Use at a School

[mzeigler]

Hi All,
I am a technology director at an independent school. I am looking for a discussion board that teachers can use to extend their classroom discussions outside of the school walls.

Is there a way to host phpbb on our servers where the teachers can sign up and create their own message boards?

Thanks!

[mzeigler]

Hi All,
I am a technology director at an independent school. I am looking for a discussion board that teachers can use to extend their classroom discussions outside of the school walls.

Is there a way to host phpbb on our servers where the teachers can sign up and create their own message boards?

Thanks!

To be clear:
I want teachers to be able to sign up and the board automatically is created without me having to install the board each time.

[stevemaury]

Why would you want a whole bunch of boards? That defeats the purpose of a community. You can have a single board with a variety of different forums, restricted as to access in anyway you want. Most boards have several general, public forums and then however many hidden private forums. That makes more sense to me. Install it once (a 5 minute job once the files are uploaded). Configuring the forums and permissions is a little more time-consuming, but once it's built, it's done.

There are one-click installs, butthey are not recommended and not supported here.

[cybrid23]

Yes, it's possible. Free hosting sites do it all the time.

Problem is it requires a script, and allones I have seen to do this cost money.

[mzeigler]

So what your saying is I would have one main board divided up into Middle and Upper School. From there I could have it divided up into Math, Science, etc. and then have that divided up into the teachers names. And then finally have it divided up into each of their classes? We could then limit the students to only have access to the class boards that they are enrolled in?

[mzeigler]

Yes, it's possible. Free hosting sites do it all the time.

Problem is it requires a script, and allones I have seen to do this cost money.

I would use a free site to do it, but I dont want ads on the forums for the students.

[stevemaury]

That's what I'm saying. A lot more powerful and flexible. Look at the organization of this board, for example. Go to the forum index.

[mzeigler]

That's what I'm saying. A lot more powerful and flexible. Look at the organization of this board, for example. Go to the forum index.

Ok great - I will give it a try - are you able to restrict access to certain threads for students?

[Marshalrusty]

So what your saying is I would have one main board divided up into Middle and Upper School. From there I could have it divided up into Math, Science, etc. and then have that divided up into the teachers names. And then finally have it divided up into each of their classes? We could then limit the students to only have access to the class boards that they are enrolled in?

This sounds like a much better solution than having each teacher create his/her own board. Think about it this way, are all the teachers computer savvy? I'm sure it would be quite difficult to help each one of them individually, but if it's all on the same board, you could sort out any issues yourself.

Once phpBB3 is released, you will be able to use subforums to break the board up into convenient sections.

[cybrid23]

I wasn't telling you to use a free site. I said they use the script to make multiple boards, as you asked.

That script costs money to get.

And yes, you can restrict access to certain threads.

[mzeigler]

Once phpBB3 is released, you will be able to use subforums to break the board up into convenient sections.

Any idea when it is going to be released? I just want to know if I should spend time doing this now, or wait until it comes out.

[stevemaury]

Yes. Permissions are on a forum-wide basis, rather than particular threads within a forum, though. But you can restrict the ability to Post in threads, or Reply to them or Edit them, etc. within a particular forum. So, you could have a read-only forum for homework assignments, but teachers could post in it., e.g. You can also have forums whose existence is invisible without proper permissions. There is enough flexibility in permissions to do pretty much anything you want.

[mzeigler]

I wasn't telling you to use a free site. I said they use the script to make multiple boards, as you asked.

That script costs money to get.

And yes, you can restrict access to certain threads.

Ahhh - got ya - Thanks for your help cybrid

[mzeigler]

ok Cool - Thanks for all of you help. I will give this a shot and let you know if I have any problems!

[RMcGirr83]

Once phpBB3 is released, you will be able to use subforums to break the board up into convenient sections.

or install categories hierarchy and have it now