Create a Dialogue Activity in Moodle

Overview

This page tells you how to set up an activity using the Dialogue tool, a two-way text-based communication tool, and how to open a dialogue with a student.

When to use

You might use Dialogue for private conversations between students and teachers, between you and all the members of a specific group, or between specific students.

For other communication options, see the Communicate with students in Moodle page.

Benefits

The benefits of using the Dialogue tool include:

Conversation is private.
Conversation takes place within the context of the Moodle course.
All exchanges are logged.
The tool is similar to email in that you can add attachments, conduct multiple exchanges, a time-stamped history is kept etc.
Users can set up email notification of new dialogue in their Moodle profile.
A teacher can initiate individual dialogues with all members of a group at one time.

Guide

Set up a Dialogue activity

To set up a Dialogue activity to allow student-to-teacher or student-to-student communication:

On the course home page, click Turn editing on , and in the appropriate section, click Add an activity or resource, select Dialogue from the pop-up list.
On the Adding a new Dialogue page, enter a Dialogue name and some Description text indicating how the dialogue is to be used.
Select the maximum attachment size.
Set the maximum number of attachments to a dialogue post
Check whether you wish to use course groups. This will restrict students from opening dialogues with instructors and members of groups they belong to.
Complete the remainder of the page and click Save and return to course.

Open a Dialogue with a student

On the course home page, in the relevant section, click the link for the dialogue activity.
On the dialogue page, click the Create button.
On the dialogue page, enter the student you want to Open a dialogue with—or expand the Bulk open rule if you want to begin with multiple participants.
Enter a Subject line for the dialogue, and text for the opening message uploading any attachments, then click Send or Save draft.