We almost always use it for the usual things —how to download a certificate, when the course closes— and we leave it at that. But the FAQs section can be a powerful teaching resource: questions about the content you teach and even questions your own students write.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) live in Contents → FAQs, within the classroom's program. The original idea is simple and valuable: to centralize the most common questions so students find the answer with no middleman. Each question has its answer, a topic and a category, and the view is now more modern and comfortable to browse.
That administrative function is perfectly valid. But if you stop there, you're wasting half the tool. Let's look at the other half.
📚Questions about the content you're teaching?
Think of those conceptual doubts that come up class after class: “what's the difference between this and that?”, “why does such a thing happen?”. Instead of answering them over and over, you can turn them into permanent reference material. And they don't stay isolated: the FAQ editor lets you link to other classroom contents —files, sites, news, forums, topics, other FAQs— and attach material. That way a frequently asked question becomes a little gateway to the whole journey through the classroom.
🙋What if your students write the questions?
Here's the most interesting twist. From the user view, those who are enabled can add a FAQ with a form that includes a full editor. That opens up a beautiful assignment: asking your students to formulate and answer the frequently asked questions on a topic. Because writing a good question and a clear answer isn't a formality: it's, in itself, an exercise in understanding. Whoever can explain it has understood it.
🏷️The administrative and the pedagogical, without clashing
What if I mix “how do I recover my password” with “what is a variable”? No problem, because FAQs are organized by categories. You can have one category for procedures and the course, another for content questions, and as many as you need. Each question lives in its category, with its topic. That way you add administrative, pedagogical or mixed topics without them getting confused with each other.
Who can add, edit and delete
FAQs can be created from two places, and that gives you flexibility without losing control:
- From administration. In Contents → FAQs you create, edit and delete. When you open a question you can change its category, the answer, the topic and the attachment. At the bottom you see who created it and when.
- From the user view. Enabled users add questions with the editor. They can edit the ones they created themselves, but deleting is only possible from administration.
That last detail is exactly what makes the idea of student participation workable: they propose and write, and you keep moderation, because removal always stays in your hands.
💡Four ideas to start using it differently
Split into categories. One for “Procedures and the course” and another for “Content questions”. With just that, the section already looks different.
Close each unit with FAQs. Add two or three questions with the doubts that came up most that week, while they're still fresh.
One FAQ per student. Suggest that each one writes and answers one; you review, adjust and publish. They remain as a collective production of the group.
Link inward. Have each answer lead to the file, forum or topic that expands it. The FAQ stops being an endpoint and becomes a starting point.
From red tape to a living space
A section that seemed like pure red tape can turn into a place for consultation and shared construction of knowledge. Next time you go into Contents, take a stroll through FAQs and look at it with fresh eyes: often, the tool you already had is the one you were using the least.
Want to think together about how to set up the categories or an assignment for your students? Write to soporte@educativa.com and we'll lend you a hand.
educativa Team / educativa Support Dept.