SVCC IT Cafe

Assisting Students New to Moodle in Face-to-Face Courses

2014-09-03T14:44:00.002-05:00

We are often asked how to support students new to Moodle in face to face courses. Here are a few tips.

1. Take a few minutes in class to model completing any new assignment activity in Moodle the week before it is due.

2. Build activities early in your course which are practice or very low-stakes assignments. This way, students are able to practice the tools they need to use before they make a mistake which may deleteriously affect their grade. Some examples include an ice-breaker forum discussion, a biography sketch assignment to upload, or similar simple activity. There are more suggestions of activities here.

3. Direct students to complete the Orientation to Moodle course the IT department has created for students. This is linked on the Moodle login screen and is included in the top section of every Moodle course we create. Faculty may enroll in the course and are free to download any of the resources to use in their courses.

4. Students can seek help from the lab assistant in 2F01. They are open 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, Monday through Thursday.

5. There are many help files on this page. Sending students directly to this page will be overwhelming to them. Instead, find the relevant help file or video, then create a direct link to that resource in Moodle near the assignment you want students to complete. Such as, "How to upload and submit a file." If you cannot find the help resource you need, contact IT and we may be able to create it for you (please give us a couple of days notice).
Contact IT at IT@svcc.edu.

2014-08-13T09:04:00.000-05:00

I stumbled upon a resource this morning that I think you will find valuable for improving learning.

The resource is the Goodwill Community Foundation, which is found at http://www.gcflearnfree.org/. You might find the two resources outlined below valuable as you prep your fall courses.

Self-paced Tutorials
Their website consists of self-paced tutorials which that are quite diverse in topic, up-to-date, and very well done. Topics of the tutorials include math, grammar, microsoft office software, reading, money, and more.

I was most impressed with the technology section of the site. I think many of these could be added as help links to an online course for students new to using our technology tools.

A few examples you might check out are:
Firefox: These tutorials start with the basics of installing firefox and use it to browse, but also shows how to add bookmarks and more.

Grammar: one page review of grammar topics such as possesives, semi-colons, negatives, run-on sentences, and others grammar topics.

Microsoft Office: tutorials for the using Word, PowerPoint, Access, Excel, and Excel formulas.

Youtube Channel
They also have a Youtube Channel. (The videos are not linked to their site. I'm not sure why.) However, these videos would be a great addition to an online class to support students with just-in-time learning. Their Youtube channel has an extensive list of playlists including topics on Gmail, grammar, math basics, Windows 8, and reading/vocabulary.

If you would like assistance integrating any of these resources into your Moodle course, please contact IT at 815-835-6229. Or email it@svcc.edu .

Syllabus Language Revisions

2014-08-12T10:13:00.000-05:00

A few revisions to the syllabus template have recently been made; please take a moment to update your course syllabi to include these changes. The revised templates have been posted in FAST. They can be found in the Academic Forms folder.

Assessment syllabus statement -
Sauk Valley Community College is an institution dedicated to continuous instructional improvement. As part of our assessment efforts, it is necessary for us to collect and analyze course-level data. Data drawn from students’ work for the purposes of institutional assessment will be collected and posted in aggregate, and will not identify individual students. Your continued support in our on-going effort to provide quality instructional services at SVCC is appreciated.

Privacy -
The College policy on student records complies with the “Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.” This Act is designed to protect the privacy of education records, to establish the rights of students to inspect and review their education records, and to provide guidelines for correction of incorrect or misleading data through formal and informal hearings. A copy of the Act or questions concerning the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act may be referred to the Assistant Dean of Student Services, 815/835-6305.

Disability -
If you have a disability or suspect that you have one and want to request a classroom accommodation, it is your responsibility to contact the Disability Support Office. Reasonable accommodations will be made after verification from the Coordinator of Disability Support located in Room 1G04, or by calling 815/835-6220.

Notification of recording
All classes at Sauk Valley Community College may be recorded for a variety of reasons to include compliance with the American with Disabilities Act in providing reasonable accommodations to person with disabilities. By enrolling in this course, students hereby consent to recording of classes.

A Moodle Upgrade, a Learning Opportunity, and a Hint for Hiding Activities from Students

2014-06-26T09:34:00.001-05:00

A planned service outage for Moodle maintenance will take place beginning at 10:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 9th and extending until 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 10th. During this time frame, Moodle will be unavailable for use. Please check your courses and adjust due dates for assignments, quizzes, and other features accordingly.

Following the upgrade, a few new features will be available for faculty use.

