Transcript
Page 1: MOODLE 2.X QUICK GUIDE - Mediamaisteri€¦ · Moodle.org serves as the developer of Moodle versions together with other experts. Mediamaisteri Group is the expert company for Finnish

MOODLE 2.X QUICK GUIDE

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TABLE OF CONTENTS1 General about Moodle........................................................................................................................................ 3

1.1 One of the most used learning environments in Finland and abroad..........................................................31.2 Moodle expert at your service..................................................................................................................... 3

2 Logging in in Moodle.......................................................................................................................................... 42.1 Course page............................................................................................................................................... 5

3 My profile............................................................................................................................................................ 64 Creating a course, course settings..................................................................................................................... 8

4.1 Foremost settings....................................................................................................................................... 85 Enrolment......................................................................................................................................................... 10

5.1 Manual enrolment..................................................................................................................................... 115.2 Self enrolment........................................................................................................................................... 115.3 Guest access............................................................................................................................................ 125.4 Cohort sync.............................................................................................................................................. 12

6 Editing of course............................................................................................................................................... 126.1 Editing icons............................................................................................................................................. 136.2 Changes in course appearance................................................................................................................14

6.2.1 Topic sections................................................................................................................................... 146.2.2 Label................................................................................................................................................. 146.2.3 Blocks............................................................................................................................................... 146.2.4 Themes............................................................................................................................................. 14

7 Adding materials and assignments...................................................................................................................158 Activities............................................................................................................................................................ 15

8.1 Assignment.............................................................................................................................................. 158.2 Chat......................................................................................................................................................... 168.3 Forum...................................................................................................................................................... 168.4 Survey..................................................................................................................................................... 178.5 Lesson..................................................................................................................................................... 178.6 Feedback................................................................................................................................................. 178.7 Glossary.................................................................................................................................................. 188.8 SCORM................................................................................................................................................... 188.9 Quiz......................................................................................................................................................... 188.10 Database............................................................................................................................................... 198.11 Workshop............................................................................................................................................... 208.12 External Tool.......................................................................................................................................... 208.13 Choice................................................................................................................................................... 218.14 Wiki........................................................................................................................................................ 21

9 Resources........................................................................................................................................................ 219.1 File........................................................................................................................................................... 229.2 IMS content package............................................................................................................................... 229.3 Folder...................................................................................................................................................... 229.4 Book........................................................................................................................................................ 229.5 Label........................................................................................................................................................ 239.6 Page........................................................................................................................................................ 239.7 URL......................................................................................................................................................... 23

10 Blocks............................................................................................................................................................. 2311 Useful links..................................................................................................................................................... 24

Mailing addressPL 8233101 TAMPERE

Tampere officeÅkerlundinkatu 2 A33100 TAMPERE

Phone / FaxTampere (03) 260 4114

[email protected]@mediamaisteri.comBusiness ID 1582605-9

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1 General about Moodle

Moodle is an open source learning platform. More specifically, Moodle is a virtual learning environment and a course management system which can be used for constructing courses for various purposes. Moodle provides tools for issues such as interaction, content provision, and distribution of material, and Moodle can be used alongside e-learning to also support blended learning. Because of its open source code, it is possible to tailor Moodle to suit your own needs and to enrich it with versatile plug-in programs, different themes and integrations.

1.1 One of the most used learning environments in Finland and abroad

Moodle has been developed worldwide since 2001, and it has been translated into more than 90 languages. Moodle has over 58 million users. The developer community Moodle.org serves as the developer of Moodle versions together with other experts. Mediamaisteri Group is the expert company for Finnish learning and expertise. It follows closely the development work by Moodle.org and offers its own clients tailor-made Moodle learning environments.

1.2 Moodle expert at your service

Through Mediamaisteri, you receive for example consulting, implementation projects, tailoring, and maintenance services related to Moodle. Mediamaisteri has produced several tools for Moodle, and integrated and tailored it for the needs of many different customers and their systems. There are hundreds of satisfied Moodle customers ranging from small and medium-sized enterprises and educational establishments to listed companies and government administration units.

