is a special type of forum that is automatically created with a new course.

===Forum introduction===

Place the description of the forum here. It has the standard Moodle [[HTML editor]] toolbar to assist the teacher.

:''TIP:'' It is a good practice to include precise instructions for students regarding the subject of the forum and the rating and grading criteria that might be used in this forum (see below).

===Force everyone to be subscribed?===

When a person is subscribed to a forum it means that they will be sent email copies of every post in that forum. This will over ride some [[Edit profile|student settings in their profile]]. By default, posts are recorded about 30 minutes after the post was first written. Depending upon the email settings of each forum member, they maybe sent an email immediately after the 30 minute edit window is closed, or in a batch at a time fixed by the site administrator.

People can usually choose whether or not they want to be subscribed to each forum. However, the teacher can choose to force subscription on a particular forum then all course users will be subscribed automatically, even those that enrol at a later time.

If the teacher selects the option "Yes, initially" then all current and future course users will be subscribed initially but they can unsubscribe themselves at any time. If the teacher chooses "Yes, forever" then the forum members will not be able to unsubscribe themselves.
====Subscription Tips====
* Forcing everyone to subscribe is especially useful in the [[News forum]] and in forums towards the beginning of the course (before everyone has worked out that they can subscribe to these emails themselves).
* Changing the setting from "Yes, initially" to "No" will not unsubscribe existing users, it will only affect those who enrol in the course in the future. Similarly changing "Yes, initially" will not subscribe existing course users but only those enrolling later.
* From Moodle 1.6 onwards there is an "Subscriptions not allowed" setting which prevents Students from subscribing to a Forum. Teachers may choose to subscribe to a forum if they wish.

===Read tracking for this forum?===

"Read tracking" for a forum allows users to track read and unread messages in the forum.

There are three options for this setting:
* Optional (default) - students can turn tracking on or off for the forum at their discretion
* On - tracking is always on in this forum for all members
* Off - tracking is always off in this forum for all members

===Maximum attachment size===
The maximum file size that may be attached to a forum post will first be determined by the Moodle site settings. The teacher may want a smaller size limit for the forum. Server file capacity, student downloading speeds and discouraging images in a document centered discussion are a few reasons to limit file size.

==Grade==
Forum posts can be rated using a [[Scales|scale]] (pre existing number or word scales). By default, only teachers can rate forum posts. The [[Override permissions|role override]] feature can allow students to rate each others’ posts (see [[Forum permissions]]). This is a useful tool for giving students participation grades. Any ratings given in the forum are recorded in the [[Gradebook|gradebook]].

===Aggregate type===
{{Moodle 1.9}}In Moodle 1.9 onwards, you can set an aggregate type, in other words, decide how all the ratings given to posts in a forum are combined to form the final grade (for each post and for the whole forum activity). Some scales do not lend themselves to certain types of aggregates.

There are five options:
====Average of ratings====
Average of ratings (default) is the mean of all the ratings given to posts in that forum. This is especially useful with peer grading when there are a lot of ratings being made.

====Count of ratings====
The counts the number of rated posts which becomes the final grade. This is useful when the number of posts is important. Note that the total can not exceed the maximum grade allowed for the forum. A count may be used if the teacher simply wants to acknowledge that a reply was given in the case students being required to make a certain number of posts in the discussion. Note: Count of ratings does not work for the "Separate or Connected Ways of Knowing" scale or custom scales due to the limitation imposed by the max grade.

====Maximum rating====
The highest rating is returned as the final grade. This method is useful for emphasising the best work from participants, allowing them to post one high-quality post as well as a number of more casual responses to others.

====Minimum rating====
The smallest rating is returned as the final grade. This method promotes a culture of high quality for all posts.

====Sum of ratings====
All the ratings for a particular user are added together. Note that the total is not allowed to exceed the maximum grade for the forum. Note: Sum of ratings does not work for the "Separate or Connected Ways of Knowing" scale or custom scales due to the limitation imposed by the max grade.

===Grades===
This is a pulldown menu which sets the [[Scales|scale]] used in [[Grades|grading]] a forum post. See "Aggregate type" above for options on how multiple, rated posts of a student are entered as a single grade in the gradebook.

