Moodle communication is limited to persons enrolled in the same course.
- Announcement area
- Chat
- Discussion forums
- News forum/Latest News
- Calendar/Upcoming events
The announcement area is in the first topic block, to add/update an announcement, click the "Turn editing on" button at the top right of your course. Then click the tiny hand in the Topic block to make the changes. After you add/edit your text, click "Save changes."
The Chat is in the "Add an activity" area of each topic block. With your editing turned on, click the "Add an activity" field and click "Chat." Set the chat directives, including the specific focus question you would like students to discuss, then click "Save changes."
Discussion forums are also located in the "Add an activity" area. With your editing turned on, click the "Add an activity" field and click "Forum." There are four types of forums, you will see them at the top in the drop down menu called "Forum type" right under the forum name. To learn about the types of forums, click the yellow question mark next to the words "Forum type." Once you have determined your forum type, fill in the "Forum Introduction" box with the exact directions for your students including what you expect of them grammatically and symntically. When you are finished, click "Save changes."
The News forum/Latest news convey the same information regardless of which you use to input the information into your course. If your students have an email account that they put in their profile, they will receive an email each time you input information in either area. Both are managed just like the discussion forum, but input via the News forum link in the first topic block, or the Latest news block on the left side of the course page.
The Calendar/Upcoming events also convey the same information regardless of which method you use to add it to your course. To add an event to the calendar, click the month, then click "New event" in the top right corner. Be sure to select "Course event" so it will show up on student's courses. Click "ok" then input your information and set your day and time, then click "Save changes." The information will show on the calendar and in the Upcoming events block.