3. Instruction

3.1. Being concise, organized, and clear

Probably the most important way to ensure an effective Discussion forum is to promote the writing of individual messages themselves that are easy to read and clear in their intent. A forum can grow quite large, and if the course participants are numerous, messages can be very frequent. To encourage participants to read all the messages, and to make the job of the trainer, who must facilitate the forum, easier to manage, concise and clear messages are critical. You can both establish guidelines and suggestions for participants, and you can be a role model. 

The first element is writing style. Short and focused messages are more highly appreciated than long and rambling ones. Messages focused on a single point or idea, or a well organized set of ideas, will be much easier to read. Messages that communicate in as few words as possible are appreciated by all. And because many or most Moodle courses can include an international audience, language free of jargon, without language-specific idioms, and using clear sentence structure works best. If you need to use jargon, define your terms well. 

Discussion forums are "threaded," meaning they include new discussion topics at the top level, and then responses to the new topics, as well as responses to those responses. These are indented to reveal their relationships down to as many levels as the responses. When organized well, the indentations provide a visual layout that reveals the structure of the discussion well. However, when participants begin new topics when they really intend to respond to a previously started one, the organization falls apart and the discussion is hard to follow. Participants and facilitators should be careful to start new topics only when the topic is truly new. 

However, because most students in a course will be subscribed to forums, which means that they may read most of the messages as individual emails, rather than within the threaded version on Moodle, the individual messages should also stand on their own. Particularly in an active and multi-topic course, it is important that each message begin by stating what thought or idea is being replied to, or which aspect of the course is being discussed. Just beginning with, "I agree," can sometimes lead to confusion about what is being agreed to. In a fast-paced and focused discussion, this can feel unnatural and unnecessary. You need to gauge when it is OK to be more brief and when it is more important to be absolutely clear what is being referred to. The image below is a demonstration of a well-structured, 3-level discussion thread with clear references in the messages.