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Creating a Q&A Forum

Learn how to create a forum where students cannot see peer posts before making an initial post.

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to provide step-by-step instructions for creating a Q & A forum in a Moodle course.

Procedures

  1. Make sure Edit mode is on.

    Edit mode button.

  2. Click Plus sign and then click Activity or resource.

    Plus ign with activity or resource link visible.

  3. Select Forum.

    Forum tile from activity chooser.

  4. Give your forum a title, type a description in the description box (optional), and check the box next to Display description on course page (optional).

    Description box for forum activity.

  5. Select Q and A forum from the dropdown menu under the activity description box.

    Menu items with Q & A forum type selected.

  6. Enable due date and/or cut-off date in the Availability section.

    Availability section in Moodle for setting due dates.

  7. Change Display word count to Yes in the Attachments and word count section if you want your students to see if they have met any word count criterion.

    Dropdown menu for Display word count set to yes.

  8. Set either Whole forum grading to Scale or Point or set Ratings to Sum of ratings. Do not set both or you will end up with duplicate tabs in the gradebook.

    Dropdown menu in Whole forum grading with Point highlighted.
    Dropdown menu in Ratings section with Sum of ratings highlighted.

  9. Set up completion tracking. If you select Add requirements, you can require a minimum number of replies.

    Completion conditions set to indicate to forum replies are required.

  10. Save your settings.

    Save button.

  11. Click Add a discussion topic, add your subject and instructions, and click Post to forum.

    Add a discussion button and Post to forum button visible above and below text box.

  12. This is what students will see on the course page.

Forum assignment as displayed on course page.

Students can click the Advanced option in the lower right corner to find the ribbon with icons for adding images and video, changing text size and color, et cetera. Once the students are finished writing, they must click the Post to forum button. They will have 30 minutes to edit their posts before they are permanent. Please make sure your students understand there is no Add a new discussion thread button like in forums they may have seen in other classes. In the Q & A forum, the student must click on the instructor's post to reply.

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