Sample request from a Davidson faculty member:
"I'd like to use Moodle to facilitate peer reviews - specifically, I want to set up a system whereby small groups of students (3 or 4 each) can exchange papers and peer review comments, such that these materials are only available to other students in the group (as well as myself)."
To accomplish the above objective, you will need to set up groups first, then set up a forum incorporating the groups. The steps are presented below.
Set up your groups
- Launch Moodle (https://moodle.davidson.edu) and open your course.
- In the upper right corner of the screen, click on the "gear" icon to open the course settings.
- On the resulting drop-down list, click on the More... option.
- Just under the words Course administration on the left side of the screen, click on the Users tab.
- In the Users section, click on the Groups link.
Create the groups
- In the lower left corner of the screen (you may need to scroll down), click on the Create group button.
- In the Group name field, enter the name of the first peer group and click on the Save changes button.
- For additional groups, click on the Create group button, type a name, save, etc.
Populate the groups
- In the list of groups on the left side of the screen, click on the name of the first group into which you would like to add students.
- With the group name highlighted on the left side, click on the Add/remove users button on the right side of the screen.
- In the Potential members list on the right side of the screen, select/highlight all of the students to add to the group.
- When all the students have been selected, click on the < Add button in the middle of the screen. Note: Students can be added one by one as well.
- When all students have been added to the group, click on the the Back to groups button in the lower left corner of the screen.
- To populate additional groups, select the group name on the left, click the Add/remove users button, select potential members on the right, click on the < Add button, etc.
- When all groups have been populated, return to the main course page.
Set up your peer review forum
- In the upper right corner of the screen, click on the "gear" icon to open the course settings.
- On the resulting drop-down list, select the Turn editing on menu option.
- In the appropriate location in your course, click on the Add an activity or resource link.
- On the Add an activity or resource dialog box, select the Forum radio button in the left column, then click the Add button in the lower right.
- In the forum settings:
- In the Forum name field, type in a name for your forum. This forum will be used by all of your students regardless of the group in which they reside.
- In the Forum type drop-down list box, select Standard forum for general use
(Note: "Single simple discussions" do not support groups) - Scroll down and expand the Common modules section of the settings. In this section, set Group mode = Separate groups.
- Scroll down and click on the Save and return to course button.
Add discussion topics to your forum
- Click on your forum to open it.
- In the Separate groups drop-down list box, select the first group and then click on the Add a new discussion topic button.
- Enter a Subject (required) and a Message (required). If you would like to attach a file, you can do that as well (optional). Click on the Post to forum button.
Important
You must add a separate discussion topic for each group. Even if they will be identical, the discussion topics must be added separately. As such, a "tip" you might consider is to add the group name as a part of the Subject description. This won't help the students but will make it easier for you! - In the Separate groups drop-down list box, select the second (or third, or fourth) group and then click on the Add a new discussion topic button.
- Enter a Subject (required) and a Message (required). If you would like to attach a file, you can do that as well (optional). Click on the Post to forum button.
- When all of the discussion topics have been added, you can close the forum.
Instructions for the students
Steps to upload the document to be reviewed within your group
- Launch Moodle and open your course.
- Click on the forum in which you will be uploading your document.
- In the list of discussions, click on the appropriate discussion topic.
- Click on the Reply link in the lower right corner
- In the Message field, type a brief description of your upload.
- To upload your document, you have two options:
- "Drag" your file from your hard drive and "drop" it into the Attachment field.
- Click in the Attachment field, click on the Choose file button, find the file on your hard drive and click on the Open button, click on the Upload this file button.
- Click on the Post to forum button.
Steps to download the document of another student in your group
- Launch Moodle and open your course.
- Click on the forum from which you will be downloading one or more documents to review.
- In the list of discussions, click on the appropriate discussion topic.
- Click on the document you would like to download.
Steps to post feedback about the document of another student in your group
- Launch Moodle and open your course.
- Click on the forum in which you will be posting feedback to another group member.
- In the list of discussions, click on the appropriate discussion topic.
- Find the post/upload for which you would like to post a comment. Click on the Reply button in the lower right corner of that post.
- Type in a Subject (optional) and a Message (required) with your feedback. If you are attaching a file, add it to the Attachments field.
- Click on the Post to forum button.