For all forum types, except a News forum, follow the steps below.
A News forum is created for each new module. This Forum type is for staff to post news. It is not a discussion Forum for students. Students are unable to reply to News forum posts. You can't convert a News forum into another type of Forum.
In addition to the News forum, staff can add more forums, choosing from four different types of forum. Any of these four Forum types can be can be set-up as group forums.
This type of Forum can be used for students to share information and ideas and to ask general questions about the course. A lecturer can use this Forum type to stimulate debate on a module topic. Students can view the list of discussions posted. They can reply to discussion posts and can start a new discussion (thread).
Similar to the Standard forum for general use, but the text of the first post of each discussion is displayed as in a blog. Students can read the posts and can respond by selecting the Discuss this topic button at the bottom right of the post. Students can also add new topics to this Forum type.
Lecturers post a question and students are only able to reply. Students cannot start a new topic of discussion. This is a useful Forum type if you need to keep a discussion focused.
Each student is able to post only one discussion. This requires the student to consider their response before posting, and also means that all students can contribute equally.
This Forum type is suitable when a particular question needs to be answered. The lecturer posts a question and students respond with possible answers. By default, a Q and A forum requires students to post once before viewing other students' postings. Students don’t have to worry about whether someone else has posted a similar reply or whether their reply goes against the prevailing class opinion. Once a student has posted to the Forum, they can view and comment on other students' posts.
Group forums are a great way to encourage collaboration and communication between project groups. Group forums can help you to manage communication and collaboration when teaching large groups of students. Any of the Forum types (with the exception of News forum) can be created as group forums.
A group forum requires you to set up Groups, and sometimes Groupings, in advance to organise your students into smaller cohorts. The relevant Groups/Groupings settings are applied in the Common module settings for the Forum.
Due date: You can set a due date which is when posts to the Forum are due. Students will see this date in their Moodle Calendar. They will be able to post after this date. To prevent posting to a Forum after a certain date, set a cut-off date.
Cut-off date: If you set a cut-off date, users will not be able to post to the Forum after this date.
When students are subscribed to a Forum they receive an email copy of posts to their City email.
Select Subscription and tracking to reveal the subscription options. Choose the most appropriate subscription method for your Forum.
To enable an RSS feed, select either discussions or posts to be included in the feed. Otherwise, leave to the default setting.
Discussions can be automatically locked after a specified time has elapsed since the last reply. Users with the capability to reply to locked discussions can unlock a discussion by replying to it.
Students can be blocked from posting more than a given number of posts in a specific period. You can set the maximum number of posts, and also issue a warning to students when they near the maximum number.
You can enable Turnitin similarity reports for forums posts. We advise that Turnitin is only used to view similarity reports and that any grading is completed through Moodle.
You can assess discussions with Whole forum grading, using direct or advanced grading. Please see page on Whole forum grading.
You can set up Ratings for discussions within Moodle.
Group mode and Grouping can be left as the default option if you are not creating a group forum.
You can use the Restrict access settings to control the availability of content and activities based on one or more conditions, including date and group.
Activity completion allows you to set completion criteria for a specific activity or resource.
Activities or resources with a completion criteria display a circle next to them in the Module index. The circle turns green (and is filled in) when the student meet the criteria. On the main module page, a tick and the word "done" appears against the item when the student meets the criteria. This helps students manage their progress on a module and staff can easily review student engagement and progress against key activities.
You can combine Restrict access and Activity completion to provide structured pathways through your module.
