What is a Forum?

Another basic Moodle activity is the discussion forum. Forums are used by instructors for everything from weekly graded discussions on pre-set topics, to help forums, to simple Q & A.

To participate in a discussion forum, find a forum link in the Topic Outline (center column) of the course.

forum icon is an orange box with the white outline of a speech bubble inside it. In the speech bubble are several horizontal white lines representing text.

Discussion forums have an orange icon with what appears to be a speech bubble with lines representing text inside it.

detail of the forum types selection window. The types that appear in the window are: "A single simple discussion," "Each person posts one discussion," Q and A forum," Standard forum displayed in a blog-like format," and "Standard forum for general use."

There are five different forum types to choose from in your forum settings. Each works somewhat differently. You can click the question mark symbol next to the "Forum type" section of your activity settings page to learn more about how each type operates. What type of forum you use may depend on your goals for the discussion, but "Standard forum for general use" is the type most frequently selected.