Here comes summer!

The warm days of summer and the Moodle 2.3 upgrade are nearly upon us.  Please remember to have grades in SOAR and to export personal copies of gradebook and attendance records  from Moodle before students are unenrolled from Moodle at 8:00 a.m. Monday, May 20^th.  Faculty who will be teaching summer courses are able to import their course materials into their summer courses now, and the courses will be automatically transformed to Moodle 2.3 during the upgrade process.  The blank courses for the Fall semester will be created early in June, and faculty may import their course materials for fall at anytime over the summer. Remember, do not try to log into Moodle from May 20^th until you receive notification via email that the upgrade is complete, as that could interfere with the upgrade process.

All faculty members will be notified via email when the Moodle upgrade is complete. At that time, you will once again be able to login to Moodle.

Moodle Bootcamp is back! Join us May 29^th OR May 30^th for a day of training and focused work time. As usual, we will have two adjacent rooms for this event. In room 2C3A, Robin will lead training sessions, while Greg, Kathy, and Molly staff 2C3B for those who wish to work on their Moodle course with expert assistance available. Bring a bag lunch – there will be home baked cookies for dessert! Our schedule, which will be identical on both days of training, will be as follows:

9:30 – 10:00:  Activity Completion, Course Completion

10:00 – 11:00: Personal Learning Designer

(break – those who have attended training sessions in March and April may want to switch to the workroom to work on their courses, while those new to Moodle 2 continue in the classroom)

11:00 – 12:00:  Review of Navigation, Quickmail, editing tools and file management in Moodle 2

(Lunch – brown bag – cookies provided)

12:45 – 2:00: Review of joule gradebook, rubrics and checklists, activity reports, any leftover time for questions

Adjunct Moodle Training will be offered from 6:00 – 8:30 p.m. on May 28^th in room 2F05. This training will offer an overview of the new Moodle 2 system, and will be particularly useful for those who couldn’t attend our earlier March or April training sessions. The schedule will be as follows for this evening:

6:00 – 7:10 – Navigation, communication, file management, resources and activities

7:20 – 8:30 – Joule gradebook, rubrics and checklists, activity reports, quick look at Personal Learning Designer

Please register for Moodle Training Events at the IT Registration page. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Rubrics in Moodle 2

Rubrics are scoring guides including one or more criterion upon which student work is rated, detailed information explaining ratings for each level of student accomplishment, and a point range associated with each level. Rubrics are particularly useful in grading assignments such as essays, where grading can be perceived as being subjective in nature.

A good rubric can

·       provide guidance regarding expectations for an assignment to students

·       allow students to self-evaluate drafts prior to assignment submission

·       aid instructors in scoring assignments and offering feedback to students

Moodle 2 allows instructors to create rubrics for use with Assignments and Advanced Forums. Instructors will have the option to allow students to view the Rubric before an assignment or forum post is submitted, permitting students to ascertain whether their submission meets the criteria for the assignment. Instructors may also use the rubric for scoring during grading, displaying points and text remarks to students upon completion.

The following links to sample rubrics may be helpful to those unfamiliar with this assessment tool:

http://www.ucdenver.edu/faculty_staff/faculty/center-for-faculty-development/Documents/Tutorials/Rubrics/1_what_is/index.htm

http://www.lmu.edu/about/services/academicplanning/assessment/Assessment_Resources/Rubrics/Example_Rubrics/Creative_Writing_Example_Rubric.htm

http://www.lmu.edu/about/services/academicplanning/assessment/Assessment_Resources/Rubrics/Example_Rubrics/Psychology_Paper_Example_Rubric.htm

Our April 19^th and April 26^th Moodle 2 training events include instruction on the use of Moodle 2 rubrics; if you would like to join us for a morning or afternoon session, please register at

http://svcc.edu/employees/it/training/registration.html

You can also view online tutorials for Moodle 2 Rubrics here:

Creating a Rubric from Scratch video

 How to Create a Rubric as an Advanced Grading Method in Moodle 2

 

Great Features Make Grading Easier in Moodle 2

Preparations for the rollout of Moodle 2 continue this month with our second level training event. This month, we offer Moodle 2 training on the topics of the new Joule Gradebook, rubrics, checklists, and activity reports in our face to face training events.

