Blog posts rather than ordered list of topics

Blog posts rather than ordered list of topics

by Teresa Llewellyn-Evans -
Number of replies: 1

I have set up a standard discussion forum for facilitators and students to post and responds to medical cases. Facilitators post numbered cases and each case is a new post. Students also post their own cases as a separate forum post.  Students are required to contribute to at least 15 cases and post one case of their own. We now have over 50 cases in the system. I set up the standard forum because I wanted to have a one-stop shop, rather than 50+ individual forums.

My problem is that the forum is getting really messy and challenging to use for both facilitators and students because the cases/discussions are no longer in numerical order. So finding which cases are still active is quite challenging. Also, I don't know how to close a discussion. Even though an answer has been posted to many of the earlier cases, participants who need to complete the requirements are posting in these.

We have only one week to go before the forum is closed but I would really appreciate any suggestions for how I should go about setting this up for next time.


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In reply to Teresa Llewellyn-Evans

Re: Blog posts rather than ordered list of topics

by Jon Bolton -
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I’d be sorely tempted to set up a database for this, with comments enabled and possibly a couple of plugin field types.

The database activity can allow you to have a structured dataset for the case study. It can also (optionally) require x number entries before viewing and/or allow x number of entries to be be deemed complete. Text entry fields will allow descriptive text to be added and conversation can be done with comments. You could also allow peer and educator review with ratings.

Custom field types like the Linked Checkbox, Linked RadioButton and Tag Input will allow grouping of similar entries - eg.. case 15, carew case, etc. - and these can optionally be shown to user with the Database Tags block and/or Database TagCloud filter. You can see an example of these additional field types, the block and the filter at http://practicelearning.info/mod/data/view.php?id=258. Note, this tagging functionality will be superseded this year by enhancements to the core tagging functionality, but that’s a few months off.

If you can DM me an extract of the current discussion (or give me an idea of the things that you would normally want to see covered on each response) I can create you a database preset to play with.

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