The Mediamaisteri help site can be found at http://docs.lerlin.com/. There you can find more detailed instructions and tips for the use of Moodle 2 version in Finnish. This quick guide is especially intended for persons who serve as teachers in Moodle.

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2 Logging in in Moodle

When you use your browser to go to the front page of Moodle used in your organisation, you can see, depending on the settings, either some contents like a course list or only the login page. If the login page does not open first, there is usually a “Login” link at the bottom of the page or in its upper right corner. Generally you can also change the language of Moodle from the drop down menu in the upper right corner.

On the login page, type the username and password you have received from the person responsible for Moodle in your organisation. If you have forgotten your username or password or if you do not know them, contact the person responsible for Moodle or click the link “Forgot your username or password?” on the login page. If the link in question does not show, this function has been disabled by the administrator, and you have to find out your username and password in another way.

When you can log in in Moodle, you will come to the front page of the system. Moodle is constructed mainly of the front page and separate course pages. Most of these pages have three columns, but there can also be fewer columns. Usually the left and right columns are constructed of different blocks, the order of which can be changed. The centre column contains the actual contents of the page; for example on the front page you may see news and a category list or course list. Below is an example of the

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front page of Moodle after you have logged in in the system.

2.1 Course page

The course view resembles very much that of the front page. There are also blocks in the left and right columns on the course page, and the centre column contains the contents of the page, such as various resources and activities. The centre column is divided into several boxes or topic sections so that it would be easier to organise the contents for example on the basis of the progress of study or on the basis of the topics of the material. Below is an example of the view on the course page.

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3 My profile

You can get to your own profile by clicking your name at the bottom of the page or in its upper right corner. You can also get to the same page from the Navigation block, from item My profile > View profile. If you want to edit your profile, for example by adding an image, go to the Settings blocks and select My profile settings > Edit profile. Below is a description of the most essential issues as regards your own profile settings, which you may want to change. Please note, however, that some profile data may be locked (for example if LDAP login is used) if the administrator has so decided. When you edit your profile, remember to save the changes by pressing the button at the bottom of the page.

Email address

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All notices sent by Moodle, forum posts etc. are sent to this e-mail address, so it is of utmost importance that the address is correct. Use an e-mail address which you check frequently.

Email display

With this setting, you can choose to whom your e-mail address is shown in Moodle. The alternatives are: nobody, all, or only the participants in the same course.

Email digest type

This setting has an effect on the way in which you receive notices about new posts in the discussion forums to which you have subscribed. Alternatives: No digest: you get an e-mail message about each new post; Complete: you get one e-mail message a day containing a compilation of all the new posts; Subjects: you get one e-mail a day containing a compilation of only the headings of all new posts. The default setting is “No digest”. This should be changed if your e-mail inbox begins to fill up by the posts sent by discussion forums.

Forum auto-subscribe

This setting is also related to the use of discussion forums. Here, you can choose whether you want to subscribe to a discussion forum as a default, in other words whether you get a notice of posts which have arrived in the forum after your own posts. A subscription for ordinary forums can be cancelled later.

Forum tracking

With this setting you can define whether to highlight the posts which have arrived after your most recent login.

Timezone

It is recommended to check that the time zone in your own profile is correct so that the times of the posts and for example the assignment return deadlines can be seen correctly.

Preferred language

Upon login, Moodle uses the language chosen by this setting.

User picture

Here you can upload an image which is shown in Moodle for example in forum posts and in many other contexts.

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Phone / FaxTampere (03) 260 4114

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Notification methods for incoming messages

On the Messaging page, you can define what issues you want Moodle to notify you by means of a popup window or e-mail message when you are or are not logged in in Moodle. You can choose different ways of notice in the Settings block under My profile settings > Messaging.

