Forums are online discussion boards that allow for interaction amongst students, instructors, and others involved in this course. Your instructor may make participation in these forums part of your grade.

pic16.png Forum Icon – Forums in Moodle are indicated with the ‘speech bubble’ icon.

Forum Types

  • Single simple discussion – This type of forum is a single topic. The topic and replies are all kept on one page, making this useful for short, focused discussions.
  • Standard forum for general use – This is an open forum where anyone
    (student or instructor) can start a new topic at any time.
  • Each person posts one discussion – In this forum, each person can only post one discussion topic. Participants are free to reply to any topics posted.
  • Q and A forum – In order to view and reply to postings made by others, students are required to post their own perspectives. Once posted, students can view and reply to postings that other students have made.

Forum Definitions:

  • Post – any message within the forum, including the discussion topic and any replies.
  • Subject – the title of a post.
  • Thread – A string of replies (or replies of replies) to an original post.
  • Topic – The subject of the original post of a thread

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Forum Etiquette
To keep our online community safe and welcoming, it is important to follow a few guidelines when posting within the course forums:

Be nice

  • No ‘flaming’ – in other words, avoid personal attacks, pettiness, abuse. Respect other users, and if you disagree with them, explain why.
  • No ‘trolling’ – trolls are posts deliberately designed to provoke an angry response. That doesn’t mean you can’t be controversial, if you really mean it.
  • No personal disputes – if it gets personal, take it offline.
  • Avoid typing in ALL CAPS, which is considered shouting or yelling.
  • Learn to let go – don’t keep harping on about the same thing.
  • If someone else’s post offends you, don’t immediately fight back online.
    Consider whether they really meant to cause offence. It can be easy to sound rude without meaning to, but if you really are troubled by the post, don’t respond – take it to your teacher instead.

Be effective

  • Post in the most appropriate forum.
  • Stay on topic – try to focus on the original topic. In particular, don’t change subject in the middle of an existing thread – start a new topic.
  • Conversely, don’t start a new topic if your post relates to an existing one - reply to the existing thread.
  • When starting a new topic, make the subject line clear and informative.