===Restrict ratings to posts with dates in this range===
The teacher can allow only posts within a certain date range to be rated. This is useful if the teacher wants to keep students focused on the most recent content and maintain a specific pace within the forum or course.

==Post threshold for blocking==

===Post threshold for warning===

Students (only) will be blocked from posting after a specified number of posts in a given period - this option is for setting the number of posts a Student may make before receiving a warning. Set to 0 to disable warnings.

===Post threshold for blocking===

This option is for setting the number of posts a Student may make in the period defined below. Set to 0 to disable blocking. If blocking is disabled, warnings will automatically be disabled.

===Time period for blocking===

Earlier version of Moodle had an this option. See "Restrict ratings to posts with dates in this range" above.

==Common module settings==

===Group mode===

The [[Groups|group]] mode setting has three options:

# No groups
# Separate groups - each group can only see their own group, others are invisible
# Visible groups - each group works in their own group, but can also see other groups

If the group mode is set to separate groups:
[[Image:Forum set to separate groups.png|650px|thumb|Adding a new discussion topic to a forum set to separate groups]]
* Teachers are given the option of adding a new discussion topic for all participants or for a selected group. If a teacher adds a new discussion topic for a selected group, then only group members can reply to it. If a teacher adds a new discussion topic for all participants, then students can't reply to it. (This is to ensure that groups are kept separate.)
* Students can only start discussions for their own group.
* Students can only reply to discussions started by other group members or discussions for their own group started by a teacher.

If the group mode is set to visible groups:

* Teachers are given the option of adding a new discussion topic for all participants or for a selected group. If a teacher adds a new discussion topic for a selected group, then only group members can reply to it.
* Students can only start discussions for their own group.
* Students can only reply to discussions started by other group members or teachers.

Teachers, and other users with the capability [[Capabilities/moodle/site:accessallgroups|moodle/site:accessallgroups]] set to allow, can view and post in all forum discussions, regardless of the group mode setting.

:''Note'': Single simple discussions cannot be set to separate groups (as this feature is not implemented). Instead, a standard forum should be used, with the teacher copying and pasting the same discussion topic for each separate group. If required, a permissions override may be set to prevent students from starting new discussions.

===Visible to students===

You can hide the activity from students by selecting "Hide" here. It is useful if you wouldn't like to make the activity available immediately.

===ID number===

Setting an ID number provides a way of identifying the forum for grade calculation purposes. If the activity is not included in any grade calculation then the ID number field can be left blank.

==Pre-Moodle 1.7 settings==

Note: From Moodle 1.7 onwards, forum permissions may be accessed via the Roles tab on the update/edit forum page and the override roles link.

===Can a student post to this forum?===

This option allows you to restrict students from posting new content in this forum. There are three options to choose from:

#'''Discussions and replies are allowed''' - This option leaves students unrestricted, which is the case for most forums. Thus, you choose to allow them to start new discussion topics (threads), and also to post replies within those threads.
#'''No discussions, but replies are allowed''' - This option should be chosen if only teachers are to be allowed to start new discussions. Students will still be allowed to reply within those threads (for example within the news forum on the site home page).
#'''No discussions, no replies''' - Choosing this option bars students from starting new discussion topics and replying within those threads. This is useful for the News forum when you only want teachers to post new items that appear on the course main page.

===Use ratings===

If you decide to rate posts on the forum, you will have to define settings of the three following aspects:

*Users - If you want everybody to rate posts, choose 'Everyone can rate posts'. Otherwise, pick 'Only teachers can rate posts'.
*View - If you want to keep the grades known only to the individual students graded, you should choose the option 'Students can only see their own ratings'. If there is no such a need, opt for 'Students can see everyone's ratings'.

==See also==

*[[Forum permissions]]
*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=65162 No discussions, no replies?] forum discussion
*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=86487 Forum Ratings - Some Students Cannot Be Rated] forum discussion




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Forum activity

2011-03-14T15:58:02Z

Sae1962: Made small corrections

{{Forums}}
The forum module is an [[Teacher_documentation#Activity_modules|activity]] where students and teachers can exchange ideas by posting comments. There are four basic forum types. Forum posts can be graded by the teacher or other students.

A forum can contribute significantly to successful communication and community building in an online environment. You can use forums for many innovative purposes in educational settings, but teaching forums and student forums are arguably the two more significant distinctions.

