Using Moodle 2nd Edition

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5. When you’re satisfied with the message, click the Send button.

Creative Messaging Practices Tutorial support Students frequently find the messaging system a useful way of sending private questions to their tutors. There are times when a student doesn’t want to ask a question in a public forum. Messaging provides students with a private communication channel. Tutors can also use the messaging system to send messages to one or more of their students. If the students for each tutor are in a group, the tutor can use the Groups filter on the participants list to find all of his students and send them a private message.

Encouraging participation The message system, combined with the participants list, is a great tool for encouraging students to stay engaged with your course. On the participants list you can easily filter students based on how long they have been inactive. At the top of the page, one of the options is to select students who have been inactive for any length of time from a day to five months. In a normal class of 10–15 weeks, if once a week you send a message to students who have been inactive for a week, you can remind them to participate in the course. This will keep them more engaged and improve their performance and retention.

Summary Moodle provides various channels of communication for you and your students. Forums are an asynchronous, public method for sharing ideas. Chats are a great way to have simultaneous conversations online with a group of people. Messaging provides a private channel for you to communicate directly with your students. Communication is key to success for any class, and it’s even more important in an online environment.

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