CourseForum is an easy to install web application, used through standard web browsers, that lets you and your students host discussions and share knowledge, adding interaction to your courses. Create, share, and talk about ideas, Q&A, research, student portfolios, project work, and more. CourseForum delivers the ease of use, flexibility, and accountability needed for today's courses. Each of your courses gets its own dedicated forum, containing any number of separate web pages.

Much more flexible than discussion-only tools, each page can not only hold a discussion on a specific topic, but also a set of questions and answers, links to supplementary course material or research, a student's note-taking from a lecture, student portfolios, or more.

In CourseForum, you and your students choose what to post, what to share, what to discuss, and how to organize it all. Create whatever new pages you need for new topics. Each page is fully editable by everyone, right from the browser. No special tools are needed, nor knowledge of complicated markup languages like HTML. Its easy enough for everyone to contribute, adding their own material, commenting on existing material, or helping to organize it all. At the same time, pages can be locked down to prevent changes, and because all changes are recorded, you can easily track participation in your class.

CourseForum is centered around simple free-form text, making it easy to understand, and easy to work with - creating or modifying content within the course is as easy as writing an email message. There's no complex interface, set procedures for working, or complex web forms to navigate.

Features

Powerful Simplicity
Easy content creation
Link material easily
Flexible organization

Easy to Learn and Use
100% Web based
Short learning curve
WYSIWYG Editing
Simple formatting
Quick comment posting
New page templates
Recent changes
Search

Easy Setup
Easy to install server
Cross-platform
Easy administration

Users
Guest Users
Per-Course User Accounts
Site-wide User Accounts
Unlimited users per forum

Courses and Projects
Multiple courses
Unlimited courses
Project areas
Archive older courses

Permissions
Password protect courses
Page locking
Per-Course Access List
Per-Forum Access List
Fine-Grained Permissions

Rich Content
Include Markup
File attachments
Images
Slideshows
Custom Links

Advanced Features
RSS Support
Email Notification
Email to Forum
Version history
Activity tracking
HTML Export
Web Views
Choice of Themes
Custom Themes