How-To Guide for Online Training

Transcription

1 How-To Guide for Online Training

2 Where to Go to Class CASAS Online Self-Paced Courses are delivered using The online self-paced courses developed by CASAS are made possible through the course management delivery system called Moodle. Moodle is an e-learning software platform designed to provide a virtual learning environment. CASAS is using Moodle to provide more opportunities for training to maintain the integrity and quality of the assessment process. These online self-paced courses are open-entry/open-exit; therefore, participants may join a course anytime and complete the course at their own pace within 30 days of the specified date range the course is available. Each course provides a Certificate of Completion, Training Verification and Training Evaluation. Training required by CASAS includes a Certification activity. If this is your first course using Moodle, CASAS recommends that you prepare for online learning by reading through this document to make the most of your online training experience. If you have any questions before you begin your online training, please contact CASAS at or and ask to speak to a Distance Training Representative or send an at training@casas.org. Aims and Objectives of the Moodle How-To Guide Aim To provide an introduction to using an online learning environment. Objectives After reading this guide you will be able to: Navigate around the course. Identify the key elements of the guide i.e. Topics, Blocks, Activities, Resources. Interact in the forums and with other participants Edit your profile. 2

3 Introduction This guide assumes that you have at least a basic knowledge of how to use a computer including using input devices like a mouse and a keyboard. In addition, it is assumed that you are familiar with your web browser and navigating between pages on the Internet or an Intranet. In this guide, you will be introduced to the basics of participating in an online course. Keep this document handy as you may need to refer to it at any time throughout the course. An online version of this guide is also available within the course itself. The actual appearance of the course on-screen is governed by settings on your own computer. As a result, the examples you see in this document may be slightly different to that which is displayed on your computer monitor. Please follow the steps presented in this guide in the order shown until you have completed the section on basic navigation. Entering the course Web site 1. Go to the CASAS Professional Development Web site address: 3

4 2. Select the CASAS online course for which you are registered. a. When you first access the course page, you will see a list of the courses on the site. b. Find the course in which you are registered (for additional information click on the information icon). c. When you are confident you have the correct course, click on the text of the course's title 3. You are taken momentarily to the CASAS Web site to log on with your CASAS user account. a. The username and password will be those you specified when you created your user account on the CASAS Web site. 4. After your account is confirmed, you are returned to the training Web site. 4

5 5. You are now enrolled in the course for which you are registered. 6. When returning to the course, repeat these steps. Entering the course In this section, we will take a quick tour of the course environment. The course title is shown in the navigation bar in the top left-hand part of the screen. In these examples, we will be using the "CASAS IIT course. Getting Started In the top right-hand corner you will see something like the following: This shows your username (in this example, Professional Development is the username). If you click on the username, you will display your own profile where you can enter information about yourself. In addition, the word "Logout" is displayed. If you click on this, you will exit both the course and the site. Basic Navigation There are a number of ways to move around the course. 5

6 "Breadcrumb" trail this is a menu positioned below the course title which shows your position in the course. The notes below the following breadcrumbs example will make this clearer. o CASAS Training: Clicking on this would take you to the screen which displays all of the courses on the site. o CASAS - IIT: This is the shortened name for this course, clicking on this would take you to the main course page. o News Forum Start Here!: This is where you will want to begin your training course. Clicking on this would display the general news forum in this course. o Navigating through this course is easy : This is in a different color and indicates that this is the activity currently being viewed. The above is only one example of how the breadcrumbs trail may appear. Keep any eye on this as you navigate around the course, you will notice that it changes to reflect your current position. Another method for navigating may be found at the foot of each screen or activity. This takes the form of a text link which will take you to either the home page of the site (where all the courses are listed) or the main screen of your course. The link will either display the word used to describe the homepage of the site i.e. Home" in the example to the right or the shortened name of the course in the example on the left, "CASAS IIT, for the "CASAS Initial Implementation Training" course. Text links are used extensively in courses and are used for a number of purposes in addition to navigation e.g. display information, turn options on or off. 6

7 While in a course activity, you may move to another unit, activity or resource in the course by means of the following: Clicking the down arrow for a drop-down list will allow you to select from the complete list, in topic order, and navigate directly to your selection. Note that if you use the above or click on the "Home" or shortened course name links to navigate to another area of the course; your input may not be saved. To avoid this, always ensure that you complete what you are doing within the activity first e.g. post to a forum, save changes. Throughout the Web site and course, you will encounter text which changes color and becomes underlined when you move your on-screen cursor over it. These are text links which, when clicked, will take you to whatever is described in the linked text. Finally, it is possible to navigate between Web pages by using the navigation buttons on your web browser. This is not recommended; you will obtain more consistent results by using the navigation options within the training Web site and course pages. The main course page is divided into a number of specific areas which you will encounter often (although not necessarily always as mentioned above). An overview of these is given in the following sections. Section Topics Section topics reside in the center of the course main page. It is in the sections that topics, activities, etc., are placed which make up the online elements of your course. The column of sections may vary in appearance depending on how a course is designed. Course sections, or units, are identified by a descriptive name. The example shown on the next page has two sections, CASAS Initial Implementation Training and About This Training. 7

