Moodle III - Forums and Chat Groups

Moodle allows you to subdivide the class into groups to use with certain tools, such as the forum or chat room. You first need to define the groups for your course. Once that is done, you can set an activity to use groups. If you do this for a forum, you will only need to create one forum and it will create a separate space for each group to post in. Creating Groups 1. Click Administration > Course administration > Users > Groups. 2. The Groups page allows you to create as many groups as you will need. There are two methods for creating groups.

a.Create group - You can manually decide who goes into what group. i.Click the Create group button, give the group a name, then click the Save changes button.

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ii.Repeat this process for as many groups as needed. iii.You can click the Edit group settings button to update the name of the group. iv.If you want to remove a group, you will first click on the name of the group(s) under the Groups box to select it, then click the Delete selected group button. b.Auto-create groups - Moodle can automatically assign users to a group for you. This is helpful if you want random groups or do not care who is in a group. i.Click on the Auto-create groups button. To see all the settings, click the +Show more... link. ii.The Specify field allows you to create a group based on either the number of groups or the number of students in each group.

NOTE: When selecting Members per group the Prevent last small group will allocate additional members to an existing group rather than create a new group with fewer members than the number you specified in the Group/member count field.

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3. If you used Auto-create groups, your users have already been assigned to groups, so you can skip this step. If you manually created them, you can specify which users go into which group here. a.Click on the group name under the Groups box and then click on the Add/Remove Users button on the right, under the Members of box. b.On the next page, choose the student names and click on the < Add button in the middle to move them into the left column. Once they are in the Group members box, they are in that group. c.Click the Back to groups button to return to the groups page. Repeat this process for as many groups as you have.

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Creating Groupings
A grouping is a set of groups. Groupings enable students to be arranged into different sets of groups for each activity. For instance, if you wanted to have a different group for each week, you could create a grouping for each week, and then create groups to go into each grouping. 1. 2. 3. 4. Click Administration > Course administration > Users > Groups. Click on the Groupings tab at the top middle of the page. Click the Create grouping button. Give it a Grouping name and click the Save changes button.

Once your groupings are created, you can add groups you have created to the groupings on the Groupings page. If you have not created the groups yet, when you auto-create groups, you have the option to add them into a grouping when auto-creating.

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Overview
The Overview page will allow you to view who is in what group on one convenient page. To get there, in the Administration block, click on Course administration > Users > Groups then click on the Overview tab at the top middle of the page. If you want to quickly copy the groups and members onto a Page (Add an activity or resource > Page) or into a document, this is a great place to get them. If you are using groupings, they are listed here as well.

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Forums (Discussion Boards)

Forums are the heart of an online course, because they provide the primary method for student/student and faculty/student interaction. You may create as many as you need in the different sections of your course. NOTE: The News forum is created by default at the top of your course as a method for you to send email announcements to your entire class. This forum will only allow teachers to post to, so you need to create additional forums in your course for students to use. Additional forums may be created for a wide array of uses, such as: getting to know your class, reporting and editing posted assignments, a pre-class discussion of readings, online debates, discussion of case studies, a library of online resources discovered by the students, or simply a student lounge.

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Creating a Forum 1. Click the Add an activity or resource, select Forum, and click the Add button. 2. Click the Expand All link in the upper right corner. 3. Name the forum. 4. The Forum type dropdown menu allows you to specify which type of forum you want. a.A single simple discussion - Only one discussion can be added to this forum, but multiple indented replies. Use this if you want all messages visible to read on one page. What you write in the text box produces the first discussion topic message, to which all students then reply to. Single simple discussions cannot be split into groups. b.Each person posts one discussion - Each person can only add one discussion topic and then the Add a new discussion topic button disappears. However, multiple indented replies are allowed so everyone can respond to one another as much as they like. The discussion topics are listed on an index page. Each discussion topic goes to a separate page with the entire message and all replies visible, so click on a discussion title to go inside it and read and post messages. As an instructor, you will have to open and print each discussion topic page separately if you want to print all postings. c.Q and A forum - To setup this forum, the teacher click the Add a new question button. The students will click on the topic to view the question, and click reply. They will not be able to see any other classmate replies until 15 minutes after they post their own reply.

