Forums: Programming Forum Due Dates

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  • May 11, 2018

Three Different Date Options

Forums have three different options for programming dates.

  1. Restrict ratings to items with dates in this range: You can program these dates and times to indicate whether or not the posting was made within your parameters. You will not have the option to rate that post if it was posted outside of your date range.
  2. Restrict access: You can program these dates and times to limit when your students are able to access and post to the forum, but these dates do notshow up in the Moodle calendar.
  3. Manual due dates in Moodle Calendar: These serve as a visual notification to your students for when they should be active within the forum.

Restrict Ratings to Items with Dates in this Range

Before you begin, note that you must have ratings enabled in order to use this setting.

  1. Access the forum you’d like to program and click on Edit Settings in the Administration block.
  2. Scroll to the Ratings section and click the checkbox next to the phrase Restrict Ratings to Items with Dates in this Range.
  3. Select the date range in the fields provided.
  4. Save your settings.

Restrict Access

  1. Access the forum you’d like to program and click on Edit Settings in the Administration block.
  2. Scroll to the Restrict Access section and click the title in order to expand options.
  3. Select Add Restriction.
  4. A pop-up will appear; choose the Date 
  5. A set of options will appear
    • Select From to restrict students from accessing the forum until the date specified.
    • Select Until to restrict students from accessing the forum after the date specified.
    • You can choose one or both options. Choosing both options will open the forum on the From date and close the forum to student view on the Until date.
  6. Save your settings.

Manual Due Dates in the Moodle Calendar

  1. Access the calendar by clicking the month within the block (for example, “August 2017”).
  2. Click New Event in the top right-hand corner of the calendar.
  3. The type of event will be Course because you only want this event to be attached to this particular course (as opposed to site-wide), and you want to ensure that all users in this course can view it (as opposed to just yourself).
  4. The event title for this example would be the forum title along with the word “Available.” The naming convention is your preference.
  5. Enter any description you’d like to include, followed by programming the date and time you’d like the event to start.
  6. Next you’ll program the duration. Select Until and program a finish date and time for this event.  If you would not like to post a due date, then select Without Duration.
  7. If you’d like this to be a repeat event, you can program repetition.  Once you’re finished, click Save Changes.  You will now have a forum open and close date in your course calendar.  Please note that this does not affect the functionality of the forum; the forum will always be physically available to your students as long as you have it visible and available.  If you’d like to enforce your due dates, please program the dates into the Restrict Access field in the forum settings as well.