Ask & Share Forum

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The Ask & Share forum is a special forum for class announcements. This forum appears in the Course Essentials section of each course. Additionally, the Latest Announcements block can work in tandem with the Ask & Share forum to display recent posts.

  • You and your students may post or reply to the Ask & Share forum.
  • All posts to an Ask & Share forum will be emailed out to all participants as a single email or as part of a Digest based on the student’s forum preferences who have access to the class at the time of posting.
  • Posts made to the Ask & Share forum in a hidden course will NOT be emailed to your students.

Refer to the Communications Comparison Chart to determine which option will work best for your needs.

Student Permissions

How-To Change the Ask & Share Forum Permissions

Ask & Share Forum is designed to allow students to participate in the announcement forum. This forum has the same settings as the Announcement forum, but it should allow students to reply to an announcement you have posted in the forum, and to ask their own questions. We compare this to a student raising their hand and asking a question in class.

If a student indicates that they cannot post or reply in the Ask & Share forum please verify these permissions are set correctly.

Enter your course.

Click on the Ask & Share Forum link.

Click on More to open the menu.

Select the Permissions option.

Select Student from the Advanced role override drop-down.

You will change the following 4 settings to Allow under Activity: Forum.

  • Add announcements
  • Add question
  • Reply to announcements
  • Reply to posts

Scroll to the bottom and select Save changes. 

Scheduling a Post

Scheduling a Post to your Ask & Share Forum

Follow these directions to add a scheduled post to your Ask & Share Forum, ensuring that time-sensitive announcements can be posted ahead of time.

NOTE: Scheduling a post will determine when it is available in the Ask & Share Forum. This does not determine when students will receive this post via email. The forum preferences will determine when students will receive the post via email.

Enter your course.

Click the Ask & Share Forum link.

Click the Add discussion topic button.

Enter a Subject for the post/announcement.

Use the ATTO textbox editor to enter your Message.

NOTE: Some videos and files may not be available in the email that is sent, and will only be available in Moodle.

Click the Advanced link.

Expand the Display period section.

Check Enable, and set the Display start date to the date and time you want to schedule the post for.

NOTE: Set the Display end date if you would like the post to unavailable to students after a certain date.

Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Click the Post to forum button.

Latest Announcement

Latest Announcement Block

The Latest Announcement Block is already in your course, but it is not enabled so students will not see this block. Follow these directions to enable the Latest Announcement block in your course and to show the most recent posts from your Ask & Share Forum here.

NOTE: If you have multiple Ask & Share or Announcement forums in your course this block will not function properly. Make sure you delete any duplicate Ask & Share and Announcement forums that you have in your course.

Enter your course.

From the Secondary navigation click the Settings item.

Expand the Appearance section.

Use the Number of announcements drop-down menu to select the number of recent posts you would like to show in the Latest Announcements block.

Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Click the Save and display button.

Related Tags
7 Principles: Communicate high expectations (21)7 Principles: Encourage student-instructor contact (9)Announcements (1)Ask & Share (1)Communication (5)Email (11)Forum Activity (12)Start of Term (20)