Getting Started - enable teacher presence online

Moodle tools that enable teacher presence online

To encourage students to participate in your Moodle course, it is necessary to be active in the course on a regular basis. Students' use of social media leads them to expect a social experience in all their online activities—if it is absent they will quickly disengage.

Moodle has many tools to help you promote participation by maintaining a highly visible presence in your course. Click the following link for a more comprehensive list of Moodle communication tools.

Tool Description Purpose Examples

News Forum/Announcement

 Announcements allow teaching staff to make posts that all course participants are subscribed to, meaning that everyone receives email notification when an announcement is  posted. A News Forum is automatically added to every Moodle course on creation. General information: course updates, reminders, encouragement etc.

Note: The Announcement Tool is called News Forum in Moodle. It is recommended that you rename it before the start of semester.
  • Welcome to …
  • No tutorial this week as Monday is a public holiday …
  • There is a room change for this week only …
Forum Forums are an asynchronous discussion activity which are useful when participants aren’t able to meet face to face, and/or can’t be online at the same time as each other.
  • Students can post general questions they might have in relation to the course for other students to benefit from.
  • A Convenor or Tutor can relay general course information or answer a question that is coming up frequently in a dialogue or tutorial conversation.
  • Extension of a lecture or tutorial conversation
  • Scaffolding ideas or arguments
  • Student-centered forum within topics to encourage course work conversations
  • Convenor/Tutor forum (hidden)
  • Small group planning or conversations
  • Can I email the assignment to you rather than hand it in?
  • On my timetable it says that the tutorial is in x and the Unit Guide says it is in y …
  • Handout mentioned the lecture recording is available …
  • Introduce yourselves …
  • The reading this week proposes …
  • Reflect on ...
  • Each group will be allocated a specific case study to examine, discuss and report back on …
  • Where do you stand in this debate?
Chat Chat allows participants in a unit to have a real-time synchronous discussion—which is especially beneficial when the group is not able to meet face to face.
  • Students planning a group presentation can communicate with each other.
  • A question-and-answer session with a Tutor/Convenor
  • External students can get to know each other and the topic being discussed.
  • How shall we approach topic x … (hidden chat between co-convenors on large/split campus)
  • I believe there are some issues around how to use a Wiki for the group task …
  • Any ideas on how we should structure our presentation?
Email Allows you to send email messages to individuals, groups or your whole course Preferred to, and/or additional to, other communication methods when it is important that all students receive a message.
  • Important course dates
  • Changes to important course details e.g. assignment changes
  • Late room changes
Voice Email Enables you and your students to include voice recordings as well as text in emails
  • Use this tool when you want to capture suitable audio for communication with your students in your course.
  • Voice tools can be of great benefit in language teaching and disciplines requiring strong oral presentation skills.
  • They also bring a unique personalisation to courses delivered by distance.
  • Sending out a pre-semester welcome
  • Issuing important course updates during the semester
  • Short question-and-answer sessions between an instructor and a student or group of students
Feedback The Feedback activity is a student survey tool you can use to request feedback on your course or your teaching. Unlike the Quiz tool, you can create non-graded questions. Use the Feedback tool when you want students' opinions either of your course as a whole or of specific activities or aspects within it.
  • Assess student satisfaction with your course as a whole.
  • Assess student satisfaction with individual activities or topic within your course.