Moodle Student Introduction City College Plymouth has chosen Moodle 1 as its Managed Learning Environment (MLE) to help support your learning, whatever course you are studying. Moodle courses are created by your tutors so you can access learning resources and communication facilities at any time and any place. This handout gives you a basic introduction to using Moodle. You will find it easy to use and will learn a lot more about Moodle facilities as you use it to support your studies and your learning. This handout covers: 1. Logging In, The Home Page, Update Profile 2. Accessing your course(s), The Course Page, Course Facilities 3. Opening learning resources, File Types Moodle Login Page Use your Firefox or Internet Explorer web browser to get to the City College Plymouth Moodle login page: Inside College: http://moodle Outside College:http://moodle.cityplym.ac.uk See also the Moodle links on the Intranet & the college website. Use your normal Username and Password (the one you normally use to login to the college network), although in some cases a Moodle only username and password may be issued. Username: student username e.g. abcbloggsj Password: a word e.g. compact 1 Moodle is an acronym, it stands for Modular Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment 1
If you have difficulty logging in, try the following steps: 1. Try typing your username and password again more carefully this time. 2. Contact your tutor to check you have the right details. 3. Contact Learning Resources Service Point to check you have a Moodle account. Moodle Home Page My Courses Once logged in, your name appears in the top left of your home page and there is a list of your Moodle courses in the centre of the page. If you aren t enrolled on any Moodle courses yet, you will get a list of course categories that you can browse through to find your course(s). Your tutor should have told you the course title and told/shown you where your course can be found. 2
Categories & Sub Categories Course Titles 3
Accessing Your Course(s) Course overviews show you the course title, the tutors and a brief description of the course. Click on the course title to enter the course. You should see the course page like that shown below. You might see something different (depending on how your tutor has setup your enrolment onto Moodle) see below. 4
You may need an Enrolment