When I start my online courses, one of my goals is to create an online community that will have a bit of a life of its own beyond the subject matter being taught in the courses, by allowing students to have a space where they can discuss issues related to the broader subject matter that I am teaching freely (initially the courses will be Egyptian hieroglyphs, and the space would allow them to discuss anything Egypt freely). Therefore, I would like to implement some sort of forum that would be accessible to all students enrolled in any classes, but still be password protected from outsiders. As far as I can tell, the only way to implement something like this now would be to create another course for the "student lounge" and make it "social" and then enroll every student enrolled in other courses in it. Am I correct? Is there another way to do this that would clearly tag it as a social forum separate from courses?
That is exactly the way to do it. It doesn't have to be "social format" of course, but a separate course is definitely the way.
No need to enroll manually, though, just set an enrollment key and let the word get around.
No need to enroll manually, though, just set an enrollment key and let the word get around.