PolyLearn Support

Information Technology Services

Getting Started

Instructors can create multiple forums for discussions that, while all still pertaining to the course, explore different aspects of course material.

1. Select Turn editing on.
2. Click on the Add an activity pull-down menu.
   
   
3. Choose the Forum tool.
4. Under the General section, type the Forum name (required) of the assignment into the text box.
5. Choose the Forum type. There are five different types:
   1. Standard forum for general use: Displays a link to each discussion (by most recently posted/edited), and includes info about the creator, the number of replies, and the time of the last post.
   2. Single simple discussion: Students cannot post new discussions—only reply to the message that has been defined in the “Forum introduction” field.
   3. Each person posts one discussion: Similar to “Standard forum for general use”, with the exception being that students can only create one discussion each.
   4. Q&A forum: Similar to “Standard forum for general use”, with the exception being that discussions are instead questions.
   5. Standard forum displayed in a blog-like format: All discussions are displayed (most recent at top) on the page.
      
6. Type the Forum introduction (required) into the text box.
Options
• Subscription mode sets how subscriptions are enabled, and if they can be turned off by the student.
  Note: If Forum subscription is enabled, participants in the Forum will receive an email for every new post. [Subscription (email) only works with the Standard forum for general use option]
• Read tracking for this forum allows students to see which posts they have read and not read.
• Maximum attachment size of each file to upload.
• Maximum number of attachments students can upload.
• Time period for blocking defines how long a student is prevented from posting.
• Post threshold for blocking defines the number of posts until the student is blocked from posting.
• Post threshold for warning displays a warning that informs the student that they are approaching the limit after a number of posts
  
7. Under the Ratings section, choose the Aggregate type of rating.
Note: Only the instructor can submit ratings for Forum posts. These ratings are reflected in the gradebook.
Note: If the No ratings option is chosen, the Forum activity will be ungraded and thus will not appear in the gradebook.
Options
• Scale determines what range of values that can be assigned when rating.
• Restrict ratings to items with dates in this range enables ratings only between the specified dates.
• Group mode (under the Common module section) can submit their files into one area. After the group is created, you can choose the name of the group from the list.
• Visible determines if the Wiki can be seen by students.
• ID number is used for assigning a custom number to the assignment for easy reference when grading.
  
8. Choose either Save and return to course or Save and display.

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Forum posting

1. Click on the Forum activity.
2. Click on the Add a new discussion button.
3. Type the Subject (required) and the Message (required) of the post.
   Options
   • Subscription sends the topic author emails of posts (if enabled).
   • Attachment is for adding files to the post.
4. Click Post to forum.

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Viewing a forum

1. Click on the Forum activity.
2. Shown are all the posts by the students/instructor.
   Note: The Forum will be displayed according to what Forum type was selected when creating the Forum.
   Note: This screen displays the name of the discussion, who it was started by, how many replies the post has, and the time of the most recent post.
3. Clicking on the name of a discussion or the replies number will show a post with all its replies.
   Note: The layout of the discussion can be changed via the pull-down menu right above the original post. The pull-down menu to the right of this is used to move the discussion to another Forum, if necessary.
   

 

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News forum

The News forum is a special forum for issuing general announcements and course news to students (it is identical in function to the Announcements page in Blackboard). This forum is automatically created for each course. By default, it is placed in the top of the center section and only instructors and administrators may add posts or reply to posts. The default settings force every enrolled participant to be subscribed to the News forum, meaning each participant subscribed will receive email copies of forum posts.

Students cannot reply to instructor posts in the News forum; posts are purely informative news/announcements, not colllaborative. If you want to create a collaborative forum where students and instructor(s) can interact, see Adding/editing a forum.

News forum posts must include a subject and a message (body of the announcement). When adding a new topic (i.e., a new announcement), you'll also have the option of adding an attachment and the option to email a copy of the new post now. Checking the "Mail now" box results in an email being sent immediately to everyone subscribed to the forum, rather than after the post editing time limit (30 minutes).
Note: It's a good idea to include dates in your News forum posts for your students' benefit.

