See what community forums change at your institution
Before vs. after adding community forums to iVake
Where you are today
Holding you back
Answers lost every semester
A teacher answers exam-preparation questions by email one at a time, and next year’s batch asks exactly the same ones.
Pain point
Alumni with no way to help
Graduates sit in a spreadsheet and receive a newsletter, but have nowhere to answer a current student’s question.
Pain point
Some students always hear last
Lateral-entry students, day scholars and first-generation learners find out about electives, deadlines and internships after everyone else.
Pain point
Every batch starts from scratch
Which elective suits which specialisation, which office issues a bonafide certificate: each batch works it out again.
Pain point
- 1 by 1Answers sent by private email
- 0Places alumni can help students
- WeeksBefore some students hear of a deadline
Your institution, transformed
Everything connected
Answers kept and searchable
A reply in the course forum is read by every section and found by the next batch before they need to ask.
Solved
Alumni help where students are
Graduates keep their login and answer questions in programme forums, with no separate alumni platform.
Solved
Peers beyond your own section
Programme-wide forums and study-group threads connect students who have never shared a classroom.
Solved
Knowledge that builds up
Threads on electives, internships and campus offices are kept, pruned and improved batch after batch.
Solved
- 1Login from first year to alumni
- 1Answer read by every section
- 0Separate alumni platform
Ready to make the switch? See how it works for your institution.
Course knowledge that outlasts the semester
An answer sent by email helps one student. The same answer in a searchable forum helps every section this year and the batch after, and in question threads the accepted reply sits at the top.
- One reply is visible to students in every section of the course
- Forums are archived and stay searchable when the semester closes
- Upvotes and accepted answers bring the right reply to the top of each thread
Peer networks across sections and batches
In a large class most students never speak up. A forum gives them a place to ask each other, form study groups and share notes, without needing to know anyone in another section first.
- Programme-wide forums connect students across sections and years
- Study-group threads to find classmates by timing, subject or campus
- Points for useful questions and accepted answers, so helping others is visible
Alumni connection that starts before graduation
The best time to begin an alumni relationship is before the student leaves. Final-year students join their programme’s alumni forum, and at graduation the same profile moves to the alumni role instead of starting again.
- Final-year students join programme alumni forums before convocation
- Graduates keep read and write access on the same profile, with no new account
- Forum replies can lead to a mentoring request inside iVake
Community forum features
Everything you need to run forums across the institution
Q&A and discussion
Question threads with accepted answers, or open discussion, per forum.
Spaces for every group
Programmes, courses, clubs, hostels, campuses and alumni, each with its own members.
Upvotes & points
Useful questions and accepted answers earn points shown on the profile.
Search & archive
Every thread searchable and kept after the semester, with old ones marked.
Delegated moderation
Teachers, student office-bearers, staff or alumni moderate their own spaces.
Alumni access
The same profile moves to the alumni role at graduation, with no new account.
Activity reports
Posts, reply times, unanswered threads and searches that found nothing.
Access & audit trail
Membership set by role and programme, with moderation actions logged.
Frequently asked questions
Get answers to common questions about community forums
Do forums replace our LMS discussion, or sit beside it?
Forums run inside iVake, beside attendance, marks and fees, on the same login and notifications. If you teach in Moodle or Google Classroom, iVake connects to both, and you can use forums for programme, club and alumni spaces while course discussion stays where it is.
What happens to forum content when a course ends?
It stays, and it stays searchable. You decide who can read an archive: students in the programme, students who took the course, or everyone in the department. Moderators can mark or remove threads that no longer apply, such as an exam pattern that has since changed.
Do graduates need a new account, and is there a charge per alumnus?
No new account. At graduation the same profile moves to the alumni role and the forums they see change with it. iVake does not charge per login, and alumni management is priced as a flat monthly add-on rather than per graduate.
Who moderates, and does it need IT staff?
No. Moderators are assigned per forum to any role: teachers in course forums, elected student office-bearers in club forums, staff in office forums and a faculty coordinator in alumni forums. Each can pin threads, accept answers, hide posts for review or archive threads, and central administrators can review every moderation action.
How do upvotes and accepted answers work?
A forum can run as question-and-answer, open discussion, or both. In a question thread members upvote helpful answers, and the person who asked or a moderator marks one as accepted, which moves it to the top. Open discussion suits projects and debates where there is no single right answer.
What do student affairs and the alumni office see?
Reports show posts by forum, reply rates, time to first reply, active contributors and searches that found nothing, which point to questions nobody has answered yet. Mentors you allow can see students who have not taken part at all, and the alumni office sees which graduates are active.
Are forums suitable for school students under eighteen?
Schools can keep forums closed to their own classes, hold posts for approval and choose who may post where. Moderation actions are logged, and iVake does no advertising or behavioural profiling of students. Under the DPDP Act the school sets the rules and remains accountable for them.
Cloud, hosted in your region
REST API & webhooks- SSO: Google, Microsoft & SAML
Encrypted, backed up daily
Built for the DPDP Act- Full security details
Built for your institution type
See how this feature works for your specific institution
UniversitiesProgramme and campus forums, with alumni who answer
Degree collegesCourse questions kept for every new batch
CBSE, ICSE & state-board schoolsClosed class forums, with posts approved by teachers
Residential & international schoolsHouse and hostel forums, moderated by wardens
ITIs, polytechnics & skill centresPast trainees of each trade answering new batches
Professional collegesThreads on electives and internships kept for each batch
Integrations, comparisons & tools
Extend community forums with integrations, see how iVake compares, and run the numbers
Related features
Discussion Board
A board for each subject and section, moderated by the teacher.
Blog Publishing
Faculty, staff and alumni posts, approved by an editor before they go live.
Learning Management System
Course material, assignments and assessment on the same student record.
Online Quiz
Quizzes with question banks, marked and sent to the grade book.
Helpdesk
Student and staff requests routed to the right office, with deadlines.
Alumni Management
A verified graduate directory with mentoring, events and giving.
More in engagement & outreach
Explore other features in this category
Ready to keep every answer for the next batch?
See how iVake gives programmes, clubs, hostels and alumni their own forums, on one login from the first year to long after graduation.
Try it free for 30 days. No credit card required.