The Joule Gradebook offers several quick and easy options for those times when grades are entered manually. Scores can be added without turning editing on; all students enrolled in the course appear in the left hand column, and scores are entered in the right hand column. The need for horizontal scrolling is reduced, as is the need to move to a separate page to access student names.

Another exciting addition to Moodle 2 is the option to create and grade with a rubric or checklist. These options are available for Assignments or Advanced Forums in Moodle 2.

These topics and more will be the subject of our April training events! Please remember to register at http://svcc.edu/employees/it/training/registration.html for a morning or afternoon training event on either April 12th, 19th, or 26th.  We hope to see you there!

New Tools / Apps for Spring 2013

Looking for new online apps and tools?  LifeHacker website has generated a list of  several apps that can increase your productivity and/or make teaching easier.  A few you may not have heard of to check out:

Pocket - collect useful articles and media to read and watch when you have time.
Flipboard - a mobile app for reading content
Wunderlist - a very popular to do list
7-zip - compress a bunch of files. 
 
Check out the list!
The 50 Free Apps We’re Most Thankful For

New Navigation Features in Moodle 2

Our SVCC Moodle system is scheduled for upgrade to the latest version May 21, 2013. This week's blog post will introduce you to some new navigation features in Moodle 2.

In addition to the familiar breadcrumbs at the top left of the page, which allow users to track backwards from any page, Moodle 2 offers a new Navigation block.

    Breadcrumbs

The Navigation block has an expandable menu. Use the blue arrows to expand or collapse Site pages, My profile, or My courses.

                                Navigation Block

The My home link takes the user to his or her personal dashboard. Users may customize this page if they choose. My home is intended to serve as a place where users can access links to all of their courses and all of the activities within their courses, such as unread forum messages and upcoming assignments.

My profile allows users to view his/her profile, forum posts, messages, Activity reports, and My private files.

  

                                                 My Profile

My courses, below,  provides links to the front page of each of the courses in which a user is enrolled. Use the blue arrows to expand the menu to include links to a specific section in the course. 

                                                          My Courses

The Course Front Page

There are a few navigational changes and additions within courses as well. Turn on editing for the course in either of two locations.

    Turn editing on in two locations

The Administration block has been replaced by the Settings block. To make a course available to students, change the format of the course, or otherwise edit settings for the course, use the Edit settings link.

Settings > Course Administration > Edit settings

 

                              Settings Block, Edit settings

 Docking

 Individual users have the option to "dock" blocks at the side of the screen to free up more workspace on the monitor screen. These changes are only visible to individual users - your screen with docked blocks will not affect students and the way they choose to view their own blocks.

To move blocks from the side of the screen and place them in small tabs, individual users may "Dock" any block by clicking on the "dock" symbol.

    Dock a block

                                              Docked blocks

Use your mouse cursor to hover over a tab in the dock to open the block and use it. Return a docked block to the sides of the screen by clicking on

   Return a docked block to original position

The #1 Reason Leadership Development Fails

If you consider that the students in your seats could (should?) be leaders in the near future, this article present a thoughtful perspective how to approach students.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/12/19/the-1-reason-leadership-development-fails/

Prepare for Spring!

The IT department wishes you a successful Spring semester!   To help that happen, we suggest reviewing the following best practices and tips for updating your Moodle courses.

• Prepare your online quizzes to avoid time out problems, set security settings, and to promote quality assessments.   To do so, see these links.
• Optimal Security Setting for Moodle Quiz Activity 
• Time Limits for Moodle Quizzes and Tests
• Best Practices for Classroom Assessments
• Make sure your course is available to students by January 14. See this link for instructions.
• Preview resources and assessments, checking that images are viewable, hyperlinks are still active, and that content is up to date.
• Online instructors can use this template to welcome students to their course. 
• Check that open/close dates are accurate for activities and quizzes.

New Course Creation Process

• If you haven’t already, please import content into your SP2013 course.  See step-by-step directions here.
• If you want to combine sections into one Moodle course, please email IT@svcc.edu

Don’t Forget!:   Get Ready Get Set Day!

IT is hosting “Get Ready Get Set Day!” this Thursday, January 10^th.  See the flyer for details on our two morning sessions on active learning strategies and student motivation, and for details on our afternoon Moodle Studio.