The following information has been mainly taken out of the article “Chat, Messaging and forums” from How to use Moodle on github (last access: 10.04.2024) and was only amended slightly.
Moodle, and therefore also atingi, provides good communication tools which helps you to create an interaction with your learners in different ways. You can use forum or comment block for asynchronous communication, Chats for simultaneous conversation or send a message to (all) users.
Forum
Forums are a powerful communication tool within a course. Think of them as online message boards where you and your learners can post messages to each other while easily keeping track of individual conversations. Forums are the primary tool for online discussion and are the central organizing feature in the social course format. Please note that forums on atingi should always been moderated by a course administrator or teacher to avoid unanswered questions, spam, or hate speech.
Forums allow you and your students to communicate with each other at any time, from anywhere with an internet connection. The technical term for this type of communication is asynchronous, meaning “not at the same time.” Asynchronous communications are contrasted with synchronous forms such as chat rooms, instant messaging, or face-to-face conversations.
Because forums are asynchronous, students can take their time composing replies. They can draft and rewrite until they are happy with the results instead of feeling under pressure to respond immediately. A lot of research indicates that more students are willing to participate in an asynchronous forum than are willing to speak up in class. For students whose primary language is not that of the course, people with communicative disabilities, and the just plain shy, forums offer a chance to take as much time as they need to formulate a reasonable reply. The asynchronous nature of the forums creates many opportunities for you not only to replicate the conversations you have in class, but also to create entirely new activities that are difficult in a classroom setting.
Moodle forums also allow subscriptions. When a user subscribes to a forum, all new posts are automatically sent to the email address stored in the user’s profile. This makes it easy to keep track of what’s happening in the forums without constantly logging in.
Participants can subscribe to a forum to receive notifications of new forum posts. Admins can set the subscription mode to optional, forced or auto, or prevent subscription completely. If required, students can be blocked from posting more than a given number of posts in a given time period; this can prevent individuals from dominating discussions. Forum posts can also be graded by teachers or students (peer evaluation).
Forum types
Creating a forum is relatively easy – you can add a forum activity just like any other activity in your course. The key to success is choosing the right options for the type of forum you want to create. atingi has five basic forum types:
- A single simple discussion - A single discussion topic which everyone can reply to (cannot be used with separate groups). Students will see the text you have placed in the Forum introduction setting as the first post of the discussion. Below you will find the replies that have been posted.
- Each person posts one discussion - Each student can post exactly one new discussion topic, which everyone can then reply to. The view will be basically the same as in the previous case, the only difference being the ‘Add a new discussion’ option. Viewing a forum page, the student will see the text you have written at the ‘Forum introduction’ space while creating the forum, and, if there are any, the discussions that have been started.
- Q and A forum - Students must first post their perspectives before viewing other students’ posts. The Q & A forum is best used when you have a particular question that you wish to have answered. In a Q and A forum, teachers post the question and students respond with possible answers. By default, a Q and A forum requires students to post once before viewing other students’ postings.
- Standard forum displayed in a blog-like format - An open forum where anyone can start a new discussion at any time, and in which discussion topics are displayed on one page with “Discuss this topic” links. In the upper right corner of the home forum screen (above the introduction), the student may see the options the teacher has set for subscriptions to the forum, and the ‘Jump to’ field, with which you can ‘jump’ to any part of the course.
- Standard forum for general use - An open forum where anyone can start a new discussion at any time. In this forum type, students will see the introduction text in a separate space above the discussion field, in which you will see the information such as the title of the discussion (which means the forum’s title), its author, the number of replies and the date of the last post.
The type of forum you chose should of course go hand in hand with the activity completion setting that you set. If you want everyone to post, it should be defined as a condition under activity completion; however, if the forum is optional, you do not need to indicate activity completion.
Managing forums
Once you’ve created forums for your students, you will need to manage them during your course. Forums can quickly sprout and spread like an unruly weed unless you do some management and pruning.
- Managing expectations
The first key to managing a forum is managing student expectations. Let learners know how often you intend to respond to questions and posts. Let them know if you will be checking in once a day or once a week. If you don’t set expectations, some students will expect you to be on call 24 hours a day.
- Encouraging participation
The primary key to learner participation in online forums is tight integration with your course goals. Your forums should give students a chance to practice a skill, to collaborate on a project, or to act as resources for each other. Of course, it is important to distinguish between the types of forums and the reasons for using them in your class.
- Behaviour issues
Dealing with rude and unruly comments is another challenge of online discussions. Some students may say things in an online discussion they would never say in person. Rude or hurtful remarks can shut down a discussion or completely divert the thread of the conversation. Of course, if the situation gets out of control, your ultimate recourse is to simply delete the students’ posts from the forum and then deal with it as you would any other disciplinary issue.
- Archiving forums
When forum threads get very long, you may want to archive them and start up the conversation again with a good summary. Discussions can be archived one by one or by backing up the complete forum with user data, then restoring it.
Comments block
As you know, there is also the option to add “Blocks” to your course that contain additional options and information. Engagement with blocks is not tracked under activity or course completion.
You can add a “comments block” to your course if you want to give your learners a quick and asynchronous way to exchange with each other and the course’s teachers.
In the browser version, you need to open the block drawer to see all blocks. In the mobile version you need to scroll all the way down to access them.
In the screenshot below you see how a good use of the comments block could look like:
Just like all direct exchange options that atingi offers, comments block should always be moderated. This helps to give the conversation a direction – unlike forums there is no topic that is automatically assigned to the comments block through a headline – and prevents misuse of the tool. If you as an admin find an inappropriate comment by any participant you can simply delete it.
To summarize, the comments block allows for quick, flexible, asynchronous communication. The main difference to forums is that it isn’t trackable through activity completion, there is only one type of block and the topic can’t be set through the settings but needs to be communicated via a comment in the block. The last option in this chapter, the chat activity, is a tool for synchronous communication.
Chat activity
The chat activity enables learners to have text-based, real-time synchronous discussions. This is a useful way to get a different understanding of each other and the topic being discussed – the mode of using a chat room is quite different from the asynchronous forums. Discussions in a chat are happening synchronous in real time. You can always enter the chat but it makes sense to schedule for sessions because otherwise there might be no one else to chat with.
The chat may be a one-time activity or it may be repeated at the same time each day or each week. Chat sessions are saved and can be made available for everyone to view or restricted to users with the capability to view chat session logs.
Chats are especially useful when the group chatting is not able to meet face-to-face, such as:
- Regular meetings of learners participating in online courses to enable them to share experiences with others in the same course but in a different location.
- A student temporarily unable to attend in person chatting with their teacher to catch up with work.
- A question and answer session with an invited speaker in a different location.
- Sessions to help students prepare for tests where the teacher, or other students, would pose sample questions.
The chat activity contains a number of features for managing and reviewing chat discussions. However, unless a tutor/moderator is permanently present in the chatroom or unless the chat is hidden and revealed at certain times, it is difficult to control what is said once a chat has started.
In some situations, a forum might be preferred as it allows for reflection before posting and gives a period of time where the post might be edited. Additionally, the forum allows for different types of interaction and activity tracking, while the chat only has one exchange option, where replies can’t be tracked, graded or peer reviewed.
As always, activities in an e-learning course should be chosen and set up in a way that suits your learners’ needs. Only then they can be used to their full potential.