Facilitating Engaging Discussions

Using Moodle Forums

distancelearning@louisiana.edu

Agenda

• Why Use Moodle Discussions?• QM Standards and Alignment• Discussion Management• Moodle Forum Types• Options & Settings

Why Use Moodle Discussions?

Purpose of Online Discussions

• Student engagement

• Check for understanding

• Assure assignments are completed

• Build sense of presence and community

Student Forum Activities

• Asking questions about the course

• Debating cases and controversies

• Discussing key course concepts

• Facilitating group projects

• Self introductions

• Sharing resources

Instructor Forum Activities

• Answering questions & addressing issues

• Assessing learning

• Collecting feedback

• Enhancing student engagement

• Making important announcements

• Posting current events & literature

QM Standards

General Standard 1.9Learners are asked to introduce themselves to the class.

General Standard 5.2Learning activities provide opportunities for interaction that support active learning.

General Standard 5.4The requirements for learner interaction are clearly stated.

Alignment

• Appropriate Level of Bloom’s Taxonomy?

• Activity supports course or module objectives?

• Assesses course or modulelearning objectives?

Promote Discussion

Promote thoughtful discussion with:

• Ethical dilemmas

• Case studies

• Scenarios

• Role playing

• Prioritizing challenges

• Open-ended questions

DiscussionManagement

Instructions for Discussion

• Nature of the assignment

• Content expectations

• References to include

• Grading rubric

Establish Guidelines

• Frequency of posts

• Timing and deadlines

• Length of post and responses

• Netiquette

• Debate vs. argument

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Managing Discussions

• Monitor conversations

• Keep focus on topic

• Provoke deeper responses

• Respond to clarification questions

Forum Types

Announcements Forum

• Included when course is created

• Discussions can only be posted by instructor

• Students cannot reply

• Post are automatically sent as emails

(subscription is forced)

Note – importing content can duplicate the Announcements forum. Delete extras!

Standard Forum for General Use

• Anyone in course can create discussions

• Anyone can read and reply instantly

• No limit on number of discussion topics

Note – forum discussion posts are NOT imported into another course for use in future classes.

Q & A Forum

• Only Instructor and create discussion posts

• Students can only reply to posts

• Students CANNOT see replies until about 30 minutes after they post their first response

• In that 30 minutes they can edit their reply

• After the delay, students see other replies, but cannot edit their own responses anymore

A Single Simple Discussion

• Instructor must create the discussion post

• This text comes from the forum description

• Students can only reply to the post

• No other discussion posts can be made

Each Person Posts One Discussion

• Anyone in course can create a discussion

• Anyone can read and reply instantly

• Limit of one discussion topic per person

• This applies to the instructor, too!

Options & Settings

Subscription and Read Tracking

Options are:

• Optional subscription

• Forced subscription

• Auto subscription

• Subscription disabled

Subscription

• Determines whether posts are sent as email

• Emails can be singular or one daily digest at about 5:00 PM

• Determined by each participant individually on user profile forum preferences page

Subscription and Read Tracking

Read tracking

• Marks unread posts in each discussion

• Options are “Optional” or “Off”

• Determined by each participant individually on user profile forum preferences page

Group Settings

Enable group settings to:

• Limit the number of posts to read

• Segregate discussion topics

• Facilitate group projects

• Manage academic coaches

Note – set group mode BEFORE discussions start!

QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS

Thank you for your participation!

Please send questions and comments to distancelearning@louisiana.edu