Students will be able to upload Assignments as .pdf files, and instructors will be able to use the Joule Grader feature to add comments on the .pdf submissions.
Instructors will be able to turn on notifications within the Joule Grader feature indicating that grading of an assignment is in progress, and can release grades for an assignment all at one time.
Moodle will issue a warning if a student loses his/her internet connection while taking a quiz.
The Activity Chooser moves to the top right of each topic area.
Editing icons visible to faculty will be changed from the current line up to a tidy drop down menu.

The i3 Workshop online course will begin on July 7th! Faculty may register for the course on our Instructional Technology web site.

Finally, this week's Moodle highlights include a new tutorial explaining how to use the Restrict access feature for Moodle Resources and Activities. There are occasions when it might be useful to hide an activity from students. The Hide icon that is visible to instructors when the editing is turned on in a course works well for hiding Resources (items such as videos, podcasts, readings, or urls to websites that students will view without receiving a grade), but not for Activities (Assignments, Quizzes, Forums, or other tasks that students must complete to receive a grade.) Use of the Hide icon (shaped like an eye) to hide an Activity, causes course totals in the gradebook User report to miscalculate. When an Activity must be hidden from student view, choose the Edit option from the editing tools for the activity, and utilize the Restrict access feature instead.

The Restrict access feature should not be confused with the Availability dates in the Assignment activity or Timing dates in Quiz. In fact, the simplest way to use Restrict access is to insert a Release code, which acts as a password. If you do not share the Release code with students, the students cannot gain access to the activity. The gradebook totals are unaffected when Restrict access is utilized, making it the preferred way to hide any Moodle item with the potential for earning a grade.

An illustrated tutorial explaining the use of Restrict access is available at our Instructional Technology website.

Moodle Transition for Summer 2014

2014-05-12T16:13:00.000-05:00

Faculty members, it is once again that time of year when we wrap up the spring semester and prepare our summer courses in Moodle while daydreaming about long days at the pool.

Your IT team has posted a helpful checklist with links to several tutorials explaining how to complete those end of the semester Moodle chores. View the checklist here.

As always, if you require assistance, please contact us at extension 229.

Guest Blogger Nina Dulabaum shares her experience attending the Distance Learning Conference

2014-03-10T13:17:00.001-05:00

Enriching Learning Environments with Technology was the theme of the Distance Learning Conference on March 7^thin Elgin. Dr. Maria Andersen began her keynote speech with a quote from Arthur C. Clarke, “Anyone who can be replaced by a computer should be." Gasps from faculty were audible as she continued with her predictions for the future:

“(1) Learning that involves information transfer will be replaced by technology
(2) Any repetitive assessment or learning task that can be replicated by a computer will be.
(3) Any computerized course that is cheaper and results in equal or better learning outcomes¹ for students will be delivered that way.
(4) The only technology that will improve learning outcomes for the majority of students is the technology that begins to mimic a tutor-student relationship.” http://busynessgirl.com/4-predictions-about-the-age- of-technology-enhanced-learning/

Her presentation continued discussing the implications of these predictions and what this means for the future of education. In addition, I soon learned the true meaning of “Busynessgirl” – she shared many resources and tools for teaching and engaging students, including a few minutes of a Hans Rosling’s TED Talk from 2006 that certainly makes statistics come alive! Click here for interesting handouts!

Yes, she thinks computers should replace faculty in some instances (refer to above). No, in the end, she emphasized that education needs competent faculty – professors and instructors – who embrace and leverage technology and focus on “acting human” – mentoring, assisting, and supporting students in all those ways computers can not.

I took this opportunity to speak with her personally, and she shared her views on some innovative technology on the market – e.g., adaptive tools such as the SmartBook. Having used a similar adaptive study resource at another institution, I am excited about exploring this option and finding new ways to assist our students in becoming successful learners here at Sauk! Just like Raph Koster’s quote she posts on her blog, her session truly demonstrated that “Learning is the brain having fun.”
~ Dr. Duly

Moodle Quiz - Certainty Based Marking

2014-03-05T09:13:00.003-06:00

Moodle Quiz offers a scoring option called Certainty Based Marking. When this option is selected, students are asked how certain they are of their answer after answering every question.

The following excerpt from Moodle documentation explains how it works.

“When a student answers a question they also have to state how sure they are of the answer: not very (less than 67%); fairly (more than 67%) or very (more than 80%). Their grading is then adjusted according to how certain they are, which means that for example if they answered correctly but were only guessing, their mark is adjusted from 1 to 0.33. If they answered wrongly but were very sure, their mark is adjusted from 0 to -2.”

This grading option is selected in the quiz settings, and is one of many choices under

the Question behavior section.

