Information Services

Staff Guide

Getting started in Moodle

Contents

Accessing Moodle ................................................................................................................ 1

Setting up key features of a course. .................................................................................... 1

Course full name .............................................................................................................. 1

Course Short Name .......................................................................................................... 1

Course ID number ............................................................................................................ 1

Course summary .............................................................................................................. 1

Format and Number of weeks/topics .............................................................................. 1

Course start date .............................................................................................................. 2

Hidden sections ................................................................................................................ 2

News items to show ......................................................................................................... 3

Show gradebook to students ........................................................................................... 3

Show activity reports ....................................................................................................... 3

Maximum upload size ...................................................................................................... 3

Legacy course files ............................................................................................................ 3

Group mode ..................................................................................................................... 4

Force group mode ............................................................................................................ 4

Default grouping .............................................................................................................. 4

Availability ........................................................................................................................ 4

Language .......................................................................................................................... 4

Designing your course. ......................................................................................................... 4

Enrolling users ...................................................................................................................... 5

Deleting users ................................................................................................................... 6

Start Editing .......................................................................................................................... 6

Introducing the course to your students ............................................................................. 6

Adding Navigational Blocks .................................................................................................. 6

Adding Resources ................................................................................................................. 7

Word with no images or graphics .................................................................................... 7

Any file (pdf, jpg, wmv, mp3, docx, pptx, etc) ................................................................. 7

Creating links to web sites ................................................................................................... 8

Creating sub headings .......................................................................................................... 9

Moving Resources ................................................................................................................ 9

Hiding Resources and Topics ............................................................................................... 9

Deleting Resources .............................................................................................................. 9

Activities ............................................................................................................................... 9

File Management ...............................................................................................................10

About ..............................................................................................................................10

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Accessing Moodle

Inside the College click on the Moodle link from MyWi or directly http://moodle.writtle.ac.uk, log in using usual details.

Find your course or module from the list displayed; if you do not have a course set up contact the support desk on either supportdesk@writtle.ac.uk or on-line http://esd.writtle.ac.uk ensure you quote the course code and course name and those who will be allowed editing rights to the course content.

Setting up key features of a course.

Some course settings will need reviewing before content is added. The Settings block is usually on the left. As with all the blocks they can be docked or un-docked to allow more of the screen to be visible. Click on the top right corner of a block to dock, they are then moved to the left tab. In the Settings block, select Edit settings

Course full name

This is the name of the course. It is displayed as a link on course lists on the Front page and on My Moodle and in reports. It is also used in the browser title bar when the course is viewed. The course code should be included in brackets.

Course Short Name

A short name of the course that is displayed in the navigation breadcrumb.

Course ID number

A shorthand way of referring to a course, such as H0156789 or ANCAMFTW; these should match the codes on UnitE.

Course summary

The summary appears on the course listings page. This field is searched when searching for a course and also appears in the Course/Site description block. Only Administrators can see and update a summary, if you wish for this to be updated please contact supportdesk@writtle.ac.uk or http://esd.writtle.ac.uk

Format and Number of weeks/topics

This setting is only used by the 'weekly' and 'topics' course formats. In the 'weekly' format, it specifies the number of weeks that the course will run for, starting from the course starting date. In the 'topics' format, it specifies the number of topics in the course. Both of these translate to the number of "boxes" down the middle of the course page.

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If the number of weeks/topics is changed for an existing course so that the number is less than the number of course sections containing activities (for example the course contains activities in 3 sections and the number or weeks/topics is set to 2) then when editing is turned on section(s) at the bottom of the course page will be shown with the title 'Orphaned activities'.

The number of weeks/topics may be set to 0, so that only the top general section is displayed on the course page and there are no numbered sections.

Course start date

This setting affects the display of logs and the weekly format topic dates.

If you use the "Weekly" course format, the start date will appear in the first section of the course. For example selecting 27 July, will display "27 July - 2 August" in the first section (when default display is selected for that section).

