The "forum" tool is a written and asynchronous discussion tool. Where email allows one-to-one dialogue, forums allow public or semi-public (group) dialogue.

Technically speaking, the users need only their browser to use e-gnosis forums.

To organize forums, click on "Forum Administration". Discussions are organized in sets and subsets as following:

Category > Forum > Topic > Answers

To structure your users discussions, it is necessary to organize categories and forums beforehand, leaving the creation of topics and answers to them. By default, the e-gnosis forum only contains the category 'Public', a sample forum and a sample topic.

The first thing you should do is to delete the sample topic and modify the first forum name. Then, in the 'public' category, you can create, other forums, organized by themes, to fit your learning scenario requirements.

Don't mix Categories and forums, and don't forget that an empty category (without forums) will not appear in the student view.

The description of a forum can be the list of its members, the definition of a goal, a task, a theme...

Group forums should not be created through the Forum tool but through the Groups tool. There you will be allowed to decide whether your group forums are private or public.

Pedagogically advanced use

Some teachers use the forum to post corrections. One student publishes a paper. The teacher corrects it using the edit button (yellow pencil) then the WYSYWIG editor to correct it (use colors and underline to show errors and corrections for instance) in which case the other students benefit from the corrections.

Manage a forum

To access the forum area

• Click on the "Forums" option.
• To post messages, use forums as a student would use them (See Student Manual).
• To admin forums (create, delete forums, modify their name, move to other categories...), click on "Forum administration".

To add a category

• Click on "Forums".
• Click on "Forum administration".
• Enter a name for the category into the box.
• Click on the "Add" button.
• Your category WILL NOT APPEAR TO STUDENTS UNTIL YOU ADD FORUMS IN IT!

To delete a category

• Click on "Forums".
• Click on "Forum administration".
• Click on the "Delete" link.
  N.B. No confirmation pop-up box appears so take care.

To modify a category

• Click on "Forums".
• Click on "Forum administration".
• Click on "Modify".
• Change the name of the category.
• Click on "OK".

To Add/Edit/Delete individual forums within a category

• Click on "Forums".
• Click on "Forum administration". Here you can add a category and modify or delete a forum.
• For each category you can click on 'Forums' to add a forum to a category or modify the forum.
  • Modify (here you can change name, description and move a forum to another category).

To add a topic to a forum

• Click on "Forums".
• Click on "Forum administration".
• Click on name of forum to manage.
• Click "New topic".
• The page opens the e-gnosis WYSIWYG editor and gives a possibility to indicate a subject of the topic.
• Submit when ready.

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