Forums predominantly function as a means of communication between instructors and students, but they are also gradable activities. If you set an aggregate type and a point scale for ratings when you created the forum, you will be able to give point ratings to individual posts.

1. From your course page, click on the Forum () to go to the forum listing.
2. Click a topic’s name in the  column to see the posts in that thread.
3. Under each student’s post, you will see a  drop-down. Click this drop down and select the number of points to give to this post. Depending on how your ratings are being aggregated, these ratings will be averaged, summed, or otherwise evaluated to provide a grade for the forum activity.

In a forum, you can start new discussion topics that you and your students can both post to. Depending on the forum type you’ve selected, your students may be able to start discussion topics as well. Once a discussion is started, you and your students can both post responses to each other’s comments.

1. From your course page, click on the Forum () to go to the forum listing.
2. If there are no discussion topics yet, you’ll need to create one. Click .
3. Enter a  and a . You can use the  drop-down to select whether you’re notified about new posts in the discussion thread, and you can drag and drop files to the  area to add them to the topic.
4. Click  when done. You will have thirty minutes to edit the discussion topic you posted.
5. Once discussion topics are posted, you will see them listed along with the name of the person who started them, the number of replies there have been, and the time of last post. Click the topic’s name in the  column to see the posts in that thread.
6. Once viewing the discussion, you will see users’ individual posts. To reply to someone’s post, click the  link to the lower-right of the post and enter a message the same way you would when starting a discussion.

The forum activity allows you and your students to asynchronously communicate with each other by posting comments in discussion threads. Forum posts can be rated for a grade.

1. From your course’s main page, click the  button in the upper-right.
2. With editing turned on, click  in the section where you want to add the assignment.
3. From the menu that appears, click the  next to  and click the  button at the bottom of the menu.
4. Enter a  and a . The forum name is how the forum will be displayed on the course page, in the gradebook, etc. The description is what the students will see before they post to the forum.
5. Specify a . There are five forum types to choose from:  – This is the default format where anyone can start a new discussion thread at any time.  – A single discussion topic which everyone can reply to.  – Each student can post one discussion topic, which everyone can reply to.  – Students cannot view other students’ posts until they themselves have posted.  – Similar to the standard forum, but discussion topics are displayed on one page with “Discuss this topic” links.
6. If you plan on grading forum posts, open the  section and set the . This will determine how the grade is calculated based on post ratings:  – The mean of all ratings.  – The number of rated posts becomes the final grade.  – The highest rating becomes the final grade.  – The smallest rating becomes the final grade.  – All ratings are added together.
7. Additionally, if you want the forum to be worth points in the course, set the  to the number of points the forum should be worth. Always set it to an actual numerical value. Do not use a scale or the forum will not have points assigned to it.
8. Click the  button when done.

Click here to watch a video tutorial on this subject provided by Atomic Learning. Be sure to log in to Atomic Learning before attempting to view this tutorial.

By using the Q and A forum, you can help ensure that your students are providing original responses to a discussion question that you post. With a Q and A forum, students cannot see each other’s responses until they themselves respond, and students will be able to formulate independent thoughts on your discussion topic. In this way, you’ll get a wider variety of responses to your prompt.