Forums: a learner's view

Summary

Your forum settings and learner enrollments determine what learners can view and access. 

Forum features are available to all customers on request.

Learners can:

• access the forum
• view topics
• create posts on topics by default - you can change permissions to read-only for learners if required
• comment on posts

In forums, learners and moderators generate content that other learners share, as long as the participant is part of the portal. Their account status affects access to the content they create:

• if a learner's account is disabled, the posts they contributed remain part of the portal
• if a learner's account is deleted, their posts are also deleted

See Disable a user account, or delete an account for more about account statuses.

Learner's view of a forum

See Forums overview: topics, permissions and moderators to distinguish between topics, posts and comments.

Forums present different onscreen views to learners, from the admin's view. Once you enable forums on your portal, your newest learner can access them from the main navigation.

The following screenshot shows a learner's view of the main navigation menu, after enabling forums.

Admins need to create topics, which give learners a place to publish posts and comments: without topics, no one can participate in the forum. See Enable forums for your portal, and add topics

When you create topics, select Anyone with permission to view the topic in Who can post in this topic, so learners can post and comment.

The following screenshot shows a learner's forum with 2 topics and an option to view All Posts.

Tip: Use a sample learner account to verify access, to make sure learners can see and create content.

Create a post on a topic

1. From the primary navigation menu, select Forum.
2. Select a Topic. 
3. Select Create New Post: the associated topic title appears automatically.
4. Enter a Post Title.
5. To upload an image, select Upload Image.
6. Enter a term in Tags to create a new one or select an existing tag.
7. Enter text into Post Content.
8. Select Save to save as a draft post, or Publish to publish immediately.

The following screenshot shows an example post.

Create a post on a course

To create a course-specific topic, viewable only to enrolled learners, you must enable forums in the course's Forum settings, See Enable forums for your portal, and add topics.

The learner now sees a Forum tab from Dashboard > My Courses, and a topic with the course name.

1. Navigate to the course and select Forum. 
2. Select Create New Post: the associated course name appears automatically.
3. Enter a Post Title.
4. To upload an image, select Upload Image.
5. Add any Tags, or enter text to create one.
6. Enter text into Post Content.
7. Select Save to save as a draft post, or Publish to publish immediately.

Create a post on a learning path

To create a learning path-specific topic, viewable only to enrolled learners, you must enable forums in the learning path's Forum settings. See Enable forums for your portal, and add topics

The learner now sees a Forum tab from Dashboard >  My Courses > Learning Path.  

1. Navigate to the Learning Path and select Forum 
2. Select Create New Post: the associated learning path title appears automatically
3. Enter a Post Title
4. To upload an image, select Upload Image
5. Add any Tags or enter text to create one
6. Enter text into Post Content
7. Select Save to save as a draft post, or Publish to publish immediately.

Add a comment

If Users can comment on post is enabled on a post, learners can add comments.

To make a comment, enter text into the Comment box, and select Add Comment.   

The following screenshot shows the text space where a learner can add a comment to a post.

Moderate topics

You can enable any user to moderate forums: the moderator role is not linked to LearnUpon user types. See Forums: add moderators for a topic, course or learning path

For LearnUpon forums, a moderator has permissions to:

• create new posts
• delete posts or comments
• disable posting
• unpublish the topic

To delete a comment: 

1. Navigate to Forum > Moderation.
2. Find the comment in the post.
3. From More (aka 3-dot menu), select Delete Comment.

The following screenshot shows More > Delete Comment option.

Search for posts

A learner can search for posts by title, using the search field on the forum page.

The following screenshot shows a sample post found by search.

Filter posts

Learners can filter posts by a topic, course, or learning path, and also by dates and tags.

1. In the forum navigation, select Filter
2. Select dates from Created After and/or Created Before calendars 
3. Enter a name of a Topic, Course or Learning Path and then choose Topics, Courses or Learning Paths.
4. Select Tags field to view tags.
5. Select Accept to create the filter.

The following screenshot shows the Filter Posts dialog.