Did You Know? - Moodle 2.0, Restrict Access Setting

Did you know Moodle 2.0 has a new setting for activities called Restrict Access? Restrict access enables instructors to choose variables that control when an activity is available and when it will become unavailable to students.  This differs from, and should not be confused with, timing settings with which you are already familiar. The timing settings disable a student's ability to complete an activity. For example, enabling opening and closing dates could prevent students from uploading a file past the due date, or from starting a quiz attempt. In contrast, Restrict Access closes the eye on the activity until the variable conditions you set have been met, such as a time, completion, achieving a passing grade in a previously completed activity, or entering a code. Restrict Access is a great tool for assignments requiring mastery prior to proceeding to the next level.

Warning! Setting restrict access for an activity will also have an effect in your gradebook. The activity's eye will be closed there as well. This may have an effect on how your grades are totaled. Contact the IT Department for assistance if you are interested in using this feature.

To learn more read the help file posted on our IT Moodle 2 Training Resources page.

http://video.svcc.edu:8080/download/IT/Moodle2/How_to_Restrict_access_in_Joule_2..pdf

A screen shot of the restrict access controls.

A Little Fun with Closed Captions

Has this ever happened to you?  You are happily preparing for the next semester, carefully selecting the best resources for your course when you receive notification that your class will include a student who will need multimedia items to be closed captioned. Great, you think, those really wonderful YouTube videos include automatic captions, so I'm all set! Right? Well, probably not.

The automatic captions rely on speech recognition technology, which can be less than reliable.  Do you want to have some fun while examining evidence of the folly of relying on automated captions? Compare these lyrics to the song "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction to the a video created to demonstrate the issues with automated captions. Click here to view the video, and see our suggested solutions below. I think you will agree that a student would be quite confused by the automated captions in this video, which are -sadly - fairly typical examples of automated captions.

"What Makes You Beautiful"

[Verse 1]

You're insecure,

Don't know what for,

You're turning heads when you walk through the door,

[Bridge]

Don't need make-up,

To cover up,

Being the way that you are is enough,

Everyone else in the room can see it,

Everyone else but you,

[Chorus]

Baby you light up my world like nobody else,

The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed,

But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell,

You don't know,

Oh, oh,

You don't know you're beautiful,

If only you saw what I can see,

You'd understand why I want you so desperately,

Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe,

You don't know,

Oh, oh,

You don't know you're beautiful,

Oh, oh,

That's what makes you beautiful

[Verse 2]

So c-come on.

You got it wrong.

To prove I'm right

I put it in a song.

I don't know why

You're being shy,

And turn away when I look into your eye-eye-eyes,

[Bridge]

Everyone else in the room can see it,

Everyone else but you,

[Chorus]

Baby you light up my world like nobody else,

The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed,

But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell,

You don't know,

Oh oh,

You don't know you're beautiful,

If only you saw what I can see,

You'll understand why I want you so desperately,

Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe,

You don't know,

Oh oh,

You don't know you're beautiful,

Oh oh,

That's what makes you beautiful

Na na na na na na na na na na

Na na na na na na [x2]

Baby you light up my world like nobody else,

The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed,

But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell,

You don't know,

Oh oh,

You don't know you're beautiful,

[Chorus]

Baby you light up my world like nobody else,

The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed,

But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell,

You don't know,

Oh oh,

You don't know you're beautiful (Oh),

If only you saw what I can see,

You'll understand why I want you so desperately

Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe,

You don't know,

Oh oh,

You don't know you're beautiful,

Oh oh,

You don't know you're beautiful,

Oh oh,

That's what makes you beautiful 

So what is a great instructor to do? Always proofread the captions provided in a video to ascertain that they are accurate. Not all captions in YouTube are created with automatic captioning, so you might be fortunate enough to stumble upon a video with clear, accurate captions. If not, call us in IT at extension 229 for help. Planning ahead is desirable - it takes many weeks just to ask and receive permission to caption and stream a video. Now would be a great time to review your videos and determine which, if any, present a problem.

Moodle 2 Reminders and Tips

As you begin to use Moodle 2 on a daily basis, here are a few reminders and tips to assist you.

Question: Why can't my students see their course in Moodle?

Answer: Students cannot see courses that have not been made available to them. Please be sure that you as the instructor have gone to the Settings block in each course you teach, select Edit settings, scroll down to Availability and select "This course is available to students." This is an instructor responsibility, just as it was in the former version of Moodle, and allows you to determine when to open the course between when students are enrolled on the business day prior to the start of the semester and the actual start date of the course. Some instructors use the weekend to allow students to view the syllabus, etc. prior to the actual start date of the course. 

Question: I was in my course, and it disappeared. What happened?

Answer: It didn't really disappear, you've just moved out of it. Navigation in Moodle 2 is different than in our previous version because some areas, such as My private files, are associated with the user rather than the course and so are located in a separate area of the site. When you enter Home, My home, Site pages, My profile, and My private files or any of the submenus under those items, you are leaving your course. Navigate to your course again by using the My Courses section of the Navigation block.

Question:  Why isn't the Latest News Announcement that I just posted showing up in the block?

Answer: Go into the Settings block and select Edit Settings under the Course Administration area. It will open a form; scroll down a bit and locate News items to show. Enter a number larger than zero, and scroll to the bottom of the page. Save changes.

Question: I added items to My private files area, or edited items there, but the changes weren't there when I returned to My private files. What happened?

Answer:  After making any changes in the My private files area, you must remember to click on the Save changes button at the lower left of the files box to permanently record the changes.

Question: How do I add the Activities block to my course?

Answer: The Activities block provides another way for student to navigate to course materials. If you wish to add it to your course, turn the editing on in your course. Scroll to the bottom of your course, and look for the Add a block menu at the lower left. Scroll to find the desired block, and click on it to add it to your course.

Question: I can't seem to copy and paste in Moodle with a right mouse click; how can I do this?

Answer: You can copy and paste using the command Control C to copy and Control V to paste. In addition we have prepared a tutorial demonstrating how to copy and paste from Word into Moodle. You can view it here.

Question: What are some of the changes for students when they take a quiz in Moodle?

Answer: There are many changes for students in Moodle quizzes. Students can flag questions they want to review a second time before submitting the quiz; they no longer need to click Save without submitting on every page, and more. We have prepared a tutorial for students to help prepare them for Moodle quizzes. You may view it here.

Question: I'm getting a lot of notifications from Moodle as email. How do I turn them off?

Answer:  Each Moodle user must determine what notifications and alerts they wish to receive from the Moodle system.  We have prepared a tutorial for students and instructors demonstrating how to turn notifications off. View it here.

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