Adding Forums to Your Course

Also referred to as online message boards, forums are fabulous, powerful tools that can engage your learners in collaborative projects, such as out-of-class test reviewing, group project discussions/brainstorming (with all brainstorming documented), debating among classes, contributing to a topic discussion that's not in real time, role playing, inviting guests, and so on. Forums enable learners to practice skills not easily supported in traditional class settings. Studies have shown that learners participate in forum discussion more than they would in a traditional classroom setting. Educators have identified the following reasons for learners' increased participation in forums: Shyness is less of a factor, language barriers are less of a hindrance, and peer pressure is lessened. In addition, when learners discuss a topic in a forum, they can employ their computers' usability options to overcome disabilities that affect communication, and they have time to research and think through their answers before replying.

Before you create any forums, though, you need to choose what type of forum you want to create. To do that, you need to think about how to best integrate forums into your course. I discuss these issues before showing you how to actually create a forum.

Effectively using forums with your learners

Before you dive in and start creating stimulating forums for your course, take some time to think about the following issues:

• Determine how the forum discussion will be related to the learning goals and topic. Learners need to understand why they're asked to participate in an activity that can potentially be time-consuming.
• Clearly explain your intentions of use and directions for your learners. Understanding that the forum discussion is related to something and that each forum can have any number of new discussions with any number of replies can be confusing. If you don't clarify the structure and if learners don't understand that each new discussion topic needs to relate to the course activity, learners may create discussions on unrelated issues. Of course, this doesn't apply if it's your intention to open a discussion as a free form of expression.

  Monitor free-for-all threaded discussions. Topics can become hot quickly. Learners are known to be more forthcoming when not having to face others in discussing issues that ignite passionate feelings. You may find yourself having to bring white flags into your course and hold United Nation–style peace meetings.

• Decide whether you want to assess learners' participation in forums. Moodle forum activities can be graded by you or rated by you or other learners. If you decide to use ratings or any form of assessment, make sure your learners understand how their contributions will be evaluated. Watch out for quality versus quantity.
• Establish classroom protocols for polite and positive replies. Learners should not be made fun of, or made to feel small, for their contributions by other members of the class. Preparing guidelines regarding rudeness, vulgarity, and what is otherwise not acceptable will save you effort if such a situation should arise. If this is a concern, remind learners about school policy regarding student behavior and how it also applies to the online environment. If you assign points (set up forum marking or scales), for participation, often that's enough to deter negative behavior, and learners are more likely to participate.

After you've ironed out the preceding issues, get creative and make Moodle forums work for you. You can use different types of forums (which I discuss in the next section) to engage and encourage participation in discussion topics.

• Use the News forum to make announcements to your students. This is the only forum where students can't reply. Moodle sets up the discussion forum as a default, and it's displayed at the top of each Moodle front page. Instructors can use this forum for general announcements to all members in the course (for example, “Don't forget exam review in chat room”) or topic-related announcements. Moodle sends each news forum to your learners' e-mail accounts, so you don't have to accept excuses like “I didn't know there was a new announcement on Moodle.” The item is also added to the Latest News block on the course front page.
• Invite guests to participate in an interview-style forum. For example, an author, a politician, or some other notable person may be more willing to participate in a limited forum discussion than to visit a class. Organize your learners to post questions for the visitor and then let the learners rate the questions and choose the highest rated ones to use as topics to engage the guest in discussion.
• Set up Q & A forums. You and your learners can use these forums effectively for reviewing, debates, and problem-solving.
• Encourage debate-style discussion by setting up a forum around topics. Moodle is a great platform for topical issues that ignite passion. Use the same format for less-heated activities, such as reading groups.
• Consider using role-play scenarios. Assigning learners (or letting them choose) a character and its persona is fun. Learners have to post topics or replies based on knowledge of the characters they're portraying. This is an effective way for learners to investigate and think like the character. For example, choosing a historical figure to understand how decisions were made in a particular era can be a powerful learning activity and much more fun than just reading about the person and writing a report.

Choosing the right forum

Because Moodle is consistent in the layout and setup procedure of all activities and resources, setting up a forum is easy. The most important aspect of setting up the forum is first thinking about the type of forum you want to set up and then choosing correct options. Moodle supports four types of forums:

• A single, simple discussion: You post the main topic and instructions, and learners are allowed to post only replies to the discussion. This type of forum provides the instructor with the most control over the discussion topic. This forum type is useful if you want to post an issue/question and ask learners to reply.
• Each person posts one discussion: This forum type is useful if you want to restrict new discussion postings or require that each learner posts one discussion. Learners can post multiple replies. I use this forum type when I expect each learner to contribute a discussion to the topic and I plan to grade them for their efforts.
• Question and answer (Q & A) forum: This forum type is fabulous for many different activities. All learners are expected to post a discussion before they can see other learners' postings and replies. I've used this forum for guest interviews. I asked learners to post questions for our guest. After everyone posted a question, learners could reply to the questions and then rate them. Questions with the highest ratings were e-mailed to the guest. Q & A forums are also used in math and science. The instructor posts a problem to solve; each learner has to post a solution before they can see other learners' answers.
• Standard forum for general use: This is the simplest, most flexible forum for various activities. Your learners can post multiple discussions and replies. Keep track of discussion topics because heated replies can trigger new discussion postings not related to your course learning objectives.