4 Creating a course, course settings

The creation of new courses in Moodle is often concentrated to certain persons or administrators. If you have the right to create courses, you can see the following items on the front page of Moodle in the Settings block: Site administration > Courses > Add/edit courses. In this way, you can add a course by pressing the button “Add a new course” or by first navigating to the course category of your choice and then clicking the same button there. When you add a new course, you first come to the course settings page, where issues such as the name of the course, its format, availability and many other things are defined.

4.1 Foremost settings

It is recommended to pay particular attention to the following Moodle course settings when creating a new course. The obligatory items in the course settings (name of the course, abbreviation of the course) are marked in red. More information about settings which are not mentioned here is available in the question marks seen on the course settings page. You can edit the settings of an existing course later in the Settings block under Course administration > Edit settings.

Category

Moodle contains ready-made course categories, such as faculty-specific or other subject-based division. Your course is placed in the category in which you have asked it to be placed, or for example in Training courses. If you do not have the right to change the category of your course area, you can ask Moodle administration to change it.

Choose a category which suits your course best. This choice has an effect on where your course is shown in the course list, and it facilitates finding your course.

Course full name

The name of the course is shown at the top of each page of the course area, and for the students it is shown in the course lists under the course category and on the My Moodle page. Students can use the name of the course to find your course in the

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course list also by using the field Search course.

Course short name

The course short name is the text which can be seen in the directory path in the top bar of the course area. The short name links to the main page of your course area. The short name is also shown in the header field [in square brackets] of messages going from the course area to participants' e-mails. The short name has to be unique; in other words, it has to differ from the short names of all other course areas.

Course summary

The course summary is shown in the course listing. The course search function makes searches from the names of courses and from their summary texts.

Format

The most common course formats are Topics and Weeks. In the Week format, the course is composed of consecutive weeks, and it has a distinct starting and ending date. Every week is composed of different activities and resources. In the Week format, the content area of the course is divided automatically into sections at intervals of one week, with the dates of the weeks in question used as the headings of the sections. If you use the Week format, also define the “Start date of course” on the Settings page to be the date of starting of actual teaching so that the dates shown on the course page are correct.

The Topics format is very much like the Week format except that now every “week” is referred to as a “topic”. The topic is not limited to a certain time, and you do not need to define accurate course dates. This is often the most common course format used.

Course layout

With this setting you can define whether the course can be seen in its entirety on a single page or whether the contents are divided onto several pages. As an example, in the Topics course format the different topic sections are shown on the same page, or all topic sections are shown under different tabs. This setting is in Moodle 2.3 version and later.

Number of weeks/topics

This setting defines how many weeks/topic sections there are in a course. The setting can also be changed later. In practice, this number defines how many “boxes”, into which you can add various contents, there are on the course page.

Maximum upload size

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This setting defines the maximum size of a file which the student can upload for this course. The file size is limited by the administrator from system settings. You can also limit the size of transmissions separately through the settings of each activity module.

Availability

If a course is closed for the students, it is not shown in the course lists and you cannot login in the course, not even through the direct address of the course area. The course is only visible to the teachers added to it and to the administrators. The hidden course area is shown grey in the listing.

With this in mind, make sure to change this setting to “This course is available to students” before the teaching starts. You can add students in advance also to a closed course area, but the students cannot access it before you have changed the setting.

Student progress

If the completion tracking of the students is in use on the website, item “Student progress” can be seen on the Settings page. Here you can choose whether you want to use completion tracking during your course.

When the course settings are in order, save the changes by pressing the button at the bottom of the Settings page. After this, the system directs you to the page Enrolled users, where the course participants can be given roles manually. If you do not want to add users to the course manually right now, you will get to the front page of your course by clicking the course short name link located in the upper part of the page.

5 Enrolment

When a new course is created, the creator of the course is automatically directed to the page Enrolled users, where the course participants can be given roles manually. This, however, requires that the administrator has permitted manual enrolment in the entire website and that this function has been taken into use in the course by selecting Settings > Course administration > Users > Enrolment methods. If enrolment is in use, the page Enrolled users (Settings > Course administration > Users > Enrolled users) shows the button “Enrol users”.

