Interacting in Discussion Forums in Moodle
Discussion Forum
A discussion forum is a virtual space for discussing ideas, sharing stories and experiences. The forum currently supports text-based asynchronous threaded discussions. In other words:
Text-based: you will need to type your comments and thoughts to share them with others.
Asynchronous: Participants of discussions do not necessarily have to be present on-line as you share your thoughts. They can read and respond to your comments whenever they want to. Likewise you can read and respond to others’ postings as and when you like.
Threaded: A thread of conversation is generated when users respond to each other’s messages.
Post a New Message
Click on the forum where you wish to make a posting. All discussion forum links are preceded by this icon  .
When you are in the forum, click on “Add a new discussion topic”.
This will take you to the message area, where you will:
- Type a subject line.
- Type your message.
- Apply formatting changes.
- Attach a file if needed.
- Finally click “Post to Forum.”
You will notice that your message has been posted. You can now view your posted message by clicking on the topic of your post.
Here is an example of what your message will look like:
Edit Your Own Message
After posting your message, if you want to make changes to your own message you can do so by following these steps:
Click on your own message.
Click on the “Edit” link.
Edit your message and click “Save Changes.”
Reply to a Message
To post a reply follow these steps:
Click on the message you want to reply to.
Click on the “Reply” link on the right side of the message body.
Type your reply message and click “Post to Forum”.
Deleting Your Own Message
If you want to delete your own message in a forum, click on the ‘delete’ link.
You will be prompted to confirm deletion. Click on ‘Yes’ if you are sure you want to delete your post. Click on ‘No’ if you’re not sure or do not want to delete your post.
Please note that once you delete your message from a forum, it can no longer be retrieved.
Search Forums
To search the forum, type the key words that you are searching for and press “search”. This will show you all the messages posted on the forum that contain the word you were searching for.
You can also conduct an advanced search using the following options:
- Title/Body
- Posted between ---- and ----
- Specific Forums
- Subject
- Author
Authorship Details: Melaine D'Cruze, 2011
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