Q and A Forums

Question and Answer forums can be used when you don't want students to see the responses of others before they respond to the discussion prompt. The setup for these forums is slightly different than a typical discussion forum.

Instructions

1. Enter your course and turn editing on. 
2. Click Add an activity or resource, choose Forum and click Add.
3. Give your forum a name. You can also include a description or instructions for the forum. Unlike regular discussion forums, do not put your discussion prompt in the description area.
4. Next to Forum type, choose Q and A forum.
5. Adjust the discussion forum options as needed.
6. Click Save and display.
7. On the resulting page, click Add a new question. If you do not add a question, students will not be able to post in this forum.
8. Two textboxes will appear for a subject and message. This is where you can put the discussion forum prompt that you want students to respond to. 
9. Enter a subject for the discussion prompt. This is what students will see on the main page of the discussion forum.
10. Enter the discussion prompt in the message box. You can add files or edit group settings by clicking the advanced button. Note that if you are using groups, you need to select the option to copy the question into each group.
11. Click Post to forum.
12. You can add additional questions to the forum by repeating steps 7-11. 
13. Students respond to this type of discussion forum differently than a typical discussion forum. Please see Replying to Q&A Forums for more information.