How to use Forums or Discussion Boards

Discussion forums are recognized by the following icon: 

Click on the appropriate discussion forum. Then click the "Add a new discussion topic".

In this page, type a title for your post in the subject line. Then you can either type directly in Moodle in the Message box or attach a file by dragging it in to the rectangle with blue arrow. Finally press “post to forum” button.

Note: make sure that you always type and save your answer in a word document on your computer and copy and paste it in to the message box. Sometimes when you post your answer, you get an error message and all your work will be gone.

The following picture shows that you have made a post in a forum successfully.

After submission, if you click back on your respond, you have a window of 30 minutes to edit your response or delete it. After 30 min the only option that is available is the reply button

In the same manner, you can click on other participants’ posts and reply them with a comment. Please
 make sure that you don’t use the back button of your browser to go back. Click on the breadcrumb at the top to go back.

Sometimes the discussion boards have time restriction on them. It means that you wont be available to post after a certain time and it wont be available before a certain time.

Note: some times the instructors would prefer to post the question or topic of the discussion in the forum and students only reply to the instructors post rather than creating a separate post each. This way it is easier for the instructor to look at all the responses in one place.

Note: if the discussion forum is in the form of “Q and A” (question and answer), then you wont see other participants’ responses until you submit yours and wait for 30 min for the grace period to be over. Then you can see all the other responses and you can reply to them.

Note: if the discussion forums are for a specific group of participants, only the group members see each other’s posts. When you click on the forum you will see a message at the top left “separate groups” and it follows by your group number or letter or name.