8 For the first two types of sections in the example shown above, it is possible to focus on one section only and to access the other sections by selecting from a drop-down list. This can make navigation more convenient where there are many sections in a course. To achieve this, click on the square at the right edge of the section area you want displayed, see below. This will collapse the remaining sections leaving just one in view. When clicked, the Jump to menu allows you select other sections to view. The process may be reversed by clicking one of the two squares now displayed at the right of the section area. CASAS RECOMMENDS FOR EASE IN NAVIGATING THROUGH THIS COURSE TO VIEW IN COLLAPSED FORM. 8

9 Blocks Blocks are on screen areas which are placed at the side of the main course page. They fulfill a range of functions as described below. The People block provides links to a list of all participants in the course by clicking Participants. The Upcoming Events block displays together with links to view the calendar and to create a new event in the calendar. The Activities block displays all of the available activity types in the course. Clicking on the text to the right of the activity icon will display a list of all available activities of that type. The Calendar block provides a calendar function for the course. The Administration block allows you to edit your profile or change your password. This block also links you to your activity within the course. You may also send and receive messages from within the course. The My courses block displays the courses in which you are enrolled and provides a link to a list of all courses on the site. The Search Forums block can be used to search for text amongst forum entries in the course. 9

10 Course Content Each course contains various topics and resources which you will need to access throughout your training. These can take various forms e.g. Web pages, Acrobat pdf files, Microsoft PowerPoint animation, or video, to name a few. Topics and resources are accessed by clicking the text link. If you look at the section titled About This Training, you will see a number of topics; the first one in this example is about Your Training Materials. Open each topic and resource to see what they contain, returning to the course each time to Jump To the next section Forums Forums are a powerful communication tool within the Moodle hosted course. Think of them as online message boards where you post replies to discussion questions. Forums are the primary tool for online discussion and are the central organizing feature in the social course format. Forums allow you to communicate at any time, from anywhere with an Internet connection. Participants do not have to be logged in at the same time to communicate. All training courses have two forums, a News Forum for general information and a Learning Forum where discussion takes place in an asynchronous setting. Please check the News Forum regularly for general news and announcements throughout the course. You are encouraged to participate in the Learning Forum discussions as you complete the course. By default, everyone enrolled in the course is Subscribed to all forums. You may opt out of forums at anytime by selecting either Unsubscribe from this forum, or Unsubscribe from all forums. Edit your Profile Moodle presents you with your personal profile page at the time you enroll in the course. You may edit your profile at anytime. You may see your profile summary and the last time you logged in by going to the Administration Block and clicking on Profile. Across the top of your profile summary you will see a number of tabs. As you begin to participate in forums and other activities, these tabs give you access to your contributions on the site. Below your profile summary are buttons to change your password and to open the messages window. 10

11 Take a moment and edit your profile to customize the page and help others get to know you. To edit your profile: select the Edit profile tab in your personal profile page. The edit profile page will look like the example shown above. Important Notes: Upload a New Picture Time Zone: The time zone setting can be very important, especially if you are participating with an international audience or if you will be traveling. Be sure to set the time zone to your local time, not the server s local time. Screen reader: Selecting this option lets Moodle know you are using a screen reader. This will change the layout of Moodle pages to make it easier for the screen reader to interact with Moodle. 1. Prepare the picture you want to use by converting it to a JPG or PNG if you haven t already. It should be smaller than the maximum upload size. 2. Click the Browse button and locate your prepared picture. Then click Choose in the dialogue box. 3. Click the Update profile button at the bottom of the page. Moodle will crop your picture into a square and shrink it to pixels. 11

12 4. Enter a description of your picture for the benefit of anyone using a screen reader. Moodle provides you with a number of ways to personalize your experience and share information about yourself with other people. Your profile will be linked to your forum posts and other contributions around the site. The picture from your profile will be your icon, so pick something that represents who you are on the Moodle site or a shot of your good side. Now, you are ready to begin the course! If you have any questions before you begin your online training, please contact CASAS at or and ask to speak to a Distance Training Representative or send an at training@casas.org. CASAS Contact Information Mail: CASAS 5151Murphy Canyon Rd., Suite 220 San Diego, CA Web site: Telephone: or FAX: General questions: casas@casas.org CASAS Web site: webmaster@casas.org TOPSpro software: topspro@casas.org CASAS training: training@casas.org Thank you for your participation in a CASAS Online Self-Paced Course using Moodle! 12