Tribal Habits standard and short topics (not pathways) can include a forum to encourage discussion amongst learners about the training content.
This allows course participants to contribute thoughts and ideas, ask questions, and share experiences for truly social learning.
How to enable the forum
To enable the Forum, follow these steps:
Click Manage forum under the Settings tab (in Edit mode for the topic) to access the Forum admin page.
Turn on the slider Enable Forum for learners. This will allow learners to access the forum.
Note: A View Forum button will also – this is only for creators. Learners access forums directly from within the topic.
Note: For already published topics, you must publish an update after enabling the forum to activate it for learners.
Two tables can be found on the Forum admin page:
Summary – the total number of posts and replies in the forum, the number of new posts and replies from the past 7, 30 and 90 days, and the total number of ‘favourited’ posts and replies.
Moderation – a list of any posts and replies that have been flagged by at least three learners and are now hidden in the Forum, as a result.
How can learners access the forum?
When enabled, learners can access the forum by clicking the Forum tab at the top-right of the Overview page, from any part within the topic.
Learners can also access any forum in a topic or article from their dashboard by clicking on the Forum button on the overview slide-out.
Learners will be taken to the main forum page for that topic, where they will see a list of current posts.
Each forum as well as each post within a forum has its own unique URL. This means you can use the URL to direct learners to your forum or specific posts from the forum within your topic.
How can learners use the forum?
Learners can:
Write their own forum posts
View posts created by other learners
Reply to posts from other learners
'Like' posts
Report posts for admin review
Use a range of formatting options when posting or replying, including rich text, hyperlinks, file attachments, and GIFs
Note: To learn more about how learners can use topic forums, see our guide titled What is the Forum tab in Training.
What happens to flagged posts or replies?
Posts or replies which are flagged by three learners are automatically hidden from learners.
These posts and replies can be found on the Forum admin page (in the Moderation table) by administrators who can then review each and decide whether to:
Unflag the content, making it visible in the forum again.
Delete the content permanently and irreversibly from the forum.
How can I add a forum to a pathway?
A pathway does not contain training content itself – it is just a ‘wrap’ or grouping of topics. So you cannot add a forum to a pathway.
Instead, you need to add a forum to a topic within a pathway. If you wanted a single forum for all the topics in your pathway, then you could:
Create an short topic called Forum and activate the forum in that short topic. This short topic should otherwise contain just one section, perhaps with some instructions about the forum.
Place the article as Optional knowledge within the pathway, making it accessible at all times to learners in that pathway.
Introduce the forum in the first topic of the pathway to direct learners to it.
How can I encourage more use of a forum or direct learners to a specific post?
Each forum, as well as the posts within, has their own unique URL.
To promote the use of a topic's forum or to direct learners to a specific post in the forum (for instance, a dedicated post added by you, as the course creator), insert the URL as a hyperlink in your topic.
Examples
Use a button element to direct learners to your forum.
When clicked, the button shown in the screenshot above opens the forum in a new tab.
Combine the instructions (including the hyperlink) with an image.
When clicked, the hyperlink shown in the screenshot above opens the forum in a new tab.
Use simple text instructions (including the hyperlink).
When clicked, the hyperlink shown in the screenshot above opens a specific post from the forum in a new tab.
Note: The URL for the forum can be obtained from the address bar of your browser when you have the forum open. The URL for a specific post in the forum can be obtained by clicking the post's heading to open it and then using the URL from the address bar of your browser.
In addition to being able to access your topic's forum at any time via the topic's navigation options, the suggestions outlined above enable you to link learners to your forum at given points during their learning journey.