EXAMPLE: HOW STUDENTS USE THE Q & A FORUM

1. Student clicks on a teachers question (discussion topic) to answer.

2. As the student reads the question, other student replies are hidden.

3. Other students replies are shown 15 minutes after the student replies with an answer.

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d.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. e.Standard forum for general use - Each person can add multiple discussions, which are listed by title on an index page. Multiple replies are possible. Each discussion is on a separate page with the entire message and all replies visible. This is very similar to Each person posts one discussion type in that all the discussions are listed by title on one page and you click on a title to go inside and post, read, and reply to messages. 5. In the Forum introduction box you will type in your assignment or general instructions for the forum. If your forum is a Single simple discussion, then this will be the first message. If the Forum is one of the other types which allow topics that appear on an index page, then the Introduction will appear in the top header area. If you put in an assignment here, do not forget to require students to open 2 or 3 of their colleagues postings and respond. If you have a long description, we recommend not clicking the box for Display description on course page as it will clutter up the course page. 6. Subscription and tracking a.Optional subscription - If someone is subscribed to a forum, they will get a copy of all postings sent to their OU email address. Forcing your students to be subscribed will help ensure that they receive your announcements, but receiving all postings as emails can become fairly burdensome soon. If this is set to optional, students have the ability to subscribe if they would like email updates when a post has been made. We recommend leaving the Subscription mode dropdown menu to Optional subscription. b.Forced Subscription - The student will be emailed every time something is posted when Forced subscription is selected. Participants cannot choose to unsubscribe. c. Auto subscription - Everyone is subscribed initially, but can choose to unsubscribe at any time. d. Subscription disabled - Subscriptions are not allowed. 7. The Ratings section is where you assign points to the forum if it is a graded forum. a.The Aggregate type dropdown menu defines how ratings are combined to form the final grade in the gradebook. If students only do one post, this setting will not matter. But if they have multiple posts, Moodle lets you define how you want it to aggregate the totals. The most useful of these are Maximum rating and Sum of ratings. Maximum sets the highest rating as the grade. Sum adds up all of the ratings for the grade. Note that the total cannot exceed the maximum grade for the activity. b.The Scale dropdown menu allows you to set the grade. Despite its name, we recommend using whole numbers and not selecting one of the scales, as they work differently in the grade book. The whole numbers are below the scales and the No grade option in the menu. c.If you check the box for Restrict ratings to items with dates in this range, it will restrict you as the instructor from grading anything outside of that date range. This will not restrict students from posting outside of that range. They can always post to the forum. But if they post outside of the range, it will not have the dropdown menu that allows you to grade the post.

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8. The Common module settings section is where you would divide your forum into groups. a.Under the Group mode dropdown menu, you can choose one of these possibilities: No groups - There are no sub groups. Everyone in the class sees what everyone posts and can reply to anyone. Separate groups - Each group can only see and reply to the posts of members of their own group. All other groups are invisible. Visible groups - Each group can only post replies to their own group, but they can view the posts of the other groups.

9. Click the Save and return to course button to return to your main course page. If you would like to immediately view or post to the forum, click the Save and display button.

Using a Forum 1. Post a New Discussion/Question or Reply a.If you are inside a forum that allows new discussion topics or questions to be posted, you can click the Add a new discussion topic button to bring up the message form. b.To reply, you will first view someones post and their message will appear along with a link called Reply. If you click on Reply the same form will appear, but your reply will be indented under the topic you are answering. Your students will follow these same steps to post a top level discussion or make a reply.

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2. Editing/Deleting a Post - As a faculty, there is no time limit to when you can edit or delete a forum post. When you post a discussion or reply, you will still see the same message all users do, saying that Your post was successfully added. You have 15 mins to edit it if you want to make any changes. Your students will only see the Edit and Delete links for the next 15 minutes, and then only you as the instructor can edit or delete their post. You will always be able to edit and delete any post you make.

3. Subscription - If you leave subscription set to Optional, you and your students will have the choice to subscribe to the forum, which will send email copies of anything posted to that forum to the subscribers OU email address. You can find the link to do this under the Administration block, Forum administration > Subscribe to this forum. Once you have subscribed, the link will change to Unsubscribe from this forum, and clicking it will unsubscribe you. As well, instructors have an additional link in the Administration block called Show/edit current subscribers. Clicking this will show who has subscribed to that forum. You can expand the box for Subscription mode and change setting there without having to go to the Edit settings link.

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Managing a Forum 1. Edit a Forum - If you need to change the name of forum, the introduction, adjust the grade, etc, click on the gear icon to the right of the forum name. If you are already in the forum, click Administration > Forum administration > Edit settings. Either way will take you back to the settings form where you can make changes. 2. Forum Search - When you are in a forum, there will be a search box in the top-right corner of the page. Typing in there and clicking the Search forums button will allow you to quickly search for words in postings for that forum. You can search for multiple words and Moodle will find any matches, even if the order is different.

