Forum

General

1. Type a name for your forum into the “Forum Name” text box.
2. Type a description for your forum in the “Forum Description” text box. If students will be required to submit posts as part of their coursework, this is a good place to provide them with instructions and set expectations.
3. Check the “Display description on course page” box if you want to display the description for your forum on your course site.
4. Choose the type of forum you want to create from the “Forum type” dropdown list. The forum types are described below:
   A single simple discussion – A forum with only a single discussion topic which everyone can reply to.
   Each person posts one discussion – Each student can post exactly one new discussion topic, which everyone can then reply to.
   Q and A forum – Students must post their own topic before they can view other students’ posts.
   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.
   Standard forum for general use – An open forum where anyone can start a new discussion at any time.
   The single simple discussion forum type cannot be used with separate groups.

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Attachments and Word Count

1. Use the “Maximum attachment size” dropdown list to pick a file size limit for files that are uploaded to the forum.
2. Use the “Maximum number of attachments” dropdown list to limit the number of files that can be uploaded to a single forum post.
3. Use the “Display word count” dropdown list to determine whether the number of words written in each post is displayed.

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Subscription and Tracking

1. When someone is subscribed to a forum, they will receive an e-mail copy of every post that is made to the forum. Use the “Subscription mode” dropdown list to choose how people subscribe to the forum. The available subscription modes are described below:Optional subscription – Participants can choose whether or not to subscribe.
   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.
2. Use the “Read tracking” dropdown list to choose whether or not posts that a user hasn’t opened are marked as “unread”. You can make read tracking optional or turn it off entirely.

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RSS

1. Use the “RSS feed for this activity” dropdown list to enable RSS feeds for your forum Discussions or posts.
2. If using RSS feeds, use the “Number of RSS recent articles” to limit the number of articles that appear in the RSS feed.

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Post Threshold for Blocking

1. Use the “Time period for blocking” dropdown list to choose a period of time to limit the number of posts a student can submit.
2. When using a time period for blocking, type the maximum number of posts a student is allowed to submit in that time period into the “Post threshold for blocking” text box.
3. When using a post threshold for blocking, type the number of posts a student can submit before they receive a warning into the “Post threshold for warning” text box.

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Grade

Use the “Grade category” dropdown list to choose the grade book category for this activity. See Grading Activities for more information.

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Common Module Settings

1. Choose whether or not to hide or show the Assignment module using the “Visible” dropdown box.
2. If desired, type a number into the “ID number” text box. Setting an ID number provides a way of identifying the activity for grade calculation purposes.
3. Choose a group mode for the activity. The different group modes are described below:
   No groups – Students will not be separated into groups for the activity. In interactive activities, students will see the contributions of every class member.
   Separate groups – Students will be separated into groups for the activity. In interactive activities, students can only contribute to their group and only view their group’s contributions.
   Visible groups – Students will be separated into groups for the activity. In interactive activities, students will see the contributions of every class member, but they can only contribute to their group.
4. Use the “Grouping” dropdown list to determine the grouping for the activity. See Groups and Groupings for more information.
5. To only make the activity available to students assigned to groups within the selected grouping, check the “Available for group members only” box. See Groups and Groupings for more information.

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Restrict Access

Use the restrict Access settings to control when and how students can use the activity. See Restricting Access to Content for more information.

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Activity Completion

Use the Activity Completion settings to track the completion of the activity. For more information, see Activity Completion.

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Add a new topic

The first thing you’ll want to do after creating a forum is to add a topic that students can post replies to.

1. Click the “Add a new topic” button.
   
2. Type a headline for the topic into the “Subject” text box.
3. Type the content for your topic into the “Message” content editor. See Content Editor for more information.
   
4. Use the “Subscription” dropdown list to choose whether copies of student replies to this topic are sent to your e-mail.
   
5. Use the “Attachment” file uploader to attach a file to your post if desired.
   
6. Once you’ve submitted a topic to a forum, there will be a 30 minute time window for you to make changes before it is e-mailed to those who are subscribed to the forum. If you would like to bypass the time window and have the post e-mailed immediately, check the “Mail now” box.
7. Click the “Post to forum” button.
   

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Post a Reply to a Topic

1. Click on the name of the topic you want to reply to, then click the “reply” link below the topic.
   When using the “blog-like” forum type, you will need to click on the “Discuss this topic” link first.

   

2. Type a headline for your reply into the “Subject” text box.
3. Type the content for your reply into the “Message” content editor. See Content Editor for more information.
   
4. Use the “Subscription” dropdown list to choose whether copies of student replies in response to this reply are sent to your e-mail.
   
5. Use the “Attachment” file uploader to attach a file to your reply if desired.
   
6. Once you’ve submitted a reply to a topic, there will be a 30 minute time window for you to make changes to your reply before it is e-mailed to those are subscribed to the forum. If you would like to bypass the time window and have the reply e-mailed immediately, check the “Mail now” box.
7. Click the “Post to forum” button.
   

