Forums in Moodle provide essential student-to-student and instructor-to-student communication within a course. Posting to a forum varies, depending on the forum type. Forums default to Standard forum for general use, but instructors have several different forum types available to them.
A Single Simple Discussion
This forum is a single discussion topic in which everyone can reply to. It cannot be used with separate groups.
1. Click on the forum assignment link.
2. Click Reply.
3. Type the response in the Message textbox.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Post to forum link.
Each Person Posts One Discussion
Each student can post one new discussion topic in which everyone can then reply to.
1. Click on the forum assignment link.
2. Click Add a new discussion topic.
3. Type the title and response in the Subject and Message textboxes.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Post to forum link.
Note: After one discussion topic is posted, no other discussions can be added by that user. (If a student tries to post a second discussion topic, he or she will receive the following message: “You do not have permission to add a new discussion topic for all participants.”) However, students can still reply to other peers’ posts.
Q and A Forum
The instructor will post the initial forum, and students will then reply to that post instead of starting their own prompts. This ensures that the students post their perspectives independently before they are allowed to view other students’ responses.
Instructor Directions
1. Click on the forum assignment link.
2. Click Add a new question.
3. Type the title and response in the Subject and Message textboxes.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Post to forum link.
Student Directions
1. Click on the forum assignment link.
2. Click the discussion post made by the instructor.
3. Click Reply and type the response in the Message textbox.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Post to forum link.
Standard Forum Displayed in a Blog-like Format
This is an open forum that allows anyone to start a new discussion at any time; it displays discussion topics on one page with Discuss this topic links.
1. Click on the forum assignment link.
2. Click either Add a new topic or Discuss this topic.
a. Add a new topic: Type the title and response in the Subject and Message textboxes.
b. Discuss this topic: Click Reply and type the response in the Message textbox.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Post to forum link.
Standard Forum for General Use
This is an open forum where anyone can start a new discussion at any time.
1. Click on the forum assignment link.
2. Click Add a new discussion topic.
3. Type the title and response in the Subject and Message textboxes.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Post to forum link.
Pinned Posts
When adding a new discussion post as an instructor, you can pin the discussion to the top of the list of discussion posts by checking the Pin box when adding a discussion.
All other forum discussion posts will come after the post that has been pinned.