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Manage Forum discussions

When you select the forum activity, you will be able to see a list of discussion topics that have been added. This list shows:

A list of discussion topic names
Creator of the discussion topic
Number of replies
Poster of the most recent post in the thread.
You can toggle subscription on and off with the switch in the Subscribe column.If you are subscribed, you will receive email notifications for any replies or posts made in the thread.

Image of example forum

You can post a new discussion, post to a forum visible to all participants or specific groups, or post a reply to a specific student’s post. Depending on how you set up the posts, the responses will only be visible based on the group setting.
1. Navigate to your forum.
2. If you have enabled groups in your forum settings, you will see the Visible groups drop down list. Select All participants or any groups within your unit from the drop down list. The forum posts will only be visible for the participants selected.
3. Click Add a new discussion topic.
4. Enter the Subject and Message. You can use any of the tools in the text editor to add images, multimedia and video.
5. To view the advanced options, click Advanced. You can:
  1. Attach files
  2. ‘Pin’ a forum to the top of the page. This will keep it displayed at the top of the forum until it is unpinned.
  3. Send forum post notifications with no editing-time delay. This will queue your post immediately.
    
    NOTE: Notifications emailed from Moodle are queued in the system for up to 59 minutes or more, depending on the queue load. By default, Moodle will wait for a short time before putting your post into the queue for mailing.
  4. Set the Display period if needed, this can be useful for future release of a post.
  5. If you have enabled groups in your forum settings, choose to post to all participants or to a particular group.
    1. Leave Post a copy to all groups unchecked if you wish to make the post visible to just one group or to make the post and subsequent responses visible to the entire class.
    2. Select Post a copy to all groups checkbox for group activities where discussion of the post is to have visibility limited to group members only
  6. Add Tags to your post. Tags allow you to find related posts quickly. Click on the Tags section and enter your tag, or select a previously entered tag from the drop down list.
6. Click Post to forum.
To view a thread and its replies, click on the discussion name. You can:
- Choose the way replies are displayed.
- Move discussions to a different forum by selecting a forum from the Move this discussion to... drop down list and clicking Move.
In the bottom right of a post, there are links that allow you to perform a number of actions. You can:
- Permalink: Allow forum posts to be shared through a link. For more information, see below (Linking directly to a forum post).
- Reply: An in-line text box will appear, allowing you to write a reply. You can click Advanced in the bottom right corner, for more text editor tools and the file attachment option. Once you have finished, click Submit or Post to forum. NOTE: You can also choose to reply privately to a student by selecting the Reply privately checkbox.
- Edit: You can edit your own post or a student's entry if necessary. Once edited, the post will display as having been edited and by whom.
- Delete: You can delete your own post or a student reply if necessary.
- Show parent: You can also click Show parent to highlight the post that a reply is in response to.
- Split: Depending on your forum set up, you may also be able to split a reply from the original post.
Click the three dots (...) on the right of the discussion thread, then choose:
- Pin this discussion: When a discussion thread is pinned, it will remain ‘pinned’ at the top of the list of discussion threads. You can pin multiple threads.
- Lock this discussion: When a discussion thread is locked, a padlock icon will appear and students will no longer be able to post a reply in that thread.
- Star this discussion: When you start a post, you move it to the top of a discussion thread. You can also start and unstar a discussion thread with the star icon left of the discussion name.
When viewing a discussion post, you can also access these options by clicking Settings on the left side of the page.
Permalinks allow forum posts to be shared through a link. For example, it may be useful to provide a link in an activity, such as an assignment description, in a Moodle lesson or a reminder email, allowing students to jump straight to the Moodle forum if they have a question.
Note: Students and staff can use Permalinks and are not restricted to linking only to their own posts; however the link can only be accessed by users who are enrolled in the unit and who have access to the target forum.
1. Navigate to the post you wish to link. In the lower right corner click on Permalink.
2. Copy the URL from the address bar (at the top of the screen). It will look something like: http://moodle.vle.monash.edu/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=85000#p1234567
3. Paste the link into any text editor that supports hyperlinks.
By default, if there are unread posts in a forum, a notification will display the number of unread posts below the forum activity link. To change this setting:
1. Open Preferences in your User menu.
2. Under the User account section, select Forum preferences.
3. In the Forum tracking option select Yes: highlight new posts for me.

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Manage Forum discussions

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