Growing Online Learning Conference - Recorded Sessions

2014-02-18T10:27:00.001-06:00

Last week your IT Department was able to attend the Growing Online Learning Conference online from ILCCO. These sessions have been recorded and are available for you to view at your leisure. Keep reading for descriptions of each session and links. Two sessions I found interesting were "Creating an Accessible Online Course" and "Enrich Online Student Learning Experience by using Screencast-O-Matic". Both provided relevant and up-to-date information with great ideas for implementing them in your online course.

-Greg Noack

“Online teaching will never be as good as real teaching," and other lies your elders told you.

Michelle Stephens Coordinator of Richland Theatre Program

Richland Community College

Author of Prepare for Impact and Teaching in Zero Gravity

Stephens, author of Prepare for Impact and Teaching in Zero Gravity, is both a lover of technology and a skeptic. During her keynote session, she explains how the outcomes of online education have nothing to do with the classroom impact. Working deftly, like a hibachi chef, she will separate out all of the key components of online education and of teaching and explain that not only is real comparable online education within our grasp, it is at our door. Then she will toss them with some vegetables and throw them on your plate. (These are often referred to as "takeaways.") She will also explain how having impact in the classroom is a lot more low-tech than you think. Using multiple perspectives, Stephens weaves pedagogy and storytelling like ... Well, like a person who weaves a lot of things together. Particularly important things.

https://sas.elluminate.com/mr.jnlp?suid=M.F734E4FEAE5A8023DC31CC258F9B26&sid=2012692

Throw Out the Cookie Cutters!

Linda Lee, Associate Director of Educational Technology and Innovation

Jill Johnson, Associate Dean of Social and Behavioral Science

Carl Sandburg College

Throw out the cookie cutter and allow students to shape their own learning space in online classes. Personalized learning paths and U-Pace will be discussed.

https://sas.elluminate.com/mr.jnlp?suid=M.279A93A22F1802C21BD741D6B2CA34&sid=2012692

Building Content Knowledge and Community in an Online Course Using Storybooks

Elizabeth Kershisnik, Professor of Chemistry

Oakton Community College

Having groups create a child's storybook about a chemistry concept can help solidify content knowledge and build group cohesion. This presentation will cover 1) how the group project is designed, 2) ways to assign groups, 3) rubrics and assessment, and 4) successes and pitfalls of this type of learning module.

https://sas.elluminate.com/mr.jnlp?suid=M.1E61A71509B8EAE7FD190B6621FDE8&sid=2012692

Creating an Accessible Online Course

Janet Peters Project Coordinator for Education and Assistive Technology

University of Illinois at Chicago

What does the word accessible mean to you? You may first think of the word available. Something that is accessible is available, or perhaps within reach for you to use. However, just because something is available doesn't necessarily mean it is accessible. For instance, if you are hard of hearing or have poor vision, a course may be "available" but hard or impossible for you to use because it was not designed with accessibility in mind. This session will discuss the reasons to create your course in an accessible way and will offer practical and easy tips on how to do that, including checklists and resources to streamline the process.

https://sas.elluminate.com/mr.jnlp?suid=M.85CDCE492E561B27C8F7AEDEE4481C&sid=2012692

Improving Online Student Retention

Kona Jones Director of Online Learning

Richland Community College

Retention and success are important issues, yet in most cases there is little to nothing done to directly monitor and provide early intervention strategies to online students at risk. Because of this, Richland Community College partnered with AspireEDU to help improve their online retention. Aspire pulls various pieces of student information from Richland's LMS and is able to then provide a "risk index" of how likely it is that each student will drop out or fail their online course(s). Using this risk score, Richland was able to quickly pick out the online students most at risk and start an early alert intervention with the students. This session will include tips on how to identify at risk students, Richland's early alert strategy, and results of the initial online retention pilot.

https://sas.elluminate.com/mr.jnlp?suid=M.7E64AFC9F10027341D1BD893D7AC14&sid=2012692

Enrich Online Student Learning Experience by using Screencast-O-Matic

Dr Diane King Coordinator of Early Childhood Education and Education ProgramsTerry Lucas Educational Technology SpecialistSoutheastern Illinois College

Online students benefit from personalized contact and encouragement. Incorporating video and audio feedback for written assignments adds another dimension to online pedagogy.

https://sas.elluminate.com/mr.jnlp?suid=M.BD9444682861BE4526A8B7E2B2B2DC&sid=2012692

Getting Audio and Video into Your Online Course

Nancy Heuer-Evans English Instructor

Brandy Thatcher Instructional Media Developer Illinois Central College

Brett Coup Associate Dean for Instructional Technology College of DuPage

Join us for a discussion of tips, tricks and ideas for working with audio and video in your online course. We'll discuss common challenges for getting audio and video into your courses: efficient storage of large media files, competing video formats, browser issues. You will also hear a faculty member's perspective on using audio and video in her online courses. We'll demonstrate a few solutions, such as using Google Drive for hosting video

https://sas.elluminate.com/mr.jnlp?suid=M.51BAC805EB4FD206F82A3189EEA9F5&sid=2012692

Hide Suspended Students in Gradebook

2014-02-10T08:33:00.000-06:00

Students who withdraw from courses after the tenth day of enrollment are suspended rather than completely withdrawn from Moodle in order to safeguard grade and attendance records. Instructors may choose to omit these students from view in the gradebook.

