Forums

A discussion forum have been created for this web course. Forums are a flexible conferencing system that enables on-line discussions via the Web. The forum is the primary tool for course interaction between students and between students and the instructors. The forum protocol is asynchronous (time and space independent) meaning that you will be able to perform the module tasks at a time and location that is convenient for you. When you enter a Module Discussion Forum you will see the links to each of the module tasks (shown below).

Threaded Discussion on the Web

The threaded discussion is the primary way that you will communicate with the instructor and other learners while you are completing module tasks. That is, you may post messages/tasks to a forum and these postings are "archived" on the web server. The next time you enter a forum your posting will still be there. Others may then post a new message or reply to an existing message. There are two primary ways to post a message:

• As a reply to an existing message
• As a new message in an existing thread

Forum Buttons

At the top of the Forum page you will see a function bar. This bar contains active buttons/links to various functions of the Forum.

The buttons and their descriptions are provided below:

Exit	Click to leave the conference.
Refresh	Click to refresh the Forums display.
New Messages	Click to refresh the conference page. Any messages posted since the last time the page was refreshed will appear.
Search	Click to search the conference for messages containing a word or phrase you specify. You can limit the scope of the search to a particular forum in the conference.
Options	Click to set a number of different user options, such as which forums you see in the main conference page, frame display, email notification options, and other user options.
Logout/in	Click to logout from the conference and to login in with a different login name.

When you enter the module discussion forum you will have a new button bar at the top of the page (shown below).

To post a new message to the forum, follow the instructions below.

Post A New Message

1. Select a thread from those listed under the available forum names (e.g. Task 1 and Discussion, Task 2 and Discussion, etc.).
2. Click the Post new message link and the following box will appear.
   

3. Enter a subject for your message and the text of the message itself.
4. Click Post to post the message to the forum, or Preview to preview your message before posting it.

Reply To An Existing Message

1. Select a thread from those listed under the available forum names.
2. In the message part of the page, click the Reply button.
3. Enter a subject for your message and the text of the message itself.
4. Click Post to post the message to the forum, or Preview to preview your message before posting it.

Setting Options

A number of options are available to you when you post a message. Among the more powerful options is embedding HTML code directly in your message. Examine the graphic below to see what options are available to you.

Font Options

When you create a message, you can select an option to display the message in a monospaced or fixed-width font. If you want the entire message displayed in a particular font, you can write the entire message in HTML. Note, however, that selecting a font with HTML tags is no guarantee that your message will be shown in that font on every browser.

The Advanced Option: HTML

When creating a new message, you can also embed HTML directly into your message. Many people use this feature to attach a hyperlinked graphic, such as a logo or other graphic, directly in their message.

Email Notification

Two email options are available when posting a new message:

1. You can opt for email notification of all new messages posted to the current thread. This can help you stay on top of a subject you’re interested in without having to constantly check the conference for new messages.
2. You can email your new message to everyone who has already posted a message in the current thread.

Note: You can also elect to be notified by email of any new messages posted to threads that you mark. For more information about marking threads, see "Marking a message thread".

Quoting a Message

When posting a reply to an existing message, the Quote button appears at the bottom of the message composition form. You can click this button to quote the message you are replying to in your own message.

Previewing Your Message

When you’re finished writing your message, you can preview the message by clicking the Preview button. This can be especially useful if you have embedded HTML in your message. When you preview a message, you can return to the composition form if you want to make any changes to the message.

Attaching Files to Your Message

Uploading has been enabled in the PTE conference. Therefore you can attach files to any message you post. You might want to attach a graphics file or document file to a message.

To attach a file to your message:

1. Open the Edit message page by creating a new message. See Posting messages for more information about posting messages.
2. Enter your name in the Author box.
3. Click the Advanced button.
4. Click the Attachments button.
5. Click Browse to locate the file you want to attach. Then click Add to add it to the message. The filename appears in the Currently attached box.

You can also use this page to remove attachments from messages.

» For a more thorough tutorial on Attaching Files to the PTE Forum...CLICK HERE.

Creating a Signature For Your Messages

When you post messages, you can elect to have a signature appended to every message you post. This signature can contain text or HTML, so you could, for example, embed a graphic hyperlink to your web site as part of your signature.

To define a signature:

1. Click the Options button.
2. Click the Attach Signature check box and enter the signature text you want in the text entry box below.

Note: You can enter your email address in the Email text entry box. Your address will then appear following your name in the header area of every message you post.

Marking a Message Thread

Message threads can be selected or marked so that various options can be applied to the threads you mark. You can, for example, tell Forums to notify you by email of any new messages posted to threads you mark. This unique feature can save you a lot of time.

To mark a thread and enable email notification:

1. In the main conference page, note the small bullet symbol between the message date to the right and the page icon to the left. Click the bullet to mark the thread. The bullet changes to "red" to indicate that it is marked. Note in the image below, two of the three threads are marked and the bullets are displayed "red."
   
2. Click the Options button.
3. Click the From Marked Threads check box.

Note: Because a conference administrator can choose from a variety of graphics objects, thread bullets and flags (used to indicate that a thread is marked) can vary dramatically.

Printing Messages

You can print messages at any time by using the print option native to your web browser. However, unless you enable the Split Thread Frame option, your print operation will print an entire thread. Since you may not always want to print an entire thread, Forums allows you to print a single forum message.

To print a single message:

1. Open the message you want to print.
2. Click the Options button.
3. Click the Use Frames check box and also click to enable the Split Thread Frame option.
4. Click inside the message frame and select Print from the File menu.

The Split Thread Frame option divides the Forums display into three frames: one containing the list of forums and threads; one containing message titles in the thread; and one containing the current message.

Searching for Messages

With Forums’ search facility, you can search one or more forums for words and phrases. Search options allow you to limit the search to improve your search results.

To search messages for a string:

1. Click the Search button.
   

2. Enter a search word or phrase. You can use ordinary Boolean operators like AND, OR, and NOT in your search expression.
3. Enter an author name to limit the search to a particular author.

Using Boolean Search Syntax

You can create search expressions using Boolean syntax to find messages in a forum. The following examples illustrate common Boolean syntax for searching:

development AND "bug report"

"Ted Nelson" AND hypertext OR hypermedia

Hegel AND "Rudy Rucker" AND (software OR hardware)

"Operating systems" OR OS NOT "Warp"