Students can not reply to Discussion forum version 2.4

Students can not reply to Discussion forum version 2.4

by Linda Donohue -
Number of replies: 11

I have set up an activity (forum).  When I log in, I have Edit and Reply.  When I log in as a student I have "discuss this topic".  When the student clicks "discuss this topic", nothing happens.

I have looked at permissions and settings and can't see anything preventing a student from replying.

I am relatively new to Moodle

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Linda Donohue

Re: Students can not reply to Discussion forum version 2.4

by Susan Mangan -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Are you using Groups?  If so, you may have created your discussion topic without first selecting the relevant group from the drop-down menu.

If you don't select the group first, your discussion will be for "all participants".  They will be able to read the discussion but not reply.

In reply to Susan Mangan

Re: Students can not reply to Discussion forum version 2.4

by Linda Donohue -

Hi Susuan,

Thank you for the reply.  I am not using groups.  When I edit the discussion group, under groups it has "No groups".  Is that what you mean?

 

In reply to Linda Donohue

Re: Students can not reply to Discussion forum version 2.4

by Linda Donohue -

Also, there isn't a reply option (like in this forum)....there is a "discuss this topic", however when I choose that, nothing happens....

In reply to Linda Donohue

Re: Students can not reply to Discussion forum version 2.4

by Susan Mangan -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Hmm.. odd.  It's the "blog-like" forum you are using, right?  What is supposed to happen is the student clicks on "discuss this topic" and once that is clicked a new link should appear to the far right of the page which says "reply".  Is it possible you are not scrolling far enough to the right to see the reply link?  I know that seems trivial but it does happen sometimes wink

 

In reply to Susan Mangan

Re: Students can not reply to Discussion forum version 2.4

by Linda Donohue -

Hi Susan,

I tried creating another activity...(I agree it is probably something so simple, but I have followed the directions I could find)....

(this is just a test, so ignore the topic smile

When I sign in as a user, this is what they see

In reply to Linda Donohue

Re: Students can not reply to Discussion forum version 2.4

by Linda Donohue -

I can reply to the discussion forum (i am the admin and created it).  When I log in as another user I can not reply - so there has to be some rights the user doesn't have?

In reply to Linda Donohue

Re: Students can not reply to Discussion forum version 2.4

by Susan Mangan -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Well, by default students can reply to discussion forums.  I suppose you could check the student role though.  Could it have gotten modified somehow?  If you go into the student role

Site Administration >> Users >> Permissons >> Define Roles >> Student

Do a search for:

Reply to posts
mod/forum:replypost

and make sure it says "allow"

Students cannot reply to a News Forum though.  Are you adding a News Forum perhaps?  Instead of a new Discussion Forum?  If you Edit the Forum, what does the Forum type say?

In reply to Susan Mangan

Re: Students can not reply to Discussion forum version 2.4

by Linda Donohue -

Thanks for your patience Susan.  My problem is that most of my experience has come in a "protected" version of Moodle through UBC and now I am trying to get moodle launched in the company I work for and I have two different versions.  I have  now realized that my students can't do anything, so I have definitely defined their role, or their enrollment incorrectly.  My company version is 2.4.  I added the users manually because we haven't been able to get LDAP working as yet.

At this point, the authenticated user does not have permission to see anything.  When I look at the authenticated user role, it looks like they should have the rights to the overall front page (which I have chat, survey and discussion forum on). 

What am I doing wrong?

 

 

In reply to Linda Donohue

Re: Students can not reply to Discussion forum version 2.4

by Mary Cooch -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

Hello there. I think the issue might be that you are creating your activities on the front page  -if you can create a course instead and add the activities there (such as a discussion forum) and enrol your users into the course you will find that by default they have permissions to do what you wish. Under normal circumstances you wouldn't have them taking part in activities on the front page - is there a particular reason you need them on the front page?

In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Students can not reply to Discussion forum version 2.4

by Linda Donohue -

Mary!

You were right - I just stumbled across some Front Page settings and when I added a user to the front page, all of a sudden he can do what he needs to do.

The only reason I put the activities on the front page is because I don't know what I am doing......smile

Now I am off to read up on "front page" to understand what that means!

In reply to Linda Donohue

Re: Students can not reply to Discussion forum version 2.4

by Susan Mangan -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Ah, yes.  Your problem was more in depth than just using a forum incorrectly. 

You should probably read up on how to administer and support a Moodle instance.  There's a load a great info here: http://docs.moodle.org/24/en/Main_page - much much more than when I first started administering Moodle back in 2004 when we basically had to just try things again and again to figure out how it worked wink

To start off read about the basic structure: http://docs.moodle.org/24/en/Moodle_site_-_basic_structure

We're practically neighbors, I work in N.Van at Capilano smile