The most common ways of enrolment and their use are described below. Different ways of enrolment can be taken into use and managed on page Enrolment methods, using the icons in the Edit column. Please note that the “eye” in the Edit column must be open so that the enrolment method in question is in use.

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5.1 Manual enrolment

If the administrator has not made any changes to this setting, the manual enrolment is the default enrolment method in the course. On page Enrolment methods, you can change the enrolment method settings by using the edit icon . On this page, you can disable the enrolment method, set a default time for the validity of enrolment, and set a default role.

You can add users manually to the course on the page Enrolled users by clicking the button Enrol users. In the window that opens, first make sure that the role to be distributed is the one that you want, for example student. Type the name of the user or a part of it in the search bar at the lower edge and press Enter. When you find the user of your choice, click the Add button next to the user to give the role in question in the course. You can search in this way for several users, and when you finally click the button Finish enrolling users, the users are added to the course.

If you later want to remove a user from the course, you can click on the cross on the page Enrolled users in the column Enrolment methods. If the cross is clicked in the column Roles, the role in question is only removed from the user, but the user is not removed from the list.

5.2 Self enrolment

Through this enrolment method, the users can enrol themselves in the course if they can find the course and know the potential enrolment key, i.e. password.

If self enrolment cannot be seen on the page Enrolment methods, you can add it from the drop down menu on the page, provided that the administrator has allowed this enrolment method. The self enrolment settings can be edited by clicking the edit icon .

On the Self enrolment settings page, you can define the enrolment key and specify whether group keys are used. Besides the option that the participant can add himself or herself to the course using the enrolment key, the use of the group enrolment keys automatically adds the users to a certain group upon joining the course area. When you want to use group enrolment keys, define the enrolment key AND a specific group key in the settings of a specific group. The group settings can be found in Settings > Course administration > Users > Groups.

In the self enrolment settings, you can also specify a potential time limit for the enrolment, the maximum number of participants, and the contents of the e-mail message you may want to send in conjunction with enrolment, in other words the welcome message. At “Default assigned role”, you can also specify, as an example, teacher as the role instead of student. It is possible to make more self enrolments to the

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course, in which case those logging in with a certain password get the role of student and those logging in with another password get the role of teacher.

5.3 Guest access

This way of enrolment lets the user access the course area as a guest without enrolling to the course. The guest must know the password which may have been set. Access as a guest is a handy way to for example give a colleague access to view the course. As a guest, the user cannot make any changes to the course, and for example the exercises made with guest ID are not recorded in the course.

If guest access cannot be seen on the page Enrolment methods, you can add it from the drop down menu on the page, provided that the administrator has allowed this enrolment method for the website. The settings of this enrolment method can be found in the course settings in Settings > Course administration > Edit settings > Guest access. Here, you can define whether access to the course is allowed as a guest, and here you can also specify the password needed. The password allows guest access to the course only to those who know the password. Guests must give the password every time they want to access the course.

5.4 Cohort sync

Cohorts are groups, which can be easily added to the course to the desired role, in which case all the members of the cohort get the role in question in the course. Only administrators can manage cohort members, but teachers can add cohorts to their courses.

If the administrator has introduced the Cohort sync enrolment method and made a cohort/cohorts, you can add a cohort to your course on page Enrolment methods from the drop down menu Add method. When adding a cohort, you have to choose the desired cohort and the role, to which the cohort members are to be added. After this, the added persons are shown on the page Enrolled users.

6 Editing of course

The course can be edited in the Edit mode. The Edit mode can be enabled/disabled from the Settings block or from the button in the upper right corner of the course page. In the Edit mode, you can manage the course page resources, activities, blocks etc. When the Edit mode is enabled, many different small edit icons as well as links or drop down menus used for adding activities and resources appear. Below is an example of the course page in the Edit mode.

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6.1 Editing icons

Depending on your Moodle version, you may not see all the icons presented below in your Moodle. The icons in Moodle’s various themes may also look different.