If your search comes back with nothing, or if you want more advanced search features, you can click the Search forums button with no text entered in. This will bring up the Advanced search and will allow you to search through all forums, or just a certain one, and look in the subject, message, by author, date, etc. 3. Search for All of One Students Postings - An alternate way to find all the postings of a single student would be to click Navigation > MyMoodle > Current course> Course name (such as WRT150) > Participants. Click on the students name and then on the left hand Navigation menu, click on Forum posts, and either Posts or Discussions. Posts will show you anything they have posted, top level discussions and replies. Discussions will only show you top level discussions they have started.
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4. Forum Grading - If you setup your forum to allowing Rating (grading), you will see the Rate... dropdown menu appear below each students post. Clicking this dropdown menu will give you the grading options that you selected when you setup the forum. Select the value you want and Moodle will automatically save it. Selecting Rate... from the menu will set a graded post back to non-graded.

Teacher Participation in a Forum (Best Practice) If you have an active forum in your course, it is best to log into your course at least once a day to check for new posts and respond to them. Depending on the discussion, you should be actively engaging your students in the forum to show your presence in the online course. Absent faculty from forums often give students the impression of a negative online learning experience. A substantive response to a student in a forum may be any or combination of the following things: A question that provokes a thoughtful response. A confirmation and further elaboration on the students original post. A redirect back towards the topic of the forum (if the students response has digressed). Links or additional information that can be useful for the students or the class pertaining to the student post. Clear up confusion or answer a specific question posed in a student post that needs to be answered by the teacher.

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Chat
Creating a Chat Room Chat is synchronous and provides instantaneous feedback, so crucial to motivation and engagement. Use chat for office hours, group projects, or discussion groups. 1. Click Add an activity or resource, select Chat and click the Add button. 2. Click the Expand All in the upper right corner. 3. Name the chat room. 4. In the Description box you will type in your assignment or general instructions for the chat room. If you have a long description, we recommend not clicking the box for Display description on course page as it will clutter up the course page. 5. The Next chat time settings will not restrict a chat to that time, only publish a chat time there. That can be left as it is, and the Repeat sessions can be left to Do not publish any chat times. 6. The Everyone can view past sessions dropdown menu will allow you to decide if students can view past chat sessions. It is set to No by default, which means that only instructors in the course can view the chat logs. 7. The Common module settings section is where you will decide if you want to use groups or groupings, just like in the forum. 8. Click the Save and return to course button to return to your main course page. If you would like to immediately view or join the chat room, click the Save and display button.

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Using the Chat Room 1. You and your students will enter the chat in the same way. From the course page, click on the name of the chat room and then click on the Click here to enter the chat now link. The participants will be on the right. You will type in the bottom box and hit enter to send your chat.

(CHAT AREA)

(PARTICIPANTS)

(TYPE IN BOX BELOW)

2. If you are meeting with more than about 5-10 students, you should teach them some rules, such as raising their hand (by typing a !) and being called on before speaking. Another good rule is to type a phrase with an ellipsis after it so that everyone will know you have more to say. So if you have 2 lines worth of thoughts, type one line and ...., then type your second line. The other participants will not have to wait for you to type two lines and they will know that more is coming after the first line. 3. Chat Discussion Groups - Set up 6 or 7 different chat channels. Designate one as the main classroom and the others as the names of your various student groups. Have the entire class come to the main classroom first where you can greet everyone and ask for questions or give preliminary material. Use the raise your hand rules given above. Then send the groups to their smaller group chats and go around and visit each one sending them their question to work on. You can tile the chat windows on your desktop so they are all open at once. They should each pick a notetaker and then discuss the question. After 20 min. or so have everyone come back to the main classroom. No one but the notetakers and you will speak. Have the notetakers give summaries for each group, questioning them or adding information as necessary. Grade both individual participation and notetaker participation.

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Additional Resources
There are other resources that Oakland University has for chat rooms and lecture capture. Elluminate Elluminate provides a real-time, video-conferencing classroom environment. It has one main page with faculty and student audio, text-chat, an interactive whiteboard for displaying files or webpages, faculty and student video, and moderator tools. Oakland University has an unlimited seat license, so classes and meeting can be opened anytime during the day or night. Elluminate sessions can be created right in your Moodle course like any other activity by going to Add an activity or resource, selecting Elluminate Live! Meeting then clicking the Add button. Detailed instructions can be found on the main help page. Panopto Panopto is a lecture capture system that faculty can use in the classroom to produce an audio/video recording that is integrated into a Moodle course. Students, then, can review the recording of the lecture or discussion later from their Moodle course. They also may search for specific areas of content, make notes, or even have a dialogue about the course material with other students. To add Panopto to a Moodle course, you will add it under the right-hand blocked called Add a block by clicking Add... >Panopto Focus. Detailed instructions can be found on the main help page. e-LIS offers separate workshops on these resources.

Updated October 11, 2013 3:02 PM e-Learning & Instructional Support Oakland University

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