By default, a maximum of one attachment may be added to the post, but this can be changed by editing the settings of the News forum:

1. Turn editing on.
2. Click on the edit icon next to the News forum.
   
3. From the Maximum number of attachments pull-down menu, select a new maximum number.
   
4. Scroll down and click Save and return to course.
   

Additionally, the Latest News block displays a specific number of recent discussions (i.e., announcements) from the News forum and appears by default on the main course page as well.

If you'd like to change how many recent announcements are displayed in the Latest News block, you can do so from the Settings block:

1. Click on Edit settings in the Settings block.
2. From the News items to show pull-down menu, select a new number.
   Note: Selecting 0 will make the Latest News block disappear.
   
3. Scroll down and click Save changes.
   

Additional Features

Forum permissions

The Forum permissions are established by the system's administrator. The permissions are given to the various roles in order to grant them the ability to perform actions within the activity. The instructor can view these permissions with these steps:

1. Click on the existing Forum activity.
2. In the navigation block, click the Permissions to view all possible capabilities pertaining to Forum, and which roles have access to each capability. Alternatively, click the Check permissions button specifically view an a list of all enrolled individuals in the course.
3. Click on the users name to check and then click Show this user's permissions.
   Note: Type the user's name into the search box in order to refine the display and more easily locate the intended user.
4. This page lists all of the various actions that are capable within the activity. The list will tell whether or not the user is capable of each action.
   

 

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Forum subscriptions

When a student is subscribed to a forum within Moodle, they will receive email copies of all the posts that occur in the forum. The instructor can choose whether or not the student will have the choice for subscribing. If the instructor doesn't want the student to be able to be unsubscribed from the forum, they can leave the option at its default choice. If they wish to change this option:

1. Click the Forum activity.
2. Click the Edit settings button within the settings block.
   
3. Within the General section, click the Subscription mode pull down and choose the desired option.
• Optional subscription - Participants can choose whether to be subscribed
• Forced subscription - Everyone is subscribed and cannot unsubscribe
• Auto subscription - Everyone is subscribed initially but can choose to unsubscribe at any time
• Subscription disabled - Subscriptions are not allowed
4. Click either Save and return to course or Save and display.

 

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Forum ratings (grades)

Forum ratings allow users to evaluate posts in a forum. These are disabled by default but can be enabled within the forum's settings. If ratings are enabled, the forum activity will be added to the gradebook, and scores from the ratings will be included in the student's grades. Only instructors, TAs, and graders in the PolyLearn course can assign ratings to students' forum posts.

1. Click the Forum activity.
2. Click the Edit settings button within the settings block.
   
3. Within the Ratings section, click the Aggregate type pull down and choose an option other than "No ratings."
• Average of ratings - The mean of all ratings
• Count of ratings - The number of rated items becomes the final grade. Note that the total cannot exceed the maximum grade for the activity.
• Maximum - The highest rating becomes the final grade
• Minimum - The smallest rating becomes the final grade
• Sum - All ratings are added together. Note that the total cannot exceed the maximum grade for the activity.
  

1. Click the Scale pull-down menu and choose an option other than "No grade."
2. Click either Save and return to course or Save and display.

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Advanced forum search

1. Click on the Forum activity.
2. Click on the Search forums button (top right corner) without typing anything into the text box.



3. Fill out as many of the search options as desired. Click Search forums.
Note: The advanced search feature will search through ALL of the Forums on the course website, not simply the selected Forum.

4. Any discussions/posts that satisfy the search criteria appear in the results.
   

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Grading forum contributions

Grading all forum contributions of each individual student is easily completed using the Advanced forum search and ratings features.
Note: Ratings must be enabled; otherwise, the forum activity does not appear in the gradebook. To learn how to enable ratings for the forum, click here.

1. Click on the Forum activity.
2. Click on the Search forums button (top right corner) without typing anything into the text box.



3. Choose which forums to search from the pull-down menu, and type the student's name in the This name should match the author text field.


4. Enter any other pertinent information, if necessary. Click Search forums.
5. All the student's forum posts are displayed, sorted from newest to oldest, which can assist instructors in grading the forum posts.