3.2.1 Set up Q & A type of Forum

3. Instruction

First you need to add a Forum to the Course and then select its type.

Adding and editing a Forum

• With the editing turned on, in the section you wish to add your Forum, click the Add an activity or resource link (or, if not present, the Add an activity drop down menu ) and choose Forum.
• This will take you to the Forum settings page titled Adding a new forum.

Selecting the Q and A Forum type

In the Forum settings page in the Forum type section you can select a Forum type from the drop down menu. You may change the settings at any time.

Consider that changing the type of an active Forum may confuse participants, as the interface and functionality changes. However, sometimes changing the forum format from more restricted to open could be a part of a strategy. Like in the second example included in this lesson, after a certain amount of time the Forum type was changed from a Q and A forum to a Standard forum for general use. The reason for the change was to reveal all the answers to all participants. Because participants were not requested to reply to all scenarios, they could not see all the responses if the Q and A forum type was kept. A good practice is to inform participants about planned and applied modifications in advance.

Note that description of other standard fields in the Forum settings form are available in the Lesson 3.1.1