And if you prefer to read, here’s an outline of what a forum is and how it can be used:

This article provides an overview of Glow Forums, further posts provide more detail in how to create a forum, post entries in to a forum and moderate other users.

Key points about a Glow Forum are:

A Glow Forum has to be linked to either a site (local authority or school) or a Glow group. They are created by adding a web part to the relevant page and then using the functionality of the web part to create the forum. The web part is called Glow Forum.

A Glow Forum can also be called a discussion board. A discussion board is made up of one or many topics.

A topic can be started by anyone. To start a topic the user creates a new post in a new topic. Other users can then join in the topic by making their own posts and replying to existing posts.

When viewing a discussion board the user is shown all the topics. The order in which the topics are displayed depends on when a user last posted – the topic with the most recent post will be at the top of the list. Shown against each topic is the number of times anyone has looked at it and the number of posts in the topic.

Some topics can be given a special status by the moderator – perhaps the topic is an announcement(so it is shown above all the other topics) or it is a sticky (it is shown with the other posts however it will always be returned at the top of the list, regardless of when last posted to)

A moderator of a board is the administrator of the Glow group.

One last thing is that it is possible for any user to view all the boards they are active in by using the Board Index link. This shows only those boards the user has ever accessed, not all the ones they are a member of by virtue of being a member of the Glow group.

What does all this mean in real life?  This scenario attempts to clarify

An English teacher in a school may wish to set up a Glow Forum to allow his pupils to discuss the current class text.  The web part is added to the class Glow group by the teacher and he creates the Forum.

The teacher writes the first post telling the class what the point of the Forum is – he writes a post and because he always wants everyone to see it, he sets that post to be an Announcement – he can do this because he is the Glow group administrator.

The pupils then use the Glow Forum – a first post is entered by one pupil asking for help on one question – this pupil is creating a new topic. Those that can help post replies to this post, all these replies are in the one topic.  At the same time, a different pupil may ask a different question and so they write a new post in a new topic – a separate discussion is underway but all in the same Glow Forum.

One pupil asks a particularly important question about exam technique, the teacher wants this discussion to continue but wants to make sure everyone sees it – the teacher sets this topic to be a Sticky – it is always at the top.

The teacher is interested in this Glow Forum along with others such as in his school’s staff Glow group, in an authority All English teachers group and also a CPD group at national level – by going to the board index he will see all these forums listed along with the recent activity.