Change title/name, Move the object by dragging it, Move the object by selecting a new location, Move to the left, Move to the right, Edit settings, Duplicate object, Remove object, Hide object from students, Hide topic section from students, Show object to students, Change group settings, Assign roles,

Show this topic section only, Show all topic sections, Mark this topic section as active, Move object up, Move object down, Move block to docking area, Release block from docking area, Hide block, Show block.

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6.2 Changes in course appearance

The appearance of the course and of the entire Moodle can be modified in different ways. This chapter describes how to edit the appearance of your course page and add different functions, or blocks, on the page.

6.2.1 Topic sections

The topic sections are “boxes” on the course page. Depending on the course settings, the topic sections are for example numbered or their headings are dates at intervals of one week. Depending on the context, the topic sections can also be called topics, sections or boxes. By using an html editor, you can add text, an image etc. in the summary of a topic section. You can edit the summary by enabling the Edit mode and clicking the edit icon shown in topic section.

6.2.2 Label

Label is very similar to the summaries of topic sections, but its place is not restricted in the topic sections of the course page. Label can therefore be added between different resources and activities, for example as a subheading. You can add images or embed a video, among other things, in the label by using an html editor.

6.2.3 Blocks

With blocks you can do little editing to the appearance of the course, but you can add various functionalities to the course, for example a calendar, an RSS feed or a comment block. In the html block you can, however, add an image or some other item related to the appearance. A block can be added in the Edit mode from the “Add a block” menu, which, depending on your Moodle version, can be found in the left or right column at the bottom.

6.2.4 T hemes

You cannot actually edit the course appearance by means of the themes unless course-specific themes are allowed. The Moodle theme is usually the same throughout Moodle and in accordance with the visual appearance of the specific enterprise or community.

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7 Adding materials and assignments

In Moodle, teaching materials are called resources, and assignments are referred to as activities. It is recommended to keep these terms in mind because you will come across them very often in everything related to Moodle.

In order to be able to add material or an activity to your course page, you must first enable the Edit mode either from the Settings block or from the button in the upper right corner of the course page. Depending on your Moodle version and settings, you can add materials and activities to the course page either from the link “Add an activity or resource” (v2.3) or from the drop down menus “Add a resource...”/”Add an activity...”.

When you have chosen the resource or activity to be added, you can add it to the place of your choice on the course page from the link “Add an activity or resource” (v2.3) or from the drop down menus “Add a resource...”/”Add an activity...”. Next, you can define the settings of the resource/activity. The most important settings are described in more detail in the instructions of the resource or activity in question.

In version 2.3, it is also possible to drag and drop files from the computer directly to the place of your choice on the course page. You can also easily change the name of an

imported file directly on the course page by clicking the small pen icon on the resource when you are in the Edit mode. You can edit the settings of the file further by clicking the edit icon .

8 Activities

Below is a short presentation of the activities which come with Moodle as default. You can see the basic idea of the activities quickly by viewing the texts in boldface. You can find more detailed instructions by clicking the name of the activity.

8.1 Assignment

With the assignment activity, the teacher can assess the student’s learning by giving assignments and then by evaluating the assignments by means of verbal feedback and grades.

In Moodle version 2.3 the different functions of Advanced uploading of files, Online text, Upload a single file, and Offline activity have been integrated into one Assignment activity.

The students can return any files within the limits of Moodle file size, such as

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documents produced by word processing or spread sheet programs, and image, audio and video files. Alternatively or in addition to this, an assignment can be returned by typing text in Moodle using a text editor. You can also utilise the Assignment activity as a mere assignment for a learning assignment, which is performed outside Moodle. In this case, too, you can assess the students’ performance even if they do not return anything to Moodle.

In assessing the students’ returned assignments, the teacher can write feedback and give a grade, and return to the student one or more feedback files, for example the student’s completed assignment with comments.

In the assignments, you can use a numerical or verbal scale, which you can also define yourself. Moreover, you can utilise a rubric grading method which you have prepared in advance and which you can also publish to the students as early as when they complete their assignment. The final grades are also shown on the Grades page.

