Student guide

Forums are the main place for written discussion in a course. Unlike chat, a forum discussion stays organised by topic and can be read later by everybody in the course.

Types of forums you will meet

Forum	Purpose	Can you post?
Announcements	Official news from the teachers: changes of dates, instructions, reminders. Every participant is subscribed and receives a notification.	No – only teachers post; you read.
Questions and answers and other discussion forums	Questions about the content, discussion of cases, sharing of results.	Yes.
Group forums	Discussion inside a project team (separate groups – other teams do not see it).	Yes, in your group.
Q and A forum (special type)	You must post your own answer before you can see the answers of others.	Yes.

Reading a forum

1. Open the forum from the course page. You see the list of discussions with the author, the number of replies and the date of the last post. Unread posts are marked if tracking is on.
2. Click a discussion to open it. Replies are shown nested under the post they answer; you can change the display (for example Display replies in nested form or flat, with oldest first).
3. Use Search forums to find older posts by keyword.

Starting a new discussion

1. In the forum click Add discussion topic.
2. Write a short, specific Subject (for example "Georeferencing: the map shifts by 100 m – why?" instead of "Question").
3. Write your text in Message. You can format it, add links, images and formulas with the editor.
4. For attachments or more options click Advanced: here you can add files in Attachment (drag and drop, maximum size shown next to the field) and choose whether you want notifications for this discussion.
5. Click Post to forum.

Note: After posting you have a limited time (usually 30 minutes) to Edit or Delete your post. During this time other participants do not receive a notification yet. After that time only a teacher can change the post.

Replying

1. Under the post you want to answer click Reply.
2. A short reply field opens directly under the post. Write your answer and click Post to forum.
3. For a longer reply with attachments click Advanced in the reply field.

Teachers can also send a private reply that only you see (marked accordingly) – useful for individual feedback on a post.

Subscriptions – how you are notified

• Subscribe to forum – you receive a notification about every new post in the forum. Use the forum menu (or the bell toggle next to the forum) to subscribe or Unsubscribe from forum.
• Discussion subscription – the bell icon next to a single discussion: you receive notifications only about that discussion.
• In Announcements subscription is forced – you cannot unsubscribe, so that you do not miss important information.
• In Preferences › Forum preferences choose whether you get single e-mails or a daily digest (when e-mail is available).

Tip: Subscribe at least to the forum Questions and answers of each course. Many questions are answered there before you even ask them.

Ratings and forum grades

In some forums teachers (or classmates) may rate posts, and a forum may be graded as a whole (for example for active and constructive participation). Your rating or grade then appears in Grades. The forum description tells you if and how posts are assessed.

Good forum posts

• One topic per discussion; check first whether the question has already been asked.
• Describe what you tried, what you expected and what happened; attach a screenshot if useful (and describe it in words for classmates using screen readers).
• Be respectful and constructive; respond to arguments, not to persons (see chapter 21).
• When your question has been answered, reply with a short "thank you, solved" – it helps others with the same problem.