Options for Reflective Work in Moodle
Many staff like the idea of having their students keep a reflective journal of their learning journey, but are unsure of the best format for setting this up in Moodle. I’d like to discuss two options that can be set up in Moodle to set up a reflective portfolio that also allows for the convenor to comment. There are in fact, a number of methods, but for the purposes of this article we will look at two of the easier one to set up – forums and wikis.
Forums
A forum allows students to create a series of posts reflecting on their learning journey with the ability for staff to comment on it and even set up grading for the posts. To make a forum into a reflective journal you will want to set up each student as a group of 1 and put then in a grouping. You can then create the forum and set it for Separate groups, and restrict it to only those groups in the grouping you just made. Each student will now have their own forum that they can post to without other students being able to see the posts.
To learn more about using forums check out the Moodle Docs on Using Forums.
Wikis
Wikis are a bit more flexible in that they can take a number of different forms. They are also more easily edited based on students’ changing understanding of their learning. But as a wiki maintains a revision history, it is easy to see where the student has made changes and how those changes reflect their new conceptualisations in their learning journey. Like forums, wikis can also be made into gradebook items. To make a wiki into a reflective journal you will follow the same setup as for a forum, creating groups of 1, setting up the grouping and then making sure that the wiki is set to separate groups and restricted to the grouping you created.
To learn more about working with wikis, visit Moodle Docs page on Using Wikis.
Confidential Moodle Forums
Discussion forums are useful in many ways, for example for peer/teacher discussion around a clinical case. However, making sure your forum remains confidential for particular staff involved, along with students (or a particular student group) is important.
To adjust the permissions regarding who is allowed to view the discussions.
1. Click on the forum that you have made.
2. Under the ‘Administration’ block (to the left of the page) you will see ‘Forum administration’. Under this heading, click on ‘Permissions’.
3. Scroll down and under the heading ‘Activity: Forum’ find ‘View discussions’.
4. You will see all the roles that can view the discussion board that you have just created. This list is the Moodle default list for viewing Forums.
5. Delete all the roles that you don’t want to view the forum using the ‘x’ button and add any roles with ‘+’ button. To make it private between students and staff, delete all the roles except the roles of ‘Editor’ (the steps above for selected staff), ‘Convenor’ (anyone who is a Convenor for that module) and ‘Local student’ (the students involved in the forum for that module).
Organising the permissions in this way allows only the roles selected to view the forum. As the people you have chosen to view the forum have been given the additional role of ‘Editor’ they can access the forum, along with whoever has the role of ‘Convenor’. If you want the ‘Administrator’ to view the forums, then just add the role of ‘Administrator’.
It is important remove the ‘Staff’ role. This is because all staff enrolled in Moodle are enrolled as ‘Staff’ by default. With this default ‘Staff’ role, you can view most pages on Moodle, which includes all pages made ‘visible’ to ELM and ALM. This means that if someone with the ‘Staff’ role member accidentally clicks on a forum on any page, they will not be able to access the discussions. This is why the role of ‘Editor’ is assigned to the particular staff member(s). It blocks unwanted ‘Staff’ from accidentally clicking on the forum and possibly viewing confidential material, while allowing selected staff to view the discussions.
If you want help setting up forums, please email med.moodle@otago.ac.nz to get in contact with someone to guide you through the process or ask additional questions.
Full instructions with screenshots can be found at Setting-up forums to maintain confidentiality
