Final Course Grade Appeal
Students are encouraged to discuss their progress in the course throughout the semester and should discuss any concerns they have regarding grades on assignments with the instructor. On occasion, circumstances may arise in which  a student should have the opportunity to appeal the final course grade. If a student believes that the final course grade is inaccurate, the student should contact the faculty member who assigned the grade within five (5) business days of the posting of that semester’s grade. Please refer to the Final Course Grade Appeal Process in the General Catalog and Student Handbook. NOTE: Individual assignment/test grades are not appealable.

DCCC faculty:  Please remember that we will be moving from Moodle 1.9 to Moodle 2.3 starting in Fall 2013.  In preparation for the move, I am offering training starting March 18th.  I have divided the training up into two days.

Day One:  New Course Interface and Course Files Structure
Day Two:  New Quiz and Assignment Features plus Joule Grader

To sign up for training, please fill out the web form at http://tiny.cc/moodle2train.

Click on the following link to view the video.

Exporting Your Gradebook
When closing out a course for a semester, there are some data that every instructor should be pulling from Moodle.  After your gradebook is complete, it is good practice for an instructor to export it for record keeping.  To do this, navigate to your Grades link and click on the Export tab.  For a more detailed look at how to do this, click on the following link titled: help document.

Saving Online Entry Assignment Data
Distance courses were required to include an online entry assignment to denote when the student “Entered” the course.  As an instructor, it is a best practice to keep the Moodle record that shows when the student submitted the designated assignment.  For a detailed look at how to do this, click on the following link titled:  help document.

Help with Moodle Gradebook
Now that the semester is coming to a close, the attention of faculty and students is focused on the gradebook.  You’ll want to make sure your Moodle gradebook is setup appropriately.  To see some examples of how to set up your gradebook, click on the following link titled:  help document.

Health and Science Sample Lesson
History Sample Lesson
Linguistics Sample Lesson
English As A Second Language Sample Lesson
Science Sample Lesson

If you are interested in using one of DCCC’s licenses, we are offering two hands on workshops to get you started using the software.  Liz Irizarry will be offering the sessions on Nov. 30th 2-3pm and Dec. 7th 2-3pm.  You are welcome to attend one or both of those sessions.  To sign up for the workshop(s), visit the following link:  http://tiny.cc/softchalk_dccc.

The agenda for the two days is as follows:

Day 1 Agenda – Nov 30th
Intro to Softchalk
Basic Features
Creating a Lesson
Using MS Word to import content
Q&A Time

Day 2 Agenda – Dec 7th
Review from Day 1
Inserting images
Inserting YouTube videos
Inserting a Power Point
Q&A Time

If you have any questions regarding SoftChalk or the workshops, please contact Liz Irizarry at edirizar@davidsonccc.edu.

Scenario #1:  Weighted System.   

Tests = 25%
Projects = 20%
Discussions = 30%
Final Exam = 25%

Weighted Mean Example

Scenario #2:  Points System (No Categories)

Test #1 = 100 pts
Test #2 = 100 pts
Research Project = 80 pts
Final Project = 80 pts
Discussion #1 = 60 pts
Discussion #2 = 60 pts
Discussion #3 = 60 pts
Discussion #4 = 60 pts
Final Exam = 200 pts
Total Points = 800 pts

Points System (No Categories)

Scenario #3:  Points System (With Categories)

Test #1 = 100 pts
Test #2 = 100 pts
Research Project = 80 pts
Final Project = 80 pts
Discussion #1 = 60 pts
Discussion #2 = 60 pts
Discussion #3 = 60 pts
Discussion #4 = 60 pts
Final Exam = 200 pts

Points System (With Categories)

This is by far not the only way to set up your gradebook.  You are certainly free to do what is needed to match your grading scheme.  The only method that is not allowed is the Sum of Grades method.  This method is problematic for Starfish as it always treats empty grades as zeros and those assignments count against the student.  If you would like for someone in the Office of Distance Learning and Instructional Technology to review your gradebook, do not hesitate to contact us.

The Course Announcements forum can be used as a way to send mass emails.  However, it all depends on the subscription setting on the forum.  If you have forced your students to be subscribed, then all active students (not inactive) and instructors in the course will receive an email of the forum post.  If you have not forced your students to subscribe and you would like to, you just need to update your forum.

Update a forum to force subscription

The QuickMail block can also be used to email the whole class.  There is a trick to making sure that you do not include the students who have been changed to the inactive student role because they do appear in the list of users in your course within the QuickMail block.  After you click on Compose an email within the block, you will be taken to a screen to create your email.  Click on the Students Only option under Role Filter.  Then, if you do not have any groups, click on the Not in a Section option under Potential Section.  This should highlight all active students in the course.  You can then click on the Add button to send them to the Recipients list (see pictured below).

Emailing all students except inactive students

If you are using Groups, then you will follow the same steps as above but when you get to the Potential Section area, you’ll want to hold down your Control button as you select all the groups that you would like to send the message to (see pictured below).

Emailing all students except inactive ones when you use groups

Click on the following link for a help document on how to execute the steps described above.

Once there, click on the check box next to the name of the student’s attempt.  Then, scroll down and click on Delete Selected Attempts.

Office of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning
photo taken by David Whitehead (thanks!)

Pictured Left to Right:  Dori Stanfield, Suzanne Edmonds, Elizabeth (Liz) Irizarry.

Please welcome our newest member of the Office of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, Suzanne Edmonds!  Suzanne recently completed her Masters of Arts in Educational Media from Appalachian State University.  As our Instructional Technology Specialist, she will be primarily working with our Echo360 lecture capture room, SMART hardware and software, Elmo document cameras, Vision classroom monitoring software, iclickers, and Blackboard Collaborate.  Please do not hesitate to contact Suzanne for training on the aforementioned technologies.  Her office is Reich 122.

Suzanne shares an office with Elizabeth (Liz) Irizarry, our Instructional Designer, who has been here for over a year now.  Liz primarily trains instructors on Moodle, Turnitin plagiarism software, Softchalk, NCLOR, Respondus 4.0, Respondus Lockdown Browser, and Blackboard Collaborate.

Feel free to visit our Staff page (link above) to learn more about our Office of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning.