Stack Overflow is one of the largest most trusted online community for developers. It features questions and answers on a range of topics in computer programming. Have you ever thought of adding similar forum threads in Moodle?
Today, I am going to show you how to add stack overflow type forums in Moodle.
Moodle plugins directory has many plugins to extend the forums functionality like Advanced Forum & Forum NG. There is another new Moodle plugin – Moodle Overflow. Similar to its functionality with Stack Overflow, the plugin is similarly named as Moodle Overflow.
Moodle Overflow:
Moodle overflow is developed by Learnweb – University of Münster, Tamara Gunkel & Jan Dageförde. The plugin provides a simple and interactive forum type which is similar to Stack Overflow. It adds a non-linear, non-chronological discussion forum to your course.
Moodle Overflow forum plugin is suitable for Question and Answers type discussions. The discussion overview shows the status, among other things. Original Poster can mark the post as helpful (orange tick) and the teacher can mark the post as solved (green tick). So the other users can see if the discussion is already solved (green tick) or if the post is marked as helpful (orange tick).
All the students in the forum can vote posts up or down. The discussion threads are ordered by number of up-votes. The post owner’s reputation increases if the post is up-voted and decreases if the post is down-voted.
On site configuration level, as an administrator you can configure the default marks for Up-vote, Down-vote, Marked as Solved & Marked as Helpful.
On the course level configuration, as a teacher you can configure settings like maximum attachment size or read tracking. You can also configure if helpful or solved posts are displayed first and how the reputation will be calculated.
I am pretty much amused by the simplicity of this forum plugin and the interaction it adds to your Moodle course. I would highly suggest this plugin for all Moodle users who are looking for a simple Question-Answers based discussions like Stack Overflow.
The plugin is compatible with Moodle 3.3 and 3.4 versions. You can download the latest version of the plugin from this link.
What are the other forum plugins for Moodle to build a trusted community? Do share your views with us in the comments section below.