==Guidelines for Teaching and Learning Forums==

When you decide to use a discussion forum as an activity in an e-learning environment, it is important to be aware that your time will be needed in some sense in order to make the activity successful. If your goal is to encourage discussion, the forum will only work if:

a) '''participants feel there is a need/reason to participate and they will gain something from the experience.''' Incentives for learning, gathering support, etc. should be explored and encouraged early on in order to clearly convey the purpose of the forum to others. Anyone considering offering grades or marks for participation is advised to think very carefully about the difference between quantity and quality of discussions in forums.

b) a sense of community and purpose can be fostered amongst participants. This sense of community can be fostered through tutor/teacher initiative and scaffolding, or primarily through the students/participants themselves depending on the intentions of the activity.

==Selecting forum type==

Moodle has four kinds of forums each with a slightly different [[Viewing a forum|layout]] and purpose.

Which of the forums will best suit your needs for a particular activity? In order to answer this question, it is useful to think how you might lead such a discussion in a face-to-face environment. Would you throw the question out to the class and sit back to observe them in their answers? Or would you break them up into smaller groups first and ask them to have discussions with a partner before bringing them back to the main group? Or perhaps you would like to keep them focused on a particular aspect of a question and ensure that they do not wander away from the topic at hand? All of the above approaches are both valid and useful, depending on your learning outcomes, and you can replicate all of them in Moodle forums.

===A standard forum for general use===
The standard forum ([[Viewing_a_forum#Standard_forum_for_general_use|view here]]) probably most useful for large discussions that you intend to monitor/guide or for social forums that are student led. This does not mean that you need to make a new posting for each reply in each topic, although, in order to ensure that the discussion does not get 'out of control', you may need to be prepared to spend a significant amount of time finding the common threads amongst the various discussions and weaving them together. Providing overall remarks for particular topics can also be a key aspect of your responsibilities in the discussion. Alternatively, you could ask students to summarize discussion topics at agreed points, once a week or when a thread comes to an agreed conclusion. Such a learner-centred approach may be particularly useful once the online community has been established and, perhaps, when you have modeled the summarizing process.

===A single simple discussion===
The simple forum ([[Viewing_a_forum#A_single_simple_discussion|view here]]) is most useful for short/time-limited discussion on a single subject or topic. This kind of forum is very productive if you are interested in keeping students focused on a particular issue.

===Each person posts one discussion===
This forum ([[Viewing_a_forum#Each_person_posts_one_discussion|view here]]) is most useful when you want to achieve a happy medium between a large discussion and a short and focused discussion. A single discussion topic per person allows students a little more freedom than a single discussion forum, but not as much as a standard forum where each student can create as many topics as he or she wishes. Successful forums of this selection can be active, yet focused, as students are not limited in the number of times they can respond to others within threads.

===Question and Answer forum===
The Q & A forum ([[Viewing_a_forum#Question_and_Answer_forum|view here]]) is best used when you have a particular question that you wish to have answered. In a Q and A forum, tutors post the question and students respond with possible answers. By default a Q and A forum requires students to post once before viewing other students' postings. After the initial posting, students can view and respond to others' postings. This feature allows equal initial posting opportunity among all students, thus encouraging original and independent thinking.

====Caveat:====
A student can post in Q&A forum, then have a look at other posts, and then have the editing time (usually 30 minutes) to edit their own post in the light of what they read of others' posts. In effect this waters down the intent of this setting for the forum. The bug tracker reference is here: http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-9376

====Tips for Question and Answer====
When the Question and Answer mode is selected, Moodle hides the replies to the initial thread post by the teacher but not the entire forum itself.

:''Tip:'' Post each question as a thread in the forum and then have students post replies to the question. In this fashion, Moodle will protect the replies from being viewable (subject to the caveat above) by other students but allow the initial post/thread visible for reply by all students.

:''Tip:'' Do not post the question in the forum summary because every student answer will become a thread and visible to all students. In this scenario, it may appear as if the Question and Answer forum is not working correctly, since the new initial posts in the thread are intentionally designed not to be hidden, just their replies.

:''Tip:'' If you have set up groups for your forum the facilitator needs to post a question to each of the groups and not to 'all participants' as questions asked of all participants (students) are able to be read by ALL students. Questions posed to group members are only visible to those group members and replies are only visible once a group member has posted a message.

