Learn@Illinois Moodle - Forum Activity
Learn how to use the forum activity. The forum activity is a tool that allows for students to have group discussions with other members of the course in a written format.
For a permanent link to this information, please use: http://go.illinois.edu/MoodleForum
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Examples of Using Forum Activity
- Discussion
- Peer Review
- Group Projects
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the best way to grade a Forum activity?
The best way to grade a Forum activity is to create an Assignment activity where the grades for the Forum will be stored. Within the new Assignment, set up the UI Activity Grader in Assignment to link the forum to the assignment. You can also enable grading within the forum itself, see Whole Forum Grading. - How can I ensure that my students are posting original thoughts?
See our Curbing Cheating in Forums by Requiring Students to Post First page. - Which type of Forum should I use?
See the Moodle.org documentation on the Forum activity . - How can I use the Forum for peer review?
Ask the students to post their work in the forum and require them to comment on each others' work. If you want students to grade each others' work, use the Workshop activity instead. - How can I use the Forum for group projects?
See Using Groups with Forums. - Can I grade original posts and replies?
Yes, the UI Activity Grader in the Assignment activity has special settings to take care of both posts and replies.
Best Practices
- It is recommended that students make an initial post and a required number of response posts.
- Allow for a couple of days between due dates of initial posts and response posts to give students time to complete.
- Use clear descriptions of activity in the description field including:
- How students will be graded including any grading guides and rubrics
- Formatting rules
- File types that will be accepted
- Examples of exemplary submissions
- Communicate dates in a way that is easy to maintain
- Rarely use hard due dates (e.g. September 22, 2017) - opt for relative dates (e.g. Tuesday of Week 1) whenever possible
- Use the year when typing hard due dates so that if it does not get updated, it will be clear that this is the wrong date.
- When you would like to collect submissions at midnight, consider using 11:55pm instead. Students are often confused when something is due on Monday at midnight, but the system says that it is due on Tuesday at 12:00am.
Groups and Groupings
- Groups are often used in Forum for small group discussions. See our Using Groups with Forums page for more information.
- See our Groups and Groupings page for more information.