20 Wicked Ways to

Use Moodle Forums

Joyce Seitzinger (@catspyjamasnz)

Based on presentation at Moodle Masterclass in Hong Kong, March 2011for moodle.com.hk / moodle.com.au /Pukunui Technology

Most people are familiar with Moodle forum

• Easy to set up (default settings are usable)• Arguably the most flexible learning

activity tool in Moodle• Needs guidance / modeling / instructions

/ motivation for students or else…

“I set up a forum, but no one used it…”

Forum activities seem to fall into these categories:

• Online discussion or communication in forum

• Online activity in forum• Report on an offline activity back to forum • Share resources/work • Receive and give feedback• Creating/keeping a common archive• Others?

1. Topical Class Discussion

• eg Recurring weekly discussion• Pro’s: – Doesn’t take a lot of preparation,– Provides rhythm to your course – Gives you flexibility, – Can stay current.

• Cons: – Can get repetitive,– Tricky in larger groups/classes – Needs modeling & facilitation.

2. Help Forum

• Put this in the top block as it will be used throughout the Moodle course

• Accessible 24/7 for students• Provides common searchable

archive of Q&A• Saves you work (not repeating

information in individual emails, phone calls, office hours)

• Be clear about how soon you will answer.

2. Help Forum

3. Reporting weekly project findings

• Can be formative assessment• Will keep you in touch with student

progress & learning• Gives you chance to feedback (and

peers too!)• Can set this up individually

(teacher-student) or group (teacher-group) or class-wide

4. Team Discussions

• Forum to support team work set for students

• Provides asynchronous team communication tool and…

• Archive of decisions• Teacher can monitor how they collaborate

(if that’s part of learning objectives) • Set up forum per group or use

visible/separate Moodle groups

5. Book reviews

• Students write & submit book review• Students comment on book reviews• Example: Used with our ESL students in

ELTO program• Use the rating option for students to give

feedback to each other, or vote for most popular title

6. Roleplay and Feedback

• Use multiple forums • Example: Bachelors of Applied Social

Science – 2 students enacted a client/counselor conversation in forum A. Other students observed that exchange and commented in forum B.

• Can be slow (Tip: combine with synchronous tool, like chat or web conference)

7. Class debate

• Divide class into two groups (Pro/Con?)

• Give each group own discussion thread, or own forum

• Can use Moodle groups & groupings• Tip: find some debating rules &

include in forum description.• Tip: Great for exploring current

events

8. Gathering resources

• Helps kickstart a new topic or activity in classroom

• “What do we already know?”• “What is out there?”• Students work in groups or individually• Review and use the list produced in class or

online

• Could also be done in glossary or database…

9. Support forum for assessment

• Q&A about assessment• Tip: Keep in one topic area together with

assignment documents and dropboxes• Common archive

10. Case studies

• Use staggered approach (releasing more information over time)

• Choose: in multiple forums or multiple threads?

• Individual or group based• Time will determine how elaborate

11. Showcase: Student Presentations

• As an attachment or link• Can be related to an assignment• Feedback for improvement in assignment• Individual or group based

12. Taking the lead

• Students rotate to facilitate a class discussion

• Choose topic• Choose questions• Roster at beginning of term• Provide facilitation guidelines

13. Weekly magazine

• Act as class newspaper• Students submit a story each week• Can be open to parents

14. Ice breaker

• Needed in online environment• Example: Nursing and Viticulture & Wine

Science• Name three things…• Where are you now?...• Two truths and a lie…• etc

14. Ice breaker

15. Community of Practice

• Teachers supporting teachers• One or more forums (discussion, activity

sharing,…)• Find 1 or 2 champions in your school

(community needs its champions)• Exchange practice, experiences, tips• Searchable archive

15. Community of Practice

16. Webquest

• Set the webquest in web pages or document

• http://webquest.org/index.php• Provide forum per group (perhaps three

topics set up eg: Team talk, Resource gathering, Bringing it together.

• Provide another forum for group reporting

17. Mindmapping Room

• Students use various mindmapping tools to create mindmaps

• Mindomo, Mindmeister, Freemind• Submit link to online map or exported

image• Provide feedback

18. Lab reports

• Prepare lab work• Use attachments (often too complicated

for simple interface)• Submit finished lab work• Provide feedback

19. Mentoring

Use Moodle groups to set up pairsTeacher/student or student/studentProvides private space

20. Social forum

• Space for students to communicate with each other

• Let them choose the name: The Cellar, The Parking Lot, Basecamp…

• Open

21-….?

• Time for your creative forums• Design a forum activity you can use in

your class or your context• Please do share...

• Joyce Seitzinger• www.cats-pyjamas.net• twitter: @catspyjamasnz

• All images Open Source at: • http://www.openclipart.org/user-detail/

warszawianka