8.2 Chat

In a chat, the participants discuss simultaneously over the internet. With the chat function, you can accomplish different types of discussion and processing of the topic than in asynchronous discussion forums.

Chat can be used once or as a repeated function for example at the same time every day or every week. The chat sessions are recorded and they can be published to everybody or to a limited participant group, in which case there is a need for a capability to be allowed to see the chat logs.

Chat is useful then when the group has no chance to face-to-face discussion, such as:

• in regular student meetings within an online course• during a question hour for example with a foreign invited speaker• when practicing literary, fast-paced discussion related to either mother tongue or

a foreign language.

8.3 Forum

Forum is one of the main functionalities offered by Moodle. Most of the discussions during a course typically take place in forums. Furthermore, in forums you can fulfil many other needs; for example collect the students’ assignments and guide them to give peer feedback to each other’s work.

Forums can be constructed in several different ways. The messages can include one or more attachment files. When the participant subscribes to a forum, the participant gets

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the new forum posts also to his or her e-mail, which supports peer working. The teacher can also force all participants to subscribe to a certain forum, such as course news.

8.4 Survey

The survey activity contains ready-made tools which have been found to be useful in the evaluation and stimulation of learning in e-learning environments. The teacher can use a survey to collect information from the students. This supports the teacher in getting to know the students and in the reflection of the teacher’s own teaching.

Please note that in the survey activity, the questions of different survey types are pre-defined. If you want to create your own questions, use the Feedback activity.

8.5 Lesson

A lesson conveys the contents in an interesting and flexible way. It consists of pages, with every page usually ending with a question and its possible answers. The question types are e.g. multichoice questions, short answer questions, and matching questions. The pages form a network of different learning paths. Depending on the student’s answer, the student either continues to the next page, stays on the present page, or ends up to the previous page. Going through the course can be linear or complicated depending greatly on the structure of the presented material.

A lesson can also be evaluated if necessary, in which case the grades are recorded in the course Grades.

A lesson can be used for example for:

• self-study or repetition• role play simulations or decision-making training• the differentiation of students with different learning modes; as an example, the

students can be offered a video, podcast or text page of the same topic on the basis of their choice.

8.6 Feedback

With the feedback activity, you can make your own surveys. In new Moodle versions, Feedback is disabled as a default, but the administrator can easily enable it.

In addition to multiple choice questions, text answers etc. there is a label for interim guidance, page break, and background information. You can also build dependences

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between the questions.

If you want, the feedback answers are anonymous, and you can choose the summary of the answers to be shown to all participants or to restrict it to be shown to teachers only.

The feedback activity can be used for example:

• in the middle of the course to present the participants’ future needs and wishes• at the end of the course to collect course feedback• for a survey concerning your own teaching.

8.7 Glossary

In a glossary, the participants in a course area can create and maintain a list of entries or perhaps collect a shared list of sources. There are several options for browsing the entries. Within a single course, teachers can also import entries from one glossary to another, i.e. to the main glossary. It is also possible to link the entries mentioned in the course materials and activities automatically to the definitions in the glossaries.

8.8 SCORM

The SCORM package is a collection of files which have been packaged according to the content object standard SCORM, which enables the re-use and functioning of e-learning material in different systems. With the SCORM activity, you can upload SCORM and AICC packages to the course area.

The contents are typically several pages, and navigations between them. There are several options to present the contents, such as pop-up window, table of contents, navigation buttons etc. The SCORM activities usually contain questions, and the grades can be seen in the Grades page.

The SCORM activity can be used for example:

• for the presentation of multimedia contents and animations• as an assessment tool.

8.9 Quiz

You can use a Quiz to plan and collect question groups to be evaluated. The question groups consist of multiple choice questions, right/wrong questions, short-answer questions, and essays, among others. The questions are recorded in the

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database, from where they can be used several times in the same course or in other courses.

Quizzes can be taken once or several times, and it is possible to shuffle the order of the questions every time. You can pre-set the quiz time if you want.

