OHM: Supporting Students Using Discussion Forums & the Gradebook

OHM Forums

For Forum items, you will asked to provide:

• Name: The name of the forum
• Description: A description of the forum (displays on course page)
• Available after: The first date for the item to display to students
• Available until: The last date for the item to display to students
• Group linked: If you have a group assessment, you can link the forum to the groups of that assessment. If you do this, students viewing the forum will only see posts from their group members and instructors. Be aware that posts to group linked forums often won't trigger the red "New Posts" flag on the home page.
• Allow anonymous posts: Whether you want to allow students to post anonymously
• Allow students to modify posts: Whether you want students to be able to modify their posts
• Email notify: Whether you want to receive an email whenever a new post is made on the forum
• Default display: Whether you want threads to display Expanded, Collapsed, or in Condensed format by default. Users can change the display once they view the thread
• Students can reply by: Optionally set date restrictions for students replying to posts. Can be overridden in individual threads.
• Students can create new threads by: Optionally set date restrictions for students creating new threads
• Count in gradebook: Whether you want the forum to count in the gradebook for points. You will be able to assign points for individual posts made.
• Gradebook category: Category for the gradebook, if assigning points to the forum.

When you as a teacher start a new thread, you are given the option to have it be:

• A regular post
• Always display at the top of the list
• Displayed at top and locked (no replies can be made)
• Displayed at top and replies are hidden from students

You can use the middle two options to, for example, post discussion instructions. You can use the last option to post a question in class, and have students respond without seeing other students' replies.

When viewing the forum thread list as an instructor, there is a "List Posts by Name" link which will list all posts in the forum, grouped by student name. New threads are colored in black, replies in green

Posting to Discussion Forums and Using the Editor

Once you've entered a discussion forum, you can Add a New Thread. In a new thread, you'll add a subject and then the text you want to share. The text editor is a basic editor, but it also has three additional functions:

• Add new math
• Math symbols
• Add/Edit graph

The Add new math function will bring up a red box where you can type your equation (e.g., x^2/4 + 6). When you click outside the box, it will render as "pretty math." If you need to edit the equation, you can click it again.

When you insert a graph, you will either need to click Add/Edit graph and then click the button again, or you will need to click Add/Edit graph and then double click on the graph. This will bring up the control panel for the graph, where you can edit the input for the graph.

You can also reply to threads by clicking Reply (this uses the same text editor). As the instructor, you can also Remove posts if need be. The original author of a post can edit their own text as well.

Using the Student Gradebook

When students click on Gradebook, they will see each assignment item, the points possible, their grade, the percent, and if the instructor left any feedback.

Sending a Message

There is an internal message system (accessible through the Message tab at the top of the site). Messages are sorted by course. One advantage to the message system over a standard email is that the message system in OHM can use the same math functionality we use in the forums.