Adding/editing a Forum

To add or edit a forum you MUST have the editing rights as editing teacher or a similar role.

Add a new forum:

1. Click "Turn Editing On", and go to the topic or week section in which you want to create the forum.

2. 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.

Edit an existing forum (from the main course page)

1. Click "Turn Editing On".

2. Click "Update" icon next to the forum. To edit an existing forum If you want to edit an existing forum, use the "Update this forum" button to see the forum settings page.

OR

Edit an existing forum (from any page in the forum)

1. Go to Settings block > Forum administration > Edit settings

If unsure, use the default settings and change things later if needed.

SECTIONS

There nine possible sections in Forum settings. The number of depends on features activated by the Moodle Administrator (in Site Administration > Advanced features).

General

Forum name

• Write a name for your forum. Something brief, accurate, easy to notice on the course main page.
• Moodle Admin may allow HTML in titles by turning on formatstringstriptags capability (Site Administration > Appearance > HTML settings; off by default)

Forum type

There are five forum types:

A single simple discussion

• A single discussion topic which everyone can reply to. Best for short, focused discussions.

Each person posts one discussion

• Each student can post exactly one new discussion topic, which everyone can then reply to. Very 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

• Students must first post their own perspectives or answers before viewing other students' replies a discussion. Students themselves may want to pose a question in the initial post of a discussion. Great for encouraging independent thought!

Standard forum displayed in a blog-like format

• An open forum where anyone can start a new discussion at any time. Discussion topics are displayed on one page with "Discuss this topic" links. Blog-like but with the added capability for posts to be rated.

Standard forum

• For general use - An open forum where anyone can start a new discussion at any time. This is the best general-purpose forum.

There is also a News forum, an automatically generated one-way noticeboard from the course teacher/moderator to the course participants. News forum can be set up as a Latest news block on the main page (and not from this menu).

Forum introduction

A space to describe the purpose, subject, rules, rating & grading criteria (if applicable) and similar important aspects of the forum. The standard HTML editor allows for formatting of text, links and inserting media.

Subscription

When a participant is subscribed to a forum it means they will receive email copies of forum posts. There are 4 subscription mode options:

Optional subscription

• Participants can choose whether to be subscribed.

Forced subscription

• Everyone is subscribed and cannot unsubscribe.

Auto subscription

• Everyone is subscribed initially but can choose to unsubscribe at any time

Subscription disabled

• Subscriptions are not allowed.

Read tracking

If enabled, participants can track read and unread messages in the forum and in discussions. There are three options:

• Optional - Participants can choose whether to turn tracking on or off
• On - Tracking is always on
• Off - Tracking is always off

Maximum attachment size

This setting specifies the largest size of file that can be attached to a forum post. To change the default sizes ...ADD HERE ADMIN ...

Maximum number of attachments

This setting specifies the maximum number of files that can be attached to a forum post. This could be .... ADD

RSS

• RSS allows for users to be subscribed to either new discussions or new posts and have them delivered via RSS feed.
• For this feature to work, Moodle Admin has to allow/configure ...

TODO !!!

Grade

Note: This section is only shown to the person with capabilities to grade this activity (eg. Teacher role).

Outcomes

Note: This section is visible only shown if Outcomes are turned on by Moodle Admin (Site Administration > Advanced features) and only to the person with capabilities to check outcomes in this activity (eg. Teacher role).

Ratings

This section is visible only shown if Ratings are turned on by Moodle Admin (Site Administration > Advanced features)

Restrict access

This section is visible only shown if Conditional activities are turned on by Moodle Admin (Site Administration > Advanced features)

Activity completion

This section is visible only shown if Activity completion is turned on by Moodle Admin (Site Administration > Advanced features)