The forum is an activity that allows participants to exchange ideas in threads, debate a topic, or even send important information to students. Forums are also very versatile, with five different modes of interaction.

Adding a Forum

To add a forum, click Create learning activity and then Forum. Then enter a title and description, and select the type of forum:

• Each person posts one discussion,
• Q and A forum
• Standard forum for general use
• Standard forum displayed in a blog-like format
• A single simple discussion

Configuring the Forum

Let’s look at some interesting options.

• Availability. Here you can add a start date and a cutoff date. The start date indicates when students should have participated in the forum, while the cutoff date closes the possibility to participate.
• Attachments and word count. It’s useful to configure this to avoid very large attachments. Select the maximum size of files to attach as well as the maximum number of files allowed. Showing the word count can be helpful if there is a minimum/maximum word requirement per post.
  
• Under Subscription and tracking, you can select the subscription type for this particular forum. Subscription can be optional or forced, and you can also disable it completely. If you select Automatic, all users are subscribed by default but can unsubscribe at any time. Reading tracking allows you to see which messages have been read and which have not.
  
• Discussion locking lets you select the amount of time a discussion must be inactive before it is automatically locked. This keeps only active discussions "alive," while others close as interest fades. Teachers and other users with permission to post in locked discussions can write in these forums and unlock them.
• Post threshold for locking, on the other hand, refers to the number of consecutive posts someone must make in the forum to be locked out for a certain time.
  
• Overall forum grading allows you to configure the grade, points, grading method, etc. To choose how to calculate the grade that appears in the gradebook, see the options available under Grades.
  

Finally, save and return to the course (or go directly to view the added activity).