==Concepts for use in forums==
===Participation and Scaffolding ===

Whilst one of the great advantages of e-learning is the flexibility it affords participants, this does not mean that days or weeks should pass without response and discussion in a forum (unless it is appropriate for it to do so). This is perhaps most especially true at the beginning of a course or programme when students and tutors are new to each other and in need of welcome messages/encouragement. Whilst e-learning, and discussions in particular, can support learning that is not always tutor/teacher-centred, your role will be important, especially as an online community begins to develop. It is during these initial stages of introductory material that a group of students can become a community of participants who begin to grow in their understandings of course material and individual contributions to the knowledge construction process.

As the discussions progress and learners become accustomed to the mechanics and the tone of the forums then there are key ways in which your input can be reduced, thereby helping to foster a community that is less dependent on the tutor/teacher. Even then, however, you will probably want to be a presence in the discussions although you may choose to be one of many contributors rather than the font of all wisdom.

===Commitment and Participation===

Ask yourself if

# you wish to have involvement in the forum or if you want the students to lead and own the space
# you want the forum to add value to the face to face environment or have a life of its own in its own right outside the lecture theatre/classroom or seminar room
# you are prepared to make appropriate contributions to the discussion in order to:
## encourage discussion if students are quiet
## help shape ideas if students begin to wander off-task
## your role will be defined as discussions/a course progresses
## you will explicitly but gradually relinquish control of the discussions
## you will encourage and support learners to share control of discussions(for example you might ask a learner/group of learners to summarise contributions to a discussion thread/topic or you might ask learners to initiate discussion topics)

===Student Centered Forums===

With the growing popularity of social networking software like Facebook, Bebo, MySpace and the like, students are leaving schools and coming to Higher and Further Education with a new technological sophistication and with new expectations for communication. And as school, colleges and universities recognise that reflective and life long learning are significant goals in education, student centered learning and the creation of student centered spaces online are also gaining credence in educational settings. We know that effective learning requires access to social and academic networks for both study material and emotional support; as such, online communities can offer a holistic knowledge construction and support mechanism and recognize that affective activity is effective.

Social forums, often called ‘Virtual Cafes’ or ‘Common Rooms’ can be set up for courses or for programmes, depending on the student need. Such spaces provide a common area for students to come together and discuss unlimited topics, including social activities and educational ideas. They are supportive spaces for students, most successful with large first and second year courses where students would not otherwise have the opportunity to communicate with others outside their own tutorial group. It is arguable that students will experience a greater sense of community within and a sense of belonging to an educational institution or individual department having had the experience and convenience of the social forum on their course; this could arguably have implications for retention.

These spaces are typically highly active, especially in first term. Depending on your institution, they are usually self monitored by students, who understand that the same ‘rules’ and ‘netiquette’ that apply to them within any computing space, also apply in Moodle.

===The News Forum===

Moodle courses automatically generate a [[News forum]] which defaults to automatically subscribe all participants in a course. The name of the News Forum can be changed to something more appropriate, such as ‘Important Announcements’ or the like. This is a useful feature and many use this forum in a Moodle course to announce exam dates, times or changes to exams, lectures or seminars, as well as important information about course work throughout a term or special announcements relating to events.

===Teacher/Tutor forums===

''Prior to Moodle 1.7, each course had a teacher forum, accessible via a link in the course administration block.''

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.

