Communication in Moodle
Forum Activity - Creating a discussion group
Forum is an asynchronous activity where one can conduct a discussion on a specific topic in the course. Examples of forum use: "Virtual Reception Hours", "Q&A forum" and more.
In the forum, all participants can see the messages of all participants and respond to each other, unless “visible groups” or “separate groups” have been defined in the settings.
Pedagogical uses: collaborative learning, class dialogue, peer evaluation, and discussion.
Building a forum
1. Enable "Edit Mode" on the upper right corner of the page.
2. Click on “Add an activity or resource” in the section you want to add the activity.
3. On the activity chooser, choose “Forum”.
4. Write the “Forum name”.
5. In the “Description” field, it is possible to type in instructions for the activity, or an introduction to the topic at hand.
6. Choose Forum type “standard forum for general use” (default) - where all participants can see all messages, write, and respond to each other. For explanations on additional forum types, click on the question mark icon in the "forum type" definition.
7. In the "Subscription and tracking" section, choose the way the students subscribe to the forum. That is, if the students will receive the forum messages also to their email automatically.
8. To finish, click on “Save and display”.
Starting a discussion
1. Click on the “Add discussion topic” button to start the discussion.
2. Write the forum title in the “Subject” section.
3. The content of the question/answer must be written in the “Message” section.
4. If you mark the option “send forum post notifications with no editing-time delay”, an email will be sent immediately after the message is created in the forum, instead of the default which is a delay of five minutes for editing.
5. To finish, click “post to forum”.
If you didn't mark the “send forum post notifications with no editing-time delay”, you will have five minutes to edit the message after posting it. To edit it, first click on the message in the discussion list.
Next, click on the "Edit" button under the text to open the text editor.
Commenting on a discussion
1. Click on the discussion title under the “Discussion” section in the table.
2. To reply to a discussion, click on "Reply". After writing your comment, click on "Post to forum" to finish.
3. Your comment will show on the bottom of the discussion thread, under the post you replied to.
Guests on the course can only view the content of the discussion, without the possibility of commenting.
Lecturer Messages - Sending messages to all students
All messages sent from the "Lecturer Messages" are automatically sent to the students' emails and appear on the course website and the students' home page.
The messages that are sent help in keeping in touch with the students regarding teaching and learning in the course and provide updates and instructions.
The "Lecturer Messages" activity is named "Announcements" in some courses
1. Enter the course website.
2. Make sure that the course website is available for students. For a guide explaining how to make the site available, refer to this guide.
3. Click on the “Lecturer Messages” item.
4. Click on the “Add discussion topic” button to start the discussion.
5. Write the forum title in the “Subject” section.
6. The content of the question/answer must be written in the “Message” section. You can add different media options and links to the text. You can also add files by dragging them to the text editor.
7. If you mark the option “send forum post notifications with no editing-time delay”, an email will be sent immediately after the message is created in the forum, instead of the default which is a delay of five minutes for editing.
8. To finish, click “post to forum”.
Lecturer Messages - Sending messages to specific groups
1. Enter the "Lecturer Messages" forum, then click on "Settings" in the menu at the top of the page.
2. Enter the "Common module settings" section. In the "Group Mode" field, choose the "Separate Groups" option.
3. In the "Grouping” field choose the "Iron Swords groups” option, for example.
4. To save your changes, click on "Save and return to the course”.
5. Go to the "Lecturer Messages" forum on the course website.
6. On the upper right side, select in the drop-down list to whom you would like to direct the message (all participants or a specific group).
If you haven't created the groups yet, refer to the 'Creating groups' guide.
7. Now you can click on the "Add discussion topic" button, write a message and click “Post to forum”.
Forum NG - Creating a private forum between lecturer and student
This resource allows for private dialogue between the lecturer and the students. In this forum, only the lecturer and teaching staff can see the student’s messages. Each student sees only his correspondence with the lecturer.
Pedagogical uses: self-assessment, learning-journal, reflection, experiment report, and communication tool.
How to add a personal forum between the student and lecturer?
1. Enable "Edit Mode" on the upper right corner of the page.
2. Click on “Add an activity or resource” in the section you want to add the activity.
3. On the activity chooser, choose “Forum NG”.
4. Write the name on the field “Forum name” (for example: "personal discussion")
5. In the forum type, choose “Study advice (only see own discussions)”
6. You can add a description and/or introduction using the text editors.
7. To finish, click on the “Save and display” button at the bottom of the page.
The students initiate the publication of a message in the forum and only then can the lecturer respond to it. You can create a message thread under the same discussion. The lecturer can have personal conversations with each student using the same activity.
Chat - Creating a synchronous (real-time) discussion
This activity creates a synchronous discussion (in real-time), different from using asynchronous forums. Every chat conversation is recorded and saved automatically.
1. Enable "Edit Mode" on the upper right corner of the page.
2. Click on “Add an activity or resource” in the section you want to add the activity.
3. On the activity chooser, choose “Chat”.
4. Write the name of the chat in the field “Name of this chat room” (for example: "Group work 1")
5. You can add a description using the text editor.
6. To set a time frame, click on the part “Chat sessions”, then choose the date in “Next chat time”.
7. To finish, click on the “Save and display” button at the bottom of the page.
8. To start the conversation, enter the chat activity, then click on "Enter the chat”.
9. The chat will open in a separate window. Type the message in the text box, then click "Send".
