Keeping track of all that writing/talking

    I used to go to the Moodle discussion forums every day to read new posts, but that got time-consuming, especially when there were multiple forums with threads to check. And I wanted to be immediately responsive to "help me" posts.

    I learned a better alternative - to be sure I'm subscribed to each forum.  How?  Set auto-subscribe in your profile, as shown in the screen shot, to "Yes, when I post subscribe me to that forum."  You just have to make sure you post at least one thread to the forum.  (You can always unsubscribe to a specific forum later if you need to.)

    Why subscribe?  Because Moodle sends me an email for every post a student makes to a discussion forum.  The emails have an easily recognizable subject line so I can distinguish these from other emails until I can look at them.  Since students tend to do their work at night, I tend to get this work in a clump first thing in the morning when I open my email account. 

    As I read through I quickly see posts that need action - usually posts outrageously full of sloppy errors. I flag these just like other emails that need to be addressed further.  The rest I read through and delete. I can click on a link in each email that will take me right to the post, which is handy if I'm replying or if I want to see the post in context. I've noticed that images in posts aren't visible in the emails, but I suspect that's a function of my email server.  

    When I see a post that needs action from the student - especially if it contains errors that need correcting.  - I just print the email and hand it right to the student.  This works much better than emailing the student (middle school students don't check their email much), or posting a reply to the post (the student might not return to this post and so won't see it).  Being able to return work for correction in person is one of the advantages of a blended class.  And I have email flags to remind me to follow up if necessary.

    In the past I didn't use the emails for grading, but went back later.  Now I'm working on getting into the habit of grading at the same time.

Where to place Homework Help Forum

    When I first started using Moodle, I put the “homework help” discussion forum with the module that’s always “up,” which is mostly vocabulary.  This worked well for the first month or so, and students quickly started helping each other with their questions.

    But I discovered my kids were putting their homework questions in other forums.  Once we started a new unit, they often would put their questions on whichever forum they were answering questions in – and they’d get other student responses quite rapidly – but their questions really didn’t belong there.

     I wondered should I make a big deal of “this is where your questions are supposed to be”  but Moodle is just so free-form and middle schoolers really don’t get into scrolling down to get to the forum.

    During snow days I put in a general snow day forum, and that’s where all the homework questions surfaced.  That forum was in just the right place, easy to find.  I guess I’m a slow learner; I’ve been trying to keep everything organized, but the organization needs to make sense to students, not just to me.  And scrolling down just doesn’t make sense to them (and there may be a laziness factor in there, too). 

    It seems to be OK to scroll down when working with vocabulary, because all the vocabulary units are in one place.  But not when just asking a question.  Then again, vocabulary assignments are regular, while asking questions is sporadic.

    So now I’m starting to add a general discussion/homework help forum in each new unit.  This takes the place of both homework help and the off-topic/coffee klatch forums I’ve experienced in many online courses for adults.  Kids just start their irreverent conversations wherever (in f2f class, too, of course).  I don’t participate in these discussions that much, because these are side conversations that can get quite silly.  As long as students are civil, that can be their spot.

    Since I know my students also converse via Facebook and online gaming and texting, I don’t feel as strong a need to provide a “special place” for them.  Wherever they are online is “their” place.  But I am tickled they feel comfortable in the class Moodle.

    Once again, kids handle their work and their play differently than adults, so the way I organize the course has to be different, too.

Groups and discussions in Moodle, Part 2

     In a previous post we looked at discussion forum possibilities, but here we’re going to focus on how groups work with discussions, because if you do it wrong, your students won’t be able to participate and there will be frustration all around. 

     Since groups can limit your discussion forum choices, why work with groups?  You often don’t want the discussion group to be too large – it gets to be too much reading which frustrates students.  For example, I have about 50 students in 2 classes for just one subject, and that’s way too much reading.  Think of having to wade through all those original posts and the comments; kids just won’t do it, and that reduces the effectiveness of the discussion tool.  Another reason to work with groups:  I have students working in small groups on a mock trial; since they’re in a competitive situation, I may want to provide students with discussion work space that’s not available to a team they’re competing with.  Or I might just want to give a group a separate space where tey won’t be distracted.

     Moodle offers visible and separate groups.  Visible shows group membership, but still allows students to see – and comment – on each others’ posts.  But if you wants student work to be in separate groups, in terms of mechanics, here’s what to do:

• If you want to use groups, you can’t use single simple forum.  The Groups function seems to need separate threads, and there are no separate threads here, so this forum type won’t work. This is true for both visible (students can see everybody’s postings, but group membership is identified) and separate groups (students can only see their own group’s postings). 

• When you’re setting up the forum, and you want to keep groups completely separate, select both Separate Groups and Available for group members only. The choices look like this.  Important:  You’ll have to click on Show advanced to get to the Available for group members checkbox.  (You can read in a lot of gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair for this little tip.)

    Abundant thanks to Russ Willis of Globalclassroom  for helping me tease out my understanding of groups. 

    Want to set up groups in the first place?  Here’s a link to a helpful video, created by G4 Ventures, that explains how.

Choosing the right discussion forum type in Moodle, Part 1

    Moodle offers several different kinds of discussion forums, and I’m still discovering the nuances.

A Standard forum for general use, the default, allows for posting a question, and then students can post separate threads.  This makes it easy to see who posted, at least initially.  The difficulty is that there are quickly a lot of threads, in essence little separate discussions, possibly not what you want.  The separate discussions can be quite lively, but I’m finding this doesn’t make for a cohesive discussion.  Think of lots of little tangents, not really visible in one place, and you’ll see how this could be problematic. When you first start working with Moodle, the temptation is to use this, since it’s the default, but it may not be the best choice for what you’re trying to accomplish with your students.  See the sample:

A Single simple forum allows the posting of one question, and students simply reply.  This looks the most like discussions in graduate level online courses (with D2L, for example).  It also gets the student to the point of answering fastest.See the sample:

A variant on the Standard forum is  Each person posts one discussion, which is nice when you want each student working on their own thread.  I’ve used this for personal reflections by each student, with subsequent conversations between the teacher and the student.  Very powerful.  (See Feedback improving student-teacher relationship.)

A really interesting variation is the Q & A forum, which I use if I want students to post their response to a prompt before they see what everybody else has posted.  Students can’t see what others have posted, or reply to them, until they have posted themselves.  I like this for avoiding the “me, too” kind of response.  I wouldn’t use this as the first kind of forum students use, because they need to feel comfortable with both the technology (do I know how to do this?) and with the situation (am I comfortable saying what I think in this environment?).  It does help students reflect about their own thoughts before getting immersed in other people’s.

     To see the mechanics of setting up a forum, see this helpful video by DomanskiRPS. (Thanks to Moodle News for letting the moodle world know about this and other videos.

There are several considerations for working with discussion forums when it comes to groups, and that’s the topic for Part 2.  (One important hint:  the single simple forum won’t work with groups of any kind.)