This setting will have an effect on the display of logs. This will be the earliest possible date the log activity will display.

Hidden sections

This option allows you to decide how the hidden sections in your course are displayed to students. By default, a small area is shown (in collapsed form, usually grey) to indicate where the hidden section is, though they still cannot actually see the hidden activities and texts. This is particularly useful in the Weekly format, so that non-class weeks are clear, or if you have quizzes you don't want your students to see.

TIP: If you choose, these non-available items can be completely hidden, so that students do not even know that sections or an activity in the course are hidden.

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News items to show

How many news items should show the Latest news block. Set it to 0 and Latest news block will not appear. The Latest News block relies on the use of the associated News Forum. News posted in other forums do not display in the latest News block

Show gradebook to students

Many of the activities allow grades to be set. By default, the results of all grades within the course can be seen in the Grades page, available from the main course page for students and teachers.

TIP: If a teacher is not interested in using grades in a course, or just wants to hide grades from students, then they can disable the display of grades with this option. This does not prevent the teacher using or setting grades for an individual activities, it just disables the results from being displayed to students.

NOTE: Setting this to 'No' will disable linking of lessons even though an activity is selected in 'link to activity' under lesson settings.

Show activity reports

Activity reports are available to each student. These reports or logs show their activity and contributions in the current course. These reports include their detailed access log.

Student access to their own reports is controlled by the teacher via this course setting. For some courses, these reports can be a useful tool for a student to reflect on their involvement and appearance within the online environment, but for some courses, this may not be necessary.

Teachers always have access to these reports via a link in the navigation block.

Your site administrator may ask you to turn this feature off. Showing activity reports can place a load on the server, slowing it down at times. For large or long classes it may be more efficient to keep it off.

Maximum upload size

This setting defines the largest size of file that can be uploaded by students in this course. It is possible to further restrict this size through settings within each activity module.

TIP: When uploading large files, consider that your students will need to download them to view them.

Legacy course files

The course files area provides some backward compatibility with Moodle 1.9 and earlier. All files in this area are always accessible to all participants in the course (whether you link to them or not) and there is no way to know where any of these files are being used in Moodle.

If you use this area to store course files, you can expose yourself to a number of privacy and security issues, as well as experiencing missing files in backups, course imports and

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any time content is shared or re-used. It is therefore recommended that you do not use this area unless you really know what you are doing.

Group mode

Here you can define the group mode at the course level by a pull down menu. "No groups", "Separate groups" and "Visible groups" are the choices. The selected setting will be the default group mode for all activities defined within that course. The group setting can affect what users see in the Participants list and who they can interact with in activities.

Force group mode

If the group mode is "forced" at a course-level, then this particular group mode will be applied to every activity in that course. This will override any activities that may have a special group setting.

TIP:The force setting is useful when the teacher wants to set up a course and not have to change each activities group settings.

Default grouping

If groupings are enabled, a default grouping for course activities and resources may be set.

TIP: You may leave it set to "No groups" and still have specific activities use groups. In this case the force setting below should be set to "no". For example, the teacher can use a group setting to completely separate cohorts of students such that each group is unaware of the other in the course.

Availability

This option allows you to "hide" your course completely. It will not appear on any course listings, except for managers, module leaders, module leaders, teachers and any other users with the view hidden courses capability. Even if students try to access the course URL directly, they will not be allowed to enter.

Language

Language settings

If you force a language in a course, the interface of Moodle in this course will be in this particular language, even if a student has selected a different preferred language in his/her personal profile.

Designing your course.

Think carefully in your design, what may look good to you may cause your students problems; some key points:

Keep files and pictures below 2mb, not everyone has a fast broadband connection at home. Also, Moodle server space is limited; see File Management.

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Most files should be saved as pdf, not all students have Office installed at home or may be using an incompatible version. From the application click ‘File’ ‘Save as’ change the type to PDF, save.

Keep dates as generic as possible e.g. week 1. Then map the week numbers to a separate Scheme of Work or Unit Guide. This will allow easy updating for forthcoming years.

