How are online forums used at Monash?

Forums are online message boards that are frequently used in units of study at Monash. You can find your forums in the list of links at the top of a unit’s Moodle page. They are one of the main ways you can communicate with peers and educators at university.

Why use a forum?

As a student, you might post to a university forum for:

  • questions related to specific unit content,
  • administrative questions,
  • academic debate as part of an assessment task, or
  • organising interactions with your classmates.

Educators may also post to a forum to provide:

  • administrative updates
  • reminders of upcoming assessments, or
  • as a means of addressing student questions.

The main thing to remember is that it is a semi-professional space. That doesn’t mean you have to always use formal academic language, but there are some conventions you might want to make sure you are using before you post.

Good questions and arguments on forums

Making your post short and specific will increase the likelihood others will engage with what you have to say. Use the rule of one topic per post whenever possible. If you try to write a long post with several questions or arguments, some of what you have said may not be addressed.

When writing the title, for example, writing ‘my thoughts’ or ‘I have a question about week 6’ is rather vague and reduces the likelihood of someone reading your post.

When asking a question to a forum, break your post into two parts:

  1. Start by stating your question in specific terms.
  2. State what you already know about your question and where you have searched for information.

If the forum post is for an assignment, check with your assignment guidelines for specifics. When stating your opinion, make sure you have considered your overall argument, your reasons and your supporting evidence. You may wish to draft your forum post in a Google document to ensure any formatting and referencing requirements are met.

Additionally, make sure you are considerate and avoid aggressive or offensive language. For example, you can disagree with a point of view or be frustrated about something within your studies without attacking the people that may be causing the frustration.

Finally, avoid slang, swearing, text shorthand, emojis, GIFs and memes. These forms of communication are too informal, and do not translate well across cultures. Some units may allow or encourage such communication, but unless your assignment guidelines state to do so, assume they are not appropriate for university forums.

Note

There is a limited, 5-minute time window for editing forum posts on Moodle because emails of posts are sent to users to alert them to new content on the site. Depending on a user’s preference settings, these emails can be sent as soon as the editing deadline has passed. These emails, once sent, cannot be edited, and, therefore, to maintain consistency, the original posts cannot be edited after the deadline. For forum activities linked to assessment, we recommend that students draft and edit content in another platform, such as Google Docs, before posting onto Moodle.