Every round of answers is evaluated automatically (except essays), and the grades are recorded in the Grades page. As a teacher, you can choose whether you want to give feedback and/or show the right answers during the quiz attempt, right after the attempt, or after the quiz closing date. The teacher can choose different procedures for the questions, like offering tips to the students’ wrong answers.

The quiz can be used for example:

• for self-study and reviewing during the course• as an examination bank of previous years’ examination questions• to give automatic feedback on the students’ performance level• for self-evaluation.

Although essay questions cannot be evaluated automatically, you can use the quiz activity also with essays if you want to give the students an “egg timer” showing the remaining time.

8.10 Database

With the database activity, the users can create, maintain and search data records. The teacher defines the database structure as fields, of which every data record is formed. The field types are radio buttons and check boxes, drop-down menu, text field, internet address field, image, and file.

The visual appearance in presenting and editing the contents of the database can be defined by using templates. The database activity can be divided between several course areas, and the teacher can also import and export the contents of the database between course areas.

If the database uses automatic linking, all the data records in the database are linked automatically within the course area to every item that uses the concept in question.

If the teacher so wants, the participants can be given rights to comment on the data records. In the same way, the participants can evaluate the data records as peer effort, in which case the combination of the evaluations can also be seen in the course Grades page.

The database activity can be used for example for:

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• collecting a shared link list, book reviews, or lists of sources• the peer commenting and evaluation of photos, posters, websites or poems

created by the students.

8.11 Workshop

With the workshop activity you can collect the students’ output and also make them evaluate their own assignments themselves, peer evaluate each other’s assignments, and assess the given peer evaluations.

The assignments returned by the students can consist of files and text written in Moodle.

In peer evaluation, you can use a rubric evaluation method to support and guide the students’ evaluation work. You can also offer the students the possibility to train evaluation by means of model answers you have given.

The students can evaluate one or more peer assignments, and you can either give the peer evaluation turns yourself or distribute them by drawing lots. Both the returned assignments and the evaluators can be anonymous if necessary (in that case, remember to instruct the students not to write their names in the files they return).

The students get two grades for the workshop activity: a grade for the assignment and a grade for the peer evaluation. These can be seen in their own columns also in the evaluation record.

8.12 External Tool

The external tool activity enables the students to interact with materials and activities existing on other websites. As an example, the external tool can provide access to a new type of activity or to study materials by a publisher. To use this tool, you need a tool provider who supports LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability). The teacher can create an external tool activity or utilise an external tool configured by the administrator.

The external tool activities differ from URL materials (ordinary website links) in some ways:

• The external tools are aware of the context, in other words they have access to the user’s data in Moodle, such as to name, institution and course.

• The external tools support the reading, updating and removing of the grades related to the tools.

• The external tool definitions create a confirmed connection between your

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website and the tool provider.

8.13 Choice

The choice activity works in a simple manner: the teacher asks a question and gives several alternative answers to the student to choose from. Only one of the alternatives can be chosen by the student. The choice activity can serve as a survey to examine the students’ previous knowledge or thoughts about the topic in question, or it can be used to let the group vote on the direction of the course, or to collect simple research information.

The answers can be published to the participants right after answering, after a certain date, or not at all. The results can be published either with the respondents’ name or anonymously.

8.14 Wiki

With the Wiki activity, the participants can add or edit shared pages within Moodle. Wiki’s settings have two main ways of using it: Wiki shared by all, which every participant can edit, or personal wikis, where every participant has his or her own wiki site, to which, besides the particular participant, only teachers have access. Furthermore, you can use groups in wiki, in which case you can provide all groups their own wiki sites by means of a single wiki activity.

Wiki preserves the version history of every page, visualising in this way the edits made by each participant. You can take this into account when giving assignments for example by instructing the students to the effect that in group work everybody has to participate in editing.

Wiki can be used in several ways, such as:

• for group notes on a lecture• for co-preparing the agendas of meetings before the meeting• for writing an essay together• for communal story telling or poem writing, where every participant writes a line

or verse• as a personal note site (when the setting is personal wiki).

