Forum with a limited number of discussions

Forum with a limited number of discussions

by Beatriz Rojo -
Number of replies: 7

Hello there,

we have a specific scenario for a forum activity (using Moodle 3.7). We don't want the discussion to become very large, so we are thinking of the following requirements:

  • There is a limited number of discussions. Let's say only 5 discussions can be created. Once the 5 discussions are created, students can reply to them only.
  • Each student can reply to any of the discussions, as many times as (s)he wants.

My first idea would be to create 5 single simple discussions (i.e. 5 forums), but I think it's quite confusing creating 5 different activities when, in fact, they belong to the same task. Also, this setting wouldn't allow reading all the discussions on the same page.

Any ideas on how to implement this?

Thanks!

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In reply to Beatriz Rojo

Re: Forum with a limited number of discussions

by Mary Cooch -
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Do you want the students to create these five discussions or do you want only the teacher to create them? Because if you want only the teacher to create them then you could set up a normal forum but remove from the student role the capability to start discussions.
Average of ratings: Useful (2)
In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Forum with a limited number of discussions

by Beatriz Rojo -
Hi Mary,
thanks for your question. I want the students to create the discussions smile
In reply to Beatriz Rojo

Re: Forum with a limited number of discussions

by Daniel Thies -
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Hi Beatriz,

The easiest way that could be done with some simple javascript. It would just count the number of discussions on the landing page and disable the create discussion button if there are more than four present.

Average of ratings: Useful (3)
In reply to Daniel Thies

Re: Forum with a limited number of discussions

by Beatriz Rojo -
Thanks Daniel,
I cannot do Java, but I will ask if my IT department can help there. smile
In reply to Beatriz Rojo

Re: Forum with a limited number of discussions

by Mary Cooch -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
And if your IT department is busy, then you could just manually count the number of discussions and then prevent students from starting new ones ;)
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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Forum with a limited number of discussions

by Daniel Thies -
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Of course you could use the event monitor to help count the posts. Monitor create discussion event and set threshold at five.

Average of ratings: Useful (3)
In reply to Daniel Thies

Re: Forum with a limited number of discussions

by Beatriz Rojo -
Cool, the low-fidelity techniques are also valid for my setting smile