Moodle Monday- Some Forum features & types

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Some Moodle Forum features you might not know about, but might find a use for:
  1. Tracking of read posts:  ("Read tracking for this forum?") Turning this feature on shows the user which posts have not been looked at yet by making them bold. 
  2. Adding attachments: You can have users share files within a forum, such as podcasts, documents, presentations, etc. This can be an area that students share or showcase some of their work with each other.
  3. Post threshold: Enabling this will set a limit to the number of posts the participants can make within a certain time period.  For instance, 10 posts per day.
I get many questions about the different types of forums and how to use them.  Here's a brief rundown of them:
  1. Single, simple discussion: discussion with a single topic, where all responses show on a single page.  Some common uses: an area for students to share/showcase an assignment; a discussion that does not have lots of depth.
  2. Each person posts one discussion: every participant can begin only one new discussion topic within the discussion forum. Some common uses: having participants introduce themselves and comment on each others entries; posting individual reflections on an activity/assignment; setup for a student exploratory and share area.
  3. Q and A forum: this discussion requires the participant to post initially before viewing and responding to others' discussion topics. Some common uses: to have students post reflections on a topic before responding to others; have participants post a question for other participants to answer.
  4. Standard forum for general use: discussion where any participant can add a new topic for others to reply to; the main page lists the discussion topics created, creator, number of replies for each, and last posting for each.  Some common uses: a help/tips/tricks area for participants to post and answer questions; topical storage area, for instance, a standard forum for an English novel with one discussion topic for each chapter of the book.
Some definitions in case you are not as familiar with forums:
-discussion forum: overall forum that you create
-discussion topic: question or posting by a participant within
-reply: participant comment to existing discussion topic

As always, feel free to share with others!

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