Moodle Monday - Course Creation FAQ

Since we announced the new, automated course creation process for Moodle courses last week, we’ve received several questions.

Q.  How does the new process differ from the way IT has been creating Moodle courses?

A. In the past, we used a manual process to create blank courses for instructors to build courses or to back up and restore a new version of an existing course. Instructors had to contact us to request a Moodle course and to specify several details to communicate exactly what was needed. The new process is automated. A computer program has been devised to create a blank course for every class scheduled at SVCC. The import process simply copies the materials from past courses into the new, blank one. The import process is similar in many ways to the reset feature in Blackboard, with which many of you may be familiar.

Q. Do I have to completely rebuild my course?

A.  You will not have to rebuild your course; you will simply copy the materials you want into the automatically created Spring 2013 course. If you import all materials from your old course, your new course will look exactly the same as the course from which you import the materials. There is no need to rebuild your course unless you choose to do so.

Q. Will I still need to fill out the Moodle Course Request Form for each class?

A. No, the Moodle Course Request Form will no longer be necessary, since your course will be ready and waiting for you to copy your materials through the import process.

Q. How much of my time will this import process require?

A. Generally, the import process is quick and requires only a few minutes for each course.

Q. What if I don’t use Moodle with my students?

A. If you choose not to use the automatically created Moodle course, do nothing. The courses are hidden from students upon creation. Your course will only become visible to students when you make it available to them.

We’ve prepared a tutorial demonstrating how to import course materials into a new course and a tutorial on how to convert hidden courses to ones visible to students. If you prefer, you may attend any of several sessions scheduled in the Instructional Technology Center, where we will be available to answer questions and offer assistance. Dates and times of scheduled sessions appear below. Please feel free to contact us at extension 229 with any questions.

Date                                                      Time                                                      Place

November 2, 2012                           1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.                       ITC, Room 3M17

Nov. 8, 2012                                    2:30-4:00 p.m.                                ITC, Room 3M17

Nov. 16 , 2012                                 1:30-3:00 p.m.                                ITC, Room 3M17

Nov. 29 , 2012                                 2:30-4 p.m.                                     ITC, Room 3M17

Dec. 12, 2012                                     5:00 – 6:00 p.m.                             ITC, Room 3M17

December 13, 2012                          8:30 – 10:00 a.m.                            ITC, Room 3M17

January 2-11, 2013                           By appointment                               ITC, Room 3M17

Moodle Monday: Registration Open for i3 Workshop

Registration is underway for the next two sessions of the newly revamped i3 Workshop course. This summer, the course will be offered from June 11th to August 10th in the traditional 8 week format. Participants will get a fresh, up to date look at teaching in Moodle, utilizing Web 2.0 Tools in the online course, planning for accessibility, and selecting effective instructional strategies while experiencing the online environment as a student.

In addition, we have added a new version of the course that will be spread over 12 weeks this fall. This session has been designed for those who prefer a less intense pace, as the work is spread over a longer period of time. The fall session will be offered from September 10th to November 30th.

It is recommended that instructors complete the i3 Workshop course before developing an online course here at SVCC. In addition, full time faculty enrolled in the course receive two promotional credits upon completion.

To register, please complete the form at the following link: http://svcc.edu/employees/it/training/registration.html

Questions? Contact IT at 815-835-6229 for answers.

Kick it up a Notch - Discussion Boards

Whether you are new to online teaching or a veteran, you know that discussion boards can be the life-blood of a course.  It is the online space where classroom discussion can happen, where you find out what your students are thinking, or what they know.   In the last interest survey IT sent out to faculty, learning more about the best practices in forum discussions was a high priority.    Today's Moodle Monday begins to address that need.  The following linked resource from Worcester Polytechnic Institute shares several instructional techniques on the effective use of discussion boards.

Improving the use of Discussion Boards
http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/ATC/Collaboratory/Idea/boards.html

Some to consider:

• "Weave student comments into your postings as a means of summarizing and subtly assessing"
• "If the discussion board supplements your in-class activities, be sure to draw a clear connection between the in-class material and the online discussions."
• "Resist the temptation to make declarative statements."
• "Provide sample postings representative of each scoring category listed in the rubric."

Spring Break!

Moodle Monday

Adjusting Your Course Outline to reflect Spring Break

Spring break is scheduled for March 5 – 9, 2012. If you have a course full of resources and activities and are using the Weekly format option to organize your course in Moodle, you may wish to add a blank week for spring break. Follow the steps below to quickly and easily reformat your course.

Click on the Settings link in the Administration block.

      

           Scroll down to the “number of weeks/topics” drop down menu and add an extra week to the current number. Save the changes.

You will now have a blank week at the bottom of your course.

Scroll down to the new, blank week, and left click on the arrow to the left of the indicated dates for that week.      

 

 

      With the left mouse button still depressed, drag the arrow up until the blank week is on top of the March 5 – 11 week. Release the button.

There! Moodle will automatically renumber the dates to reflect the extra week, and all of your course materials will reflect the correct date. Remember to change the label for the week if you are in the habit of titling each week with additional labels.

 

Moodle Monday: New Features Add to QuickMail Usability

QuickMail is one of several communication tools in Moodle; it can be added to your course from the blocks menu.

 Using QuickMail, your messages are sent from Moodle to student Gmail accounts here at Sauk.  Since the recent update, QuickMail messages can be configured to show the Course Name in the subject line of the email you received.  Faculty who want to see all email messages in one place could create a label for each class and create a filter to sort the mail for each class into the appropriate label.  

Quick Mail allows users to add multiple attachments to the message, up to 10MB.

In order for students to use QuickMail to send mail to you or to classmates, the instructor must go to the QuickMail tool settings and choose “yes” for “allow students to use QuickMail.”  In addition, the “add course shortname to subject” setting must be enabled to insert the course name into all email sent from a Moodle course.

Moodle Inbox - managing your moodle student mail

Managing email from students in Moodle is made easy with Course Mails Inbox.

Step 1:  In your courses turn on your 'eMail List' block.
With editing turned on, choose 'eMail List' from the drop down menu in the 'Blocks' Block

Step 2:  Enter your Course Mails Inbox 
The 'eMail List' block will appear at the bottom of your right column.   It will show a notification if you have email from students for the course you are in.  (keep reading to find out how to easily see email from all your courses.)    Clicking on the 'Inbox' Link in this block will take you to your Course Mails Inbox.

Step 3: Switch betweeen courses. 
Once in your Course Mails Inbox you will see a Mailbox with a list of all your courses.  Clicking on individual courses will take you to the inbox for that course.   From here you can easily click through your courses to read your mail.

Step 4:  (Optional) Create a bookmark for the Course Mails page. 
While you are viewing your Course Mail create a bookmark.   Clicking the bookmark will prompt you to login (if you are not logged in already), but then take you straight to your Moodle Course Mails. Here is the link:
https://svcc.mrooms3.net/blocks/email_list/email/index.php?id=9