9 Resources

Below is a brief description of Moodle’s various resources. The basic idea of the resources can be seen quickly by viewing the boldface texts. You can find more detailed instructions by clicking the name of the resource.

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9.1 File

As a teacher, you can add files to a course area for the students to see. Depending on the file type, the file is shown to the students in the course view or it is opened in a separate application. The file can include support files; as an example, an html page can contain embedded images or Flash animations.

Please note that that the students need the relevant application programs on their own computers to open the files you provide.

The file can be used for example:

• for distributing a presentation• for adding a website to the course area• as support material for the students’ assignments.

9.2 IMS content package

IMS content packages can be added or edited using various content production tools. The contents are typically presented on several pages with navigation. A specific content production tool produces a zip file, which can be uploaded to the course area in Moodle as an IMS content package. The zip file is unzipped in Moodle automatically. There are several alternatives to present the contents, such as pop-up window, navigation list, or buttons.

9.3 Folder

You can use a folder to compile several files to a single location. This reduces the need for space in the course area. In other words, instead of adding several files to the course site, you can add a folder to which you can add all the files you want.

You can import the files to Moodle as zip files and unzip them in Moodle, or create an empty folder and bring files to it.

9.4 Book

With the book activity you can create multiple-page materials to a book-type format, in other words structure it into chapters and subchapters. A book can include text and multimedia files. A book is useful for presenting extensive instructions and other material which can be divided into parts.

A book can be used:

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• for presenting readable material• as a manual to the personnel• as the student’s sample portfolio.

9.5 Label

Label is not actual material but for example texts and images which can be added to the topic sections in the course area between resource links and activity links and as their headings.

9.6 Page

By using the page activity, you can create subpages to the course area. The subpages are a preferable place for longer instructions and practical issues to be accessed from a link. In this way, the actual course area remains shorter. You can add text, images, voice, video and links and embed a code, for example from Google maps on the page.

The advantage of the page over files is that it is easier to reach for example from mobile terminal devices, and it is easier to edit the page. The pages are saved in the Moodle database, not as files.

9.7 URL

With the URL resource, the teacher can create links to external websites or other materials. All that is freely available on the internet, like documents and images, can be linked to Moodle. The teacher can copy the address of an external page from the address field of the browser or look for it through the repository interfaces provided by Moodle, for example from Flickr or YouTube, depending on which repository interfaces are available in Moodle.

10 Blocks

With blocks you can add various functionalities to the course, like a calendar, RSS feed or a comment block. A block can be added in the Edit mode from menu Add a block, which, depending on your Moodle version, can be found lowest in the left or right column. Blocks can be removed (if the administrator has not forced a block to be seen in a certain context) by using the remove icon . The location of the blocks can be changed depending on your Moodle version either by dragging the block to a new location or by first clicking the move icon and then the new desired location of the block.

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Every user can move “useless” blocks to the docking area (if the theme in question supports this) or hide them so that they do not take up space on the course page. Blocks can be docked by using the docking icon , and blocks can be hidden by using the minus icon . Blocks can be restored by the corresponding icons and respectively. The docking area is the bar at the left edge of the screen, where the blocks can be used and returned to their original location by taking the cursor onto the name of the desired block.

Moodle users can also add the blocks they want on their My Moodle page. Moreover, the teacher can add blocks to some activities, or the administrator can force some blocks to be seen, for example on every course page or always in connection with a certain activity.

11 Useful links

The following list contains some useful links to Moodle help videos and other help materials.

Mediamaisteri’s Moodle instructions (in Finnish):

http://docs.lerlin.com/moodle-ohjeet

Help videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/moodlehq/videos

http://www.youtube.com/user/UsingMoodle/videos

Moodle.org instructions:

http://docs.moodle.org/overview/

http://docs.moodle.org/23/en/Main_page

Mailing addressPL 8233101 TAMPERE

Tampere officeÅkerlundinkatu 2 A33100 TAMPERE

Phone / FaxTampere (03) 260 4114

[email protected]@mediamaisteri.comBusiness ID 1582605-9


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