Creating forums

Setting up a forum is simple after you decide what type of forum you want to use with your course and whether you want to assess the posting with grades or scales. To begin, follow these steps:

1. On your course front page, click the Turn Editing On button.
2. Choose Forum from the Add an Activity drop-down list, as shown in Figure 8-1.

   The Add an Activity drop-down list appears next to the Add a Resource drop-down list in the every week or topic on the front course page.

   Don't forget to first locate the week or topic set where you want to post the forum. Moodle takes you to the Adding a New Forum page for the course section selected.

3. In the General area, type a name in the Forum Name field. (See Figure 8-1.)

   Anything marked with an asterisk is a required field.

   Figure 8-1: The top half of the Adding a New Forum page.

   

   Be descriptive with forum names — the titles will appear on your Moodle front page.

4. Choose what type of forum you want to set up from the Forum Type drop-down list.

   The preceding section explains each forum type.

5. In the Forum Introduction text box provided, enter a brief explanation on how you want the forum to be used within the context of the activity.

   Describe how you'll be using this forum in your course and how it relates to the course learning goals. Use this space for specific instructions on how to use the forum, state whether you're planning to grade it, and explain your grading requirements.

6. Choose whether you want to force everyone in the course to be subscribed to this forum.

   Moodle sets the default to No. Click the drop-down list to choose one of the following options:

   • Force Everyone to Subscribe: If set to Yes forever, everyone will receive e-mail post when learners add a discussion topic or reply to any given topic. Posts are sent 30 minutes after they're added. This gives the learner/instructor chance to edit or change her posting, which is a good idea for those hotheads who are quick to reply and click the Post to Forum button, and later regret it. The 30-minute delay can be overridden by the Teacher or Administrator roles.
   • Selecting Yes Initially: Choosing this setting subscribes everyone as above, but they can unsubscribe, and it's helpful to get your learners comfortable using forums and posting replies. It's also useful for learners who would rather read than write — make peer pressure work for you.
   • Subscriptions Not Allowed: This setting restricts learners from subscribing and is useful if a forum is set up for teachers only, or if you want to restrict second-semester students or latecomers from joining the forum.
7. Choose whether to track who reads which forum posts.

   You have three options listed in the Read Tracking for This Forum drop-down list: Optional (the default), Off, and On. Moodle highlights unread forum posts. If you choose Optional, learners have a choice to turn this feature off or on. The Off or On setting does not give learners the options to override.

8. Determine a maximum size for forum attachments.

   This setting enables you to determine how large files can be uploaded to the forum in the course. Moodle enables learners to attach files or images to forum postings. I recommend that you select a smaller upload size from the drop-down list or restrict attachments altogether unless it's required by the learning activity. If the forum is active with many participants, learner downloading speeds can be affected, if they start uploading files, and you'll use up your allocated server capacity.

9. Make your choices in the Grade area, as shown in Figure 8-2.

   Figure 8-2: Settings for the second half of the Adding a New Forum page.

   

   Moodle's default grading is set to No Ratings, with various grade options not activated. If you don't plan to grade or use scales for forums, skip this option. You will find that numeric or word scales are useful to give participation points to learners. Moodle automatically enters forum ratings in learners' grade books. To set up forum grades, select the following:

   • Aggregate Type: From the drop-down list, select the type of rating. Your choices are Average Rating, Count of Rating, Maximum Rating, Minimum Rating, and Sum of Ratings. If you'll be using a descriptive scale, Moodle will ignore the aggregate.
   • Grade: Depending on your aggregate choice, choose a numeric grade or a scale. I cover grades and scales in Chapter 7.
   • Restrict Ratings to Post with Dates in This Range: Selecting this check box restricts rating to the specific time you select in the From and To dates. This option is useful if students are given permission to rate (see the next section), or if you want students to keep on task and participate in a given period.
10. Restrict posting to encourage participation from every learner.

    The Post Threshold for Blocking area gives you three options:

    • Time Period for Blocking: From the drop-down list, choose 1 Day to 1 Week. If you want to add restriction right away, choose 1 Day.
    • Post Threshold for Blocking: Enter the number of times a learner can post to the forum. This restricts the overactive and enthusiastic learners speaking out or doing work for others.
    • Post Threshold for Warning: Set the value to warn them. Quite simply, if you allow for three postings, you can set this value by entering 2. When the learner post two discussions, Moodle informs her that she can post only one more.
11. Choose options in the Common Module Settings area as you would when you set up any Moodle activity.

    See Chapter 3 for a rundown of the Common Module Settings area.

12. Click the Save and Return to Course button.

    Moodle saves your settings and returns you to the course front page.