==Some forum suggestions to consider==

#If your course is at a distance, if your face to face time is limited, or if you just wish to foster a sense of community in your Moodle course which supplements your face to face course, it is good practice to begin with a welcome or introductory message or thread in one of your forums. This welcome or introduction from you invites participants, for example, to post some specific details to introduce themselves to you and their peers. This can be your icebreaker or you can have an icebreaker separately.
#If you have two questions for participants to answer, starting the two strands or topics within the forum itself will both help learners to see where to put their responses, and remind them to answer all parts of your question.
#Remember that you are communicating in an environment that does not have the benefit of verbal tone, eye contact, body language and the like. Careful consideration of your communication is, therefore, necessary.
#Postings to a forum are always written but they can take different forms and you may wish to consider what form best suits the activity. For instance, you might choose to articulate a form of contribution in order to be explicit. Thus you might say, 'This is a think-aloud forum in which, together, we will try to tease out ideas and possibilities' or 'This is a formal forum in which you are invited to share your ideas on (topic)' and, where you select the latter, you might have already suggested learners plan those ideas offline or in another kind of activity within Moodle.
#Create a forum where only the teacher can start discussions, but the students can only reply. Each thread you start contains an essay question (or several similar ones). The students make a bullet point plan for the essay and post it as a reply. This works well as a revision strategy as the students can see how others have approached the same task. Once everyone has posted their plan, you can start a discussion as to which plans seem better and why. Creating a scale to use for rating the posts can be useful so that the students can see how helpful other people think their effort were. (Note: At this time, there is no option to hide the "Add new discussion topic" button, so you need to tell your students not to start discussion threads, but to only reply to threads started by the teacher. If you only need one thread, then you can use the "a single simple discussion" format and the "Add new discussion topic" button is not available to the students.)

===Grading forums===
The teacher can use the [[Forum ratings|ratings]] [[Scales|scales]] to [[Grades|grade]] student activities in a forum. There are several methods for calculating the grade for a forum that can be found in the [[Adding/editing_a_forum#Grade|Forum settings under grades]]. There are 5 ways in Moodle 1.9 to [[Adding/editing_a_forum#Aggregate_type|aggregate ratings]] automatically to calculate a forum grade for the [[Gradebook]]. These include: Average, Max, Min, Count and Sum.

*In older versions of Moodle, only the average aggregate function was available. Teachers often use the Assignment module as a work around in order to manually calculate and then manually give a grade for a specific or all forum activities. The Forum grade would appear in the gradebook as an assignment, called for example "Weather forum participation".

===Best Practice and shared discussions===
*There are lots of discussions about Forum best use and Forum assessment in the Teaching Strategies Forum http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=41.

*A useful discussion about Forum assessment can be found here http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=66008.

== See also ==

* [[Using Moodle book]] Chapter 5: Forums, Chats, and Messaging
* Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?f=116 Forum module]

Using Moodle forum discussions:
* [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=5367 The philosophy underlying "no editing after 30 minutes"]
* [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=66008 Best Practices for grading discussions]
* [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=88000 Two Courses, One Forum?]
* [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=93304 Using a forum for 1 to 1 teaching]
* [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=95470 Technicalities of managing a Forum]


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Using Forum

2011-03-14T15:42:18Z

Sae1962: Enlarged the thumb images

{{Forums}}

You (the teacher) can set the format of what the student sees under the introduction by selecting [[Adding/editing_a_forum#Forum_type|forum type]] in Forum settings.

==Views==

===A single simple discussion===

Students will see the text you have placed in the [[Adding/editing_a_forum#Forum_introduction|Forum introduction setting]] as the first post of the discussion. Below you will find the replies that have been posted. In the example below, the student sees that their reply was rated.
[[Image:Forum homepage view Simple student mu.png|650px|thumb|center|Student view of "A single simple discussion" forum type]]

===Each person posts one discussion===
The view will be basically the same as in the previous case, the only difference being the 'Add a new discussion' option. Viewing a forum page, the student will see the text you have written at the 'Forum introduction' space while creating the forum, and, if there are any, the discussions that have been started.

[[Image:Forum homepage view Single student mu.png|650px|thumb|center|Student view of "Each person posts one discussion" forum type]]

===Standard forum for general use===

In this forum type, students will see the introduction text in a separate space above the discussion field, in which you will see the information such as the title of the discussion (which means the forum's title), its author, the number of replies and the date of the last post.
[[Image:Forum homepage view student mu.png|650px|thumb|center|Student view of "Standard forum for general use" forum type]]

===Question and Answer forum===

[[Image:Forum homepage view QandA student mu.png|650px|thumb|center|Student view of "Question and Answer" forum type]]

In the upper right corner of the home forum screen (above the introduction), the student may see the options the teacher has set for [[Adding/editing_a_forum#Force_everyone_to_be_subscribed.3F|subscriptions to the forum]], and the 'Jump to' field, with which you can 'jump' to any part of the course. This is also place where the teacher will find the "Update this forum" button.


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[[Category:Forum]]


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