- 05 Apr 2022
- 8 minutes to read
Forum activity settings
- Updated on 05 Apr 2022
- 8 minutes to read
Forum settings
When adding a forum activity to a course you can configure the following settings.
Setting | Description | Notes |
---|---|---|
Forum name | The name for the forum. Will be displayed on the course page. | - |
Description | The description is optional but could be used to give instructions or guidance about how to use the forum. | - |
Display description on course page | If enabled, the description above will be displayed on the course page just below the link to the forum. | - |
Forum type | There are five forum types:
| - |
Maximum attachment size | When learners attach files to their posts, you’ll want to limit the maximum size of their posts so you don’t use up all your server space. This is especially important if you are paying a commercial hosting company for your Totara site. | - |
Maximum number of attachments | This setting specifies the maximum number of files that can be attached to a forum post. | - |
Display word count | This setting specifies whether the word count of each post should be displayed or not. | - |
Subscription mode | Subscriptions to forums provide notifications to the users of new posts to the subscribed forum or forum topic. The notifications will be delivered depending on the user's messaging preferences. It is possible for the trainer to choose whether a subscription forum is optional or not. The four subscription mode options are:
The subscription mode and subscribe or unsubscribe links appear in Navigation > Forum administration when viewing the forum. Trainers can quickly change the mode via the Subscription mode options and view the current subscribers via the Show/edit current subscribers link. | Changing the subscription settings will only affect users who enrol to the course after the change is made it will not back-port and subscribe or unsubscribe existing course members. |
Read tracking | Read tracking for a forum allows users to track both read and unread forum posts. There are three options for this setting:
| - |
Lock discussions after period of inactivity | It is possible to lock a discussion after a certain period of inactivity. This can be configured in the settings when creating or editing the forum, although it is disabled by default (no locking will occur). Once a discussion is locked then only users with the right capabilities (such as Editing Trainers) can unlock the discussion by replying to the forum. Any users without the right permissions will simply be unable to reply to any posts in the locked forum after the set period of inactivity. | - |
Time period for blocking | Allows you to block learners posting after a given number of posts in a given period, after a certain number of posts learners can be warned that they are close to the limit. | - |
Post threshold for blocking | Sets the threshold for blocking. Setting block threshold to 0 disables blocking. If blocking is disabled, warnings are automatically disabled. | - |
Post threshold for warning | Sets the threshold for warnings. Setting the warning threshold to 0 prevents learners being warned that they are near the limit. | None of these settings affect trainers posting. |
Grade category | This setting controls the category in which this activity's grades are placed in the gradebook. | - |
Grade to pass | This setting determines the minimum grade required to pass. The value is used in activity and course completion, as well as in the gradebook, where pass grades are highlighted in green and fail grades in red. | - |
Roles with permission to rate | To submit ratings users require the /rating:rate capability and any module specific capabilities. Users assigned the following roles should be able to rate items. The list of roles may be amended via the permissions link in the administration block. | - |
Ratings aggregate type | A score in the grade book for the learner’s submissions in the forum. The grade is set using the dropdown menu below this option. The aggregate type defines how ratings are combined to form the final grade in the gradebook.
| If No ratings is selected, then the activity will not appear in the gradebook. |
Scale | Select the type of grading used for this activity. If scale is chosen, you can then choose the scale from the scale dropdown. If point is chosen, you can then enter the maximum grade available for this activity. | - |
Restrict ratings to items with dates in this range | Select the dates From and/or To that you want to restrict ratings to be entered. | See Common module settings to learn more. |
Activity completion | See activity completion to learn more. | - |
Restrict access | See restricting access to learn more. | - |
Tags | See tags to learn more. | - |
Plugin settings
If you go to Quick-access menu > Plugins > Activity modules > Forum you can configure the site-wide settings.
Remember to click Save changes once you are finished.
Setting | Description | Notes |
---|---|---|
Display mode | Choose the default display mode. Select from:
| - |
Short post | Any post under the length set here (in characters not including HTML) is considered short. | Posts displayed on the site front page, social format course pages, or user profiles are shortened to a natural break somewhere between the Short post and Long post values. |
Long post | Any post over the length set here (in characters not including HTML) is considered long. | Posts displayed on the site front page, social format course pages, or user profiles are shortened to a natural break somewhere between the Short post and Long post values. |
Discussions per page | Maximum number of discussions shown in a forum per page. | - |
Maximum attachment size | Default maximum size for all forum attachments on the site (subject to course limits and other local settings). | - |
Maximum number of attachments | Default maximum number of attachments allowed per post. | - |
Read tracking | The default setting for read tracking. There are three options for this setting:
| - |
Track unread posts | Enable (tick) this option if you want to track read/unread for each user by default. | - |
Allow forced read tracking | Allows forums to be set to forced read tracking. Will result in decreased performance for some users, particularly on courses with many forums and posts. When off, any forums previously set to Forced are treated as optional. | - |
Read after days | The number of days old any post is considered read. | - |
Manual message read marking | If enabled (ticked), the user must manually mark a post as read. Otherwise, when the post is viewed it is marked as read. | - |
Mark old posts as read hour | The hour of the day to clean old posts from the read table. | - |
Hour to send digest emails | People who choose to have emails sent to them in digest form will be emailed the digest daily. This setting controls which time of day the daily mail will be sent (the next cron that runs after this hour will send it). | - |
Enable RSS feeds | This switch will enable the possibility of RSS feeds for all forums. You will still need to turn feeds on manually in the settings for each forum. | - |
RSS feed type | If RSS feeds are enabled, sets the default activity type. | - |
Number of RSS recent articles | If RSS feeds are enabled, sets the default number of articles (either discussions or posts). | - |
Timed posts | Enable (tick) if you want to allow setting of display periods when posting a new forum discussion. | - |
Preferences settings
Users can configure their own forum preferences from the user menu. Within forum preferences you can configure the following settings.
Setting | Description | Notes |
---|---|---|
Email digest type | This setting determines how a user will receive any posts from forums to which they are subscribed, allowing them to receive messages individually or on a daily basis. The three digest options are:
| You can also choose a different setting for each forum if you wish. |
Forum auto-subscribe | This setting specifies whether a user will receive email copies of any posts that are added to forums in which they have previously posted. This can be manually overridden within a forum. | - |
Forum tracking | Enabling forum tracking will highlight posts that have not yet been read (where allowed within the forum). | - |
When sending forum post notifications | When you are notified of a forum post, you can choose whether this should mark the post as read for the purpose of forum tracking. | - |
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