Forum requirements

This is just a little flag waving: I've wondered if such a page as this is needed. See the post here: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=155633 Derek Chirnside 00:06, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

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Moodle forum purpose

Where we are now

Index Page of Forums

Lists all forums on a course (that the user is allowed to see) with name, description, number of discussions, and number of unread posts.

1. User can mark messages read, subscribe/unsubscribe, turn on/off read tracking, and access RSS feeds for every forum.
2. Two features apply to all forums on the course: an ‘all at once’ subscribe/unsubscribe option and a search box.
3. OU: The index page is not normally used.

Forum Main page

1. A list of discussions in date order (the discussion with most recent post floats to the top). If there are very many discussions, they are paged. A tick-mark icon marks all discussions read.
2. For each discussion,
   1. the title
   2. name and picture of user who started it
   3. total number of replies
   4. number of unread replies
   5. date of last post, and name (only) of the user who made the last post.

A tick-mark icon marks that discussion read.

1. OU: Pictures are not shown. (We are planning to re-enable pictures at some point.)
2. ‘Add a new discussion topic’ button.
3. Ancillary features: search box (searches all forums), subscribe option, RSS feed link, and options to enable/disable read tracking.
4. OU: Read tracking is forced on.

The discussion page

The discussion page shows all posts in a discussion.

1. Users can choose between four view options. There are two fundamentally different views: flat (in date order/reverse), and threaded/nested (showing the structure of replies).
2. OU: this option is disabled, we force the ‘nested’ view.
3. A search box. (Searches . . )
4. A dropdown allows users to move the discussion to another forum on the same course. Forums are shown in course order and with headings of their section name (e.g. ‘Week 4’).

1. OU: Selected (checked) posts can be exported to RTF, which usually opens in Word. The exported file contains an approximation of the post content.

This and the following feature (at present we can’t distinguish between them in usage statistics) appear to have been used 23 times in an arbitrarily selected day; surprising, perhaps, given that it’s so unclear why anyone would want either feature.

1. OU: Selected (checked) posts can be summarised. This is kind of like reply with quote, but it quotes all the messages you selected, and your reply is added to the top level. The idea is that a tutor will add a ‘summary’ that highlights key points from a number of posts students made.

Viewing Posts

Posts are displayed according to the view style. Each post displays:

1. Title.

OU: Special logic hides the title if it is blank or ‘Re: parent title’; this reduces unhelpful repetition.

1. Picture and name of author.

OU: Picture is not shown. (We are planning to re-enable pictures at some point.)

1. Date of post.
2. Picture(s) of author’s groups, if set.
3. Text of post (HTML content) and attachments if any.

Commands and features on each post (available according to user permissions and forum options):

1. Reply – takes you to the edit page for a new post in reply to the current one.

OU: also ‘reply with quote’, which barely works.

1. Edit – takes you to the edit page for your existing post. Editing is limited to a time set in global configuration.

OU: editing is disabled.

1. Delete – deletes the current post. You can’t delete posts if they have replies.
2. Show parent – usually within the current page, jumps the viewpoint to the parent post (the one

that this post is in reply to).

1. Split – removes this post from the discussion (along with all its replies), and makes it into a new top-level discussion.
2. A ‘Rating’ dropdown is used to rate a user’s post. Ratings contribute to a grade for the activity.

Posts can be rated on a defined Moodle scale (a fixed set of text options which correspond to a number, such as ‘Very poor’ = 0) or a numeric scale 0..N. The average result of such ratings (on the same scale) may be displayed alongside a post. After changing ratings, you need to click ‘Send in my latest ratings’ button at bottom of the page, or they will be ignored.

1. OU: ‘Save to portfolio’ icon.
2. OU: A checkbox allows posts to be selected for the silly features at bottom.

Brainstorm: desired features

See also . .