The forum tool
From ClarolineDoc
The forums tool allows people to post ideas, opinions, and information in an organized way about the course. Posts are organized in a way that makes it easy for people to find the information they are interested in, but without having to wade through unrelated information.
Postings are organized into three subdivisions:
- Post : a post is a piece of information submitted by a single user. It may be a new post, which starts a new topic, or a reply to an existing post. Posts are typically a sentence, paragraph, or a few paragraphs.
- Topic : a topic is a collection of posts. The posts are organized in chronological order. The idea of a topic is that there is a single post that contains the topic of discussion. he rest of the posts in the topic are replies to this first post and to other replies. Topics are sort of like conversations, allowing many people to state their opinions about an idea, or debate an issue.
- Forum : a forum is a container for topics. Forums often have a general subject that the topics within are about. For instance, you might have a HTML problems forum, which would contain topics in which people would discuss about coding in HTML and telling the problems they meet.
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Posting a message
There are two primary ways to create a post :
- In the View Forum and View Topic pages, you may click New Topic. This will take you to the posting form, and, when you have posted, will create a new topic with your post as the first one in the topic.
- In the View Topic page, you may also click Reply (to an existing topic then). This will take you to the posting form, and, when you have posted, it will add your post to the topic you replied to.
The posting form
When you post a new topic or a reply to an existing topic, you are taken to the posting form.
Subject - The subject of your post. If this is a new post, the subject is required, and it will be the name of the topic. If the post is replying to another post, the subject is not required, but may be added and will be shown at the top of the post.
Message Body - The Message body is a large text area where the body of your post is input. Plain text is the only thing allowed in this text area, but special formatting, links, smilies (emoticons), images, etc. may be added through the use of Smilies, BBCode and/or HTML (if they are enabled). From Claroline 1.5 on, if your browser supports it, you have a number of WYSIWYG functionalities (like italics, bold, etc.) to help you edit your message with more convenience.
Notify me by email when there is a new answer
Since claroline 1.5.x
- Post a new message.
- Click after on Notify by email when replies are posted.
Administering a forum
Add a category
- Click on Create category.
- Enter a name for the category into the box.
- Click on Ok to add the new category.
Note : your category WILL NOT APPEAR TO STUDENTS UNTIL YOU ADD FORUMS IN IT!
Delete a category
- Enter the Forums tool.
- Click on the Delete (
) link on the category name line.
Note : no confirmation required – take care.
Modify a category
Claroline 1.8
- Enter in Forums tool.
- Click on the pen (
) on the category name line.
- An editable field give you the current Name of category, change it.
- Submit to accept the change.
Claroline 1.6 (and before)
- Click on Forum administration.
- Click on Modify.
- Change the name of the category.
- Click on Ok.
Ordering categories
Claroline 1.8
- Enter the Forums tool.
- Use the arrows on the same line as the category name to move a category up or down. The changes will be saved instantly.
Note : use the same procedure to reorder forums inside a category.
To add/edit/delete individual forums within a category
Create a forum within a category
- Enter the Forums tool.
- Click the on the Create Forum link.
- Fill the Name and Description fields, and select a category from the drop-down menu.
- Click the Ok button to create your forum.
Modify a forum within a category
- Click on the icon in front of the forum you wish to modify
- Edit your changes (name, description, category)
- Click on Ok
Delete a forum within a category
- Click on the icon in front of the forum you wish to delete
- Click on Ok in the dialogue box
