You have the option of having any new posts to the forums also go to your email address. The option is selected by subscribing to the forums. You can do this for individual forums or for all of them. To see the option click on forums in the activities block on the left side of the main course screen. You will see a list of all the forums and a column to the right marked subscribed. You can select yes or no for each forum. You also have the option, in the upper right hand corner, to subscribe or unsubscribe to all forums.