Navigate to Grades and select the My preferences tab, as shown below.

A new page will open. Scroll down to the General section and locate the drop down menu titled Show only active enrollments. Selecting No will display all students, including suspended students, in the gradebook. Selecting Yes will show only the students who are actively enrolled in the course. After you have made your selection, scroll to the bottom of the page and Save changes.

In order to view the records of the suspended student once again, return to the drop down menu and select No.

Update Concerning Moodle Login Notifications

2014-02-03T12:07:00.000-06:00

On Dec 27th 2013 Moodle Rooms applied a minor upgrade to our Moodle site. This upgrade crippled a process critical for the seventh and fourteenth day Moodle login notifications to function. Our institution was the first to notice this failure and alert Moodle Rooms. We have since removed the notification rules from all online courses this semester. Students did not receive the planned notification on the fourteenth day if they did not log into your course. We encourage you to monitor student progress and contact any students who have not been participating in your courses. Moodle Rooms has since fixed the issue, and we hope to utilize these notifications again next semester.

New Process for Making Moodle Course Visible to Students

2014-01-08T16:03:00.002-06:00

A new semester would not be complete without a few new changes and features to Moodle. Most important of these is the process to make your course available to students has slightly changed. You still need to go to "Edit Settings" in the course administration block, but the course available option has moved and been renamed to Visibility. See the linked PDF for directions.

Another minor change you will find is that your resource and activities settings no longer appear as a long scrolling page. Instead these settings have been collapsed into links. Click the title of the settings to see those options for the activity or resource. View the video below to see how the new feature works.

One new feature that is now available is in the Assignment Activity. Teachers can now allow individual students to resubmit an assignment before the due date. To do this, when creating a new assignment activity (or edit your existing assignments) in the submission settings section, set "Attempts reopened" setting to "Manually".

Click image to view full size.

When you are grading assignments, you can click the black arrow in the edit columns menu to see a list of options, choose "Allow another attempt."

Click image to view full size.

Keep reading our blog to learn more new features in Moodle.

Moodle Transition - SP2014

2013-12-09T08:48:00.003-06:00

Your guide to transition Moodle courses each Semester and for preparing to teach online.

IMPORTANT SEMESTER DATES

JANUARY 10 -    Students enrolled in Moodle courses
JANUARY 13 -     First day of spring semester
JANUARY 20 -    Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – no classes
MARCH 7 -     Mid-semester date, Spring Break begins at 4:30
MARCH 28 -     Last day for student-initiated withdrawal
MAY 12-16 –     Final exams
MAY 16 –     Commencement
MAY 19 –     All grades are due in the Office of Admissions and Records

TRANSITION CHECKLIST

EXPORT GRADES

From the main page of your course, click Grades in the Settings block under Course Administration.
Choose the Export tab, then Excel spreadsheet sub tab.
Under Options, click the “Include Feedback in Export” check box.
Scroll down and click submit.
Click Download and save the file to your computer or flash drive.

EXPORT ATTENDANCE

Access your attendance.
Click on the Export tab near the top.
From the Format pull-down menu, choose the file format you’d like the report exported in.
Click on the OK button.
Choose Display or Save.

IMPORT YOUR COURSE

Before the first day of class, import content into your new course shell from a previous course, if applicable. Directions can be found here.

UPDATE YOUR COURSE

Make appropriate updates to your course. To update your dated activities:

Turn editing on.
Click the Edit icon for the activity you wish to update.
Change the availability or due date and click ‘Save and Return to Course’ at the bottom.
Repeat as needed.

EMAIL NEW STUDENTS

Invite your online students into your class, using SOAR to send all of your enrolled students an introductory email. Include your contact information and Moodle login information. View a tutorial detailing how to email your online students through SOAR. You may utilize the Template for Emailing an Online Class provided in Instructor Resources for this purpose. For special instructions regarding ILCCO students, see page two of this document.