Enrolling users

‘Enrolling users’ is a function that will allow staff/students pre-defined permissions to a course. When the course is initially created staff who are involved in the maintenance of content will be given the role of Teacher, this role give permission to add students or further non-editing teachers to courses. Module leaders are usually given the role of Course Creator or module leaders, who can add more Teachers.

1. Expand Users in the Settings box, select Enrolled Users

2. Click the Enrol users button to the right, the enrol users selection box appears.

3. Decide whether students or teachers are to be enrolled from the Assign roles drop down box.

4. Type the name or part of a name in the Search box.

5. Click the Enrol button to the right of their name.

6. When all users have been added click the Finish enrolling users button.

7. Once a user has been enrolled they can be updated using the Assign roles button from the enrolled user list. Select the role to be applied.

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Deleting users

8. To delete a user click the X in the Enrolment methods column. 9. To un-enrol but allowing the user access click the X next to their role.

Start Editing

In all instances to begin any editing function Turn editing on needs to selected, this will then show all the editing icons.

1. Select the course from My courses in the Navigation box. 2. From the Settings box expand Course Administration and select Turn editing on

or select the course and the Turn Editing on button is to the right of the navigational breadcrumb.

Introducing the course to your students

The first topic is the Topic outline (un-numbered), here the course title and course code should be the main heading together with the introduction and perhaps a statement about the tutor(s) on the course. Images can also be inserted but these must be resized in another application e.g. Serif, Photo Editor before they can be uploaded, see resizing images guide.

Click the Edit summary (hand) icon to start editing, using the formatting toolbar as you would in Word , then save changes.

Topic headings e.g. Week 1, Week 2 or Module title etc will also need adding, these are done in the same way. Keeping the headings short, meaningful and use ‘bold’ or ‘heading style’ so students can easily navigate their way to the correct topic. Clicking the ‘light bulb’ icon at the side of the topic will show the topic as ‘current’ displaying grey shading to the side.

Adding Navigational Blocks

From the course home page enable Turn editing on. Locate Add a block usually found to the right, click Add and choose the type of block, for example People will show user activity. They can also be docked to enable more space on the main course page.

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Adding Resources

Word with no images or graphics

Students should be able to link to their resources or perform activities with as few clicks as possible. If a document contains just text and contains no images or graphics then it is possible just to copy and paste into Moodle (images will not copy and paste), sometimes Firefox will not allow pasting, contact the support desk if this happens.

1. Minimise Moodle and copy text from Word, return to Moodle.

2. From the ‘Add a Resource’ drop down menu select ‘Page’

3. In the Name box type a meaningful title for the document.

4. In the Summary box type a short description of the document.

5. In the Page Content text box click the Paste from Word button

6. In the Paste from Word box use Ctrl +V on the keyboard.

7. Text may also need to be formatted again in the same way as in Word using the Toolbar directly above the Full text box.

8. The resource will not be seen by students if Hide is selected but Teachers will see it greyed out.

9. Scroll down to Save and return to course or Save and display.

10. To review the text and make any changes return to the link and click the adjacent hand icon to Update.

11. See Moving resources to place the resource in the correct place.

Any file (pdf, jpg, wmv, mp3, docx, pptx, etc)

Most files can be uploaded to Moodle and made available as a resource. Most files should be saved as a pdf if they are just for viewing but if files are needed to enable a working copy then they can be uploaded as a source version. Ensure students have the software to view.

When new files are added through Add a resource the File Picker dialogue is shown.

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Server files contain all files related to courses the Teacher has access to. Click on the breadcrumb to change ‘folder’ location.

Recent files may easily be chosen, or a file from any course a user has access to.

Upload a file to be used in resources.

A private files area is provided for each user to store a collection of files for their own use. This is useful for students as well as teachers, and makes it easy to re-use media across the Moodle site. Only you can access your own private files.

