Providing opportunities for dialogue and reflection

In Moodle, dialogue most often occurs within Discussion Forums, although Chat, Blog, and Feedback activities, as well as private messages, can also be used for similar outcomes. Collaborative work also generates useful discussion among students. However, the Discussion Forum is one of the most frequently used activities in Moodle courses, and one of the most important, so we will put emphasis on this activity here.  

When should you use dialogue?

The best answer is probably frequently. Dialogue is not just for Q&A following lectures or readings, although that is a very good use. It can also be an important format for course content, not just an activity about course content. Content can sometimes be provided to learners in more engaging ways during discussion than within a lecture. For example, rather than just lecturing about the key ingredients for a convective storm, asking learners to share the most common conditions for storm initiation in their region will involved learners, stimulate what they already know, and create a broader learning experience while together you discover the key ingredients. Rather than just explaining what you see in a satellite image showing convective initiation, asking learners to share what they see first generates more active engagement. Dialogue can draw out what learners already know while they are learning new things, which makes knowledge more integrated. 

At which level should you create your Discussion Forums?

In Moodle, a Discussion Forum can be created at any level within the course structure, and you might want to have forums at a variety of levels. A Course-wide forum, placed in section 0 at the top of the course page, is a good choice for inviting general discussion about the course as a whole, or about course logistics.  

If you use discussion as a frequent strategy, you may also want to create individual discussion forums for each main topic, section, or week, placing it at the top of the section to indicate its topic-level intention. This will help to keep the discussions in those forums more focused and manageable for you and the participants. 

At times, an individual learning activity targeting a key learning outcome might be centered on the use of a discussion activity. In these cases, a discussion forum might be created within a section, next to the learning resources that support it.