MAKE COURSE AVAILABLE TO STUDENTS

Students will not have access to your class until you make it available to them. By default, all courses created for the spring semester will be hidden from students. Follow these steps to make the course available to students.

Go into your course.
Go to ‘Edit settings’ in the Settings block under Course Administration.
Scroll down to the Availability section.
Change the availability to “This course is available to students”, and Save Changes at the bottom. View a tutorial for changing your course availability.

OTHER INFORMATION

SVCC EXEMPLARY ONLINE COURSE CHECKLIST

Use this tool to review your online course with a colleague or IT staff. The four sections of course design can be used to help you incorporate best practices in instructional strategies for online courses. http://www.svcc.edu/employees/it/resources/SVCC_Exemplary_Online_Course_Checklist.pdf

STUDENT LOGIN INFORMATION

Students’ usernames are firstname.middleinitial.lastname. For example, John Alex Smith’s username would be john.a.smith. If students do not have a middle initial in Banner it will not be part of their username. Students’ passwords start with sv followed by the last 4 digits of their Sauk ID numbers.

For example, the Sauk ID @00001234 will have the password sv1234. Printable student login information can be found at http://www.svcc.edu/students/studentlogins.pdf.

ILCCO/ICE STUDENTS

If you receive an email from the ICE system, you have a student from other Illinois community colleges in your class. This means you will need to access the ILCCO site to enter tenth day attendance, midterm grades and final grades. Let us know if you need help accessing the ILCCO site at http://ice.ilcco.net/. Please be sure to contact these students. View a tutorial detailing how to send email to the group via the ICE website. You may utilize the Moodle Email ILCCO Students Template provided on the IT website.

RESOURCES & LINKS

Moodle Course Availability

Tutorial for Emailing your class through SOAR

Templatefor Emailing an Online Class

Directions for Importing your course

Exemplary Online Course Checklist

Student Login Information

http://ice.ilcco.net/
How to Email ICE Students

Email ILCCO Students Template

Where did the Google Apps Bar Go?

2013-11-18T08:54:00.001-06:00

This week's blog post is a redirect to the official Google Search Blog.

Many of you may have noticed that your Google bar, which you used to open your calendar, Gmail, or drive is missing. (If it hasn't yet, it soon will.) It's been replaced with an Apps grid.

Read more about it here;
http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2013/09/updating-google-bar-many-products.html

Note: this is a change Google made, SVCC has no control over the change, we can't change it back.

Did you Know? - Moodle 2.0 - Joule Grader

2013-10-07T08:44:00.001-05:00

Did you know Moodle 2 has a quick and easy tool for grading Assignments and Advanced forums? The Joule Grader makes it easy to grade assignments, Advanced Forums (regular forums are not available for grading in the Joule Grader), and more - all from one screen!

To learn more, check out the images below or see more detailed information at this link: http://manuals.moodlerooms.com/display/JOULE2/Joule+Grader+Manual

Did You Know? - Moodle 2.0, Restrict Access Setting

2013-09-30T14:10:00.000-05:00

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

2013-07-08T08:57:00.000-05:00

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

2013-06-03T11:52:00.001-05:00

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!

2013-05-13T13:34:00.000-05:00

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^thin 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

2013-04-15T11:31:00.003-05:00

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

2013-04-09T15:19:00.001-05:00

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

2013-03-21T16:37:00.001-05:00

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

2013-03-04T11:38:00.001-06:00

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

2013-01-10T12:10:00.001-06:00

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!

2013-01-07T16:04:00.002-06:00

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.

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.

Flipped Learning: A Response To Five Common Criticisms

2012-11-27T10:24:00.002-06:00

If you have been reading the IS/IT Blog over the past 18 months, you have read about the flipped classroom and Eric Mazur. The response, which is linked here, does a good job of describing a balanced approach to the flipped classroom. The five common criticisms are all important for an instructor to understand and think about when considering flipping a classroom.

My own criticism of this article comes from this quote,

"To continue, we would guess that a large majority of students who do not do their work at home are not doing it because they are either bored and feel like the work is there simply to keep them busy, or they are struggling and do not understand the work."

I would not say the only reasons for students not doing work at home are boredom or lack of understanding. What do you think? Leave a comment on this post.

A few quote highlighted from the article.

"In a Flipped Learning environment, the teachers are more important than ever."

"At least in the classroom, they get some kind of interaction with me and with their peers."

"...do not replace an hour-long classroom lecture with an hour-long video."

"Make sure you provide more than just video."

"You do not have to have all of this material from the start; you can build your library over time."

"...his goal is to have the best teachers he can find teaching his students every single day."

http://novemberlearning.com/resources/articles/flipped-learning-a-response-to-five-common-criticisms-article/