1. From the ‘Add a Resource’ drop down menu select File.

2. In the Name box type a meaningful title for the document.

3. In the Summary box type a short description of the document.

4. To Select the file click Add then Upload a file from File Picker.

5. Click Browse to attach a file, this will locate your computer to find the file.

6. Click the file once then the Open button.

7. Clicking Upload this File will return you to Adding a new File.

8. Options can be chosen to influence the way the document will be displayed to the Student.

9. Scroll down and Save and return to course or Save and display.

10. See Moving resources to place the resource in the correct place.

Creating links to web sites

1. From the ‘Add a Resource’ drop down menu select URL.

2. In the Name box type a meaningful title for the document.

3. In the Summary box type a short description of the document.

4. In the External URL box type in the web address or paste the full URL from a web site.

5. Scroll down and Save and return to course or Save and display.

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Creating sub headings

Sub headings may be needed to sub divide topics into sections.

1. From ‘Add a Resource’ select Label.

2. Type required text using the formatting toolbar similar to Word then Save and return to course.

3. The label will need moving in the same as Moving Resources below.

Moving Resources

Resources can be arranged in the correct order by selecting the move button, then clicking in the destination box.

Hiding Resources and Topics

To hide a resource or whole topic click the eye open/closed icon. The resource or topic is then hidden from students and greyed out to teachers.

Deleting Resources

Click the X adjacent to the resource to delete, the connected file will delete as well, unless it is being used elsewhere in Moodle.

Activities

An activity is a general name for a group of features in a Moodle course. Usually an activity is something that a student will do that interacts with other students and or the teacher.

To view the different types of activities in Moodle ensure Turn Editing on is enabled and choose Add an activity drop down menu.

Assignments: Enable teachers to grade and give comments on uploaded files and assignments created on and off line.

Chat: Allows participants to have a real-time synchronous discussion.

Choice: A teacher asks a question and specifies a choice of multiple responses.

Database: Enables participants to create, maintain and search a bank of record entries.

External tool: Allows participants to interact with LTI compliant learning resources and activities on other web sites.

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Feedback: For creating and conducting surveys to collect feedback.

Forum: Allows participants to have asynchronous discussions.

Glossary: Enables participants to create and maintain a list of definitions, like a dictionary.

Hotpot: Allows teachers to administer Hot Potatoes and TexToys quizzes via Moodle. These quizzes are created on the teacher's computer and then uploaded to the Moodle course. After students have attempted the quizzes, a number of reports are available which show how individual questions were answered and some statistical trends in the scores.

Journal: For discussions about the contributed Journal activity module. This module allows a teacher to ask students to reflect on a particular topic. The students can edit and refine their answer over time.

Lesson: For delivering content in flexible ways.

Quiz: Allows the teacher to design and set quiz tests, which may be automatically marked and feedback and/or to correct answers shown.

SCORM: Enables SCORM packages to be included as course content.

Survey: For gathering data from students to help teachers learn about their class and reflect on their own teaching.

Turnitin Assignment: Is a standalone Moodle module with the aim of representing the full suite of Turnitin's features within the standard Moodle workflow. The module is actively developed and managed by iParadigms, the developers of Turnitin.

Wiki: A collection of web pages that anyone can add to or edit.

File Management

About

When Moodle was upgraded from 1.9, all course files were migrated into the new file areas and the old course files area was replaced with "Legacy Files". Only use this area to view old files.

In Moodle 2.0 the files work a lot more like Web 2.0 systems, such as Facebook and Google Docs. Each activity and each text has its own file area, and files are associated directly with the place it is used. For example, a file attached to a forum post is stored "with" the forum post, and becomes subject to exactly the same access restrictions.

If a forum post with attached files e.g. images, is imported into another course, then the files move with it. Anyone in the new course will also see the files. This makes activities more portable and re-usable. If two activities use the same file and one is deleted, then the other one is not affected.

Files are uploaded to Moodle using the File Picker (see adding a file mentioned earlier), here Folders can be created too to aid organisation of files.