Using Announcement Forums (Moodle)

Owned by jmcivor
Last updated: Apr 16, 2020 by Holly Steenvoorden
2 min read

Announcements - A Forum Type

The 'Announcement forum' is unique.  It is:

  • a special forum for announcements
  • only one way communication - teacher to students.  Posting to it is restricted to teachers only.
  • automatically created when a course is created
  • cannot be added back to a course if deleted

There can only be one 'Announcement forum' in a course.  If the 'Latest news' block is visible, it will display recent discussions from the Announcement forum.

In This Article:

Forum Introduction

Enter the type of information that will be in this forum. The default is 'General news and announcements'.  This appears in the forum summary.

Suggested Settings For An Announcement Forum

  • Subscription and tracking:
    • Subscription mode - Forced subscription.  This will ensure that all students receive your updates, reminders and important announcements.
    • Read tracking for this forum? - On. The unread post notification will appear on your main page. Once you have read the post, the notification disappears
  • Post threshold for blocking- Pertains to a time limit for adding posts. It is not applicable for a News Forum.
  • Ratings: Not applicable for a News Forum

Common Module Settings

  • Group Mode: No groups - if you want the Announcement forums to be read by all students.
  • Visible:  Show
  • ID Number:  this field (number) identifies this activity for a custom grade calculation.  It is an arbitrary number you create.  It would not be applicable in a Announcement Forum.
  • Restrict Access:  Not applicable in a Announcement Forum
  • Select Saving Option:
    • Save and return to course - saves the changes and returns to the main course page
    • Save and display - saves your changes and displays the activity
    • Cancel - Cancels the changes

Create A Forum

  1. Click on the forum name (Announcements)
  2. Click on: "Add a new topic"
  3. Complete the required fields:
    • Subject: Required field. This text will appear in the 'Latest News' block if you have this block active
    • Message: Enter the full message that students will read when they click on the 'more......' link from the 'Latest News' block
      Note by default, everyone is subscribed to this forum, this means they will receive a copy of this in their personal email
    • Attachment:  Use the 'Add...' button to attach a file
    • Mail Now:  Leave this box un-ticked
  4. Click on: "Post to Forum"

Viewing Announcements

A post is available from multiple places.

  1. From the main content page by clicking on the forum name
  2. Use the "Activities" block and click on "Forums" to display a listing of posts in this forum.

  3. To read the post, click on the name of the post (i.e. Guest Speaker rescheduled).

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