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Edit or Remove a Topic or Reply

After posting a topic or reply, you will have a 30 minute time window in which you can make changes to it.

1. Click the “Edit topic” link beneath the topic or the “Edit” link beneath the reply to make changes.
2. To remove the topic or reply, click the “Delete topic” or “Delete” link beneath the topic or reply and press the “Continue” button.

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Change How Replies are Displayed

1. Click on the name of a topic.
   When using the “blog-like” forum type, you will need to click on the “Discuss this topic” link below the topic.
2. Use the dropdown list in the upper left to change the way replies are displayed. The options are described below:
   Display replies in nested form – Each reply in response to another reply is indented.
   Display replies flat, with oldest first – Replies are not indented. The oldest reply is displayed first.
   Display replies flat, with newest first – Replies are not indented. The newest reply is displayed first.
   Display replies in threaded forum – Each reply in response to another reply is indented, but the content of replies is not displayed. Instead, the headline for each reply is shown as a link. Clicking on the link displays the reply on a separate page.

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Move a Topic to a Different Forum

1. Click on the name of the topic you want to move.
   When using the “blog-like” forum type, you will need to click on the “Discuss this topic” link below the topic.
2. From the dropdown list in the upper right, choose a forum to move the topic to.
   
3. Click the “Move” Button. You will be taken to the forum to which your topic has been moved.

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Turn a Reply into a Topic

1. Click on the name of a topic.
   When using the “blog-like” forum type, you will need to click on the “Discuss this topic” link below the topic.
2. Locate the reply you want to turn into a topic and click the “Split” link beneath the reply.
   
3. If desired, type in a new headline for the topic in the “Discussion name” text box.
   
4. Click the “Split” button.
   When turning a reply into a separate topic, any replies made to that reply will also be moved to the new discussion topic.

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Add an Activity or Resource

1. In the upper right, click on the green button that says “Turn editing on”.
   
2. Locate the section where you want to add an activity or resource. At the bottom of the section, click on the button that says “Add an activity or resource”
   
3. A window will pop up with a list of activities and resources. When you click on one of the items in the left column, a description will appear in the right column. Choose the activity or resource you want and click the “Add” button.
   

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Move or Arrange an Activity or Resource

To rearrange the order of an activity or resource:

1. Click on the compass arrows icon next to the title of the activity or resource you want to move and hold down the mouse button.
   
2. Drag the section up or down to move it to a new location.
3. Release the mouse button.

To add or remove an indentation to an activity or resource:

1. Click on the “Edit” button to the left of the activity or resource.
2. From the drop-down list, choose “Move right” or “Move left” next to the arrow icons.
   

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Rename an Activity or Resource

1. Click on the pen icon to the right of the activity or resource’s name.
   
2. Type in a new name for the activity or resource
   
3. Press enter to save or escape to cancel.

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Edit the Settings of an Activity or Resource

1. Click on the “Edit” button to the right of the activity or resource.
2. From the dropdown list, choose “Edit settings” next to the gear icon to hide the activity or resource.
   

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Hide or Show an Activity or Resource

1. Click on the “Edit” button to the right of the activity or resource.
2. From the dropdown list, choose “Hide” next to the eye icon to hide the activity or resource.
   
3. Once the activity or resource has been hidden, return to the “Edit” menu and choose “Show” to show it again.
   

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Copy an Activity or Resource

1. Click on the “Edit” button to the right of the activity or resource.
2. From the dropdown list, choose “Duplicate” next to the pages icon.
   

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Allow a Specific User Certain Permissions When Using an Activity or Resource

1. Click on the “Edit” button to the right of the activity or resource.
   
2. From the dropdown list, choose “Assign roles” next to the user icon.
   
3. Choose the type of role you want to assign to a specific user. The details of that role are listed in the “Description” column.
   
4. Choose the specific user from your list of potential users on the right. Click the arrow buttons to add or remove them to the “Existing Users” list on the left. You can also use the search boxes at the bottom to find a specific user.
   
5. The names in the “Existing Users” list will be assigned the role you chose on the previous page. When you’re finished, you can choose another roll to add from the drop-down list at the bottom, or you can return to the previous page by clicking on “Back to the list of all roles”.
   

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Delete an Activity or Resource

1. Click on the “Edit” button to the right of the activity or resource.
2. From the dropdown list, choose “Delete” next to the X icon.
   

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Change the Group Mode of an Activity or Resource

1. Click on the user icon next to the “Edit” button of the activity or resource.
   
2. Every time you click, the icon will change. Each icon represents a different group mode. The different group modes are described below:No groups – Students will not be separated into groups for the activity. In interactive activities, students will see the contributions of every class member.

   Separate groups – Students will be separated into groups for the activity. In interactive activities, students can only contribute to their group and only view their group’s contributions.

   Visible groups – Students will be separated into groups for the activity. In interactive activities, students will see the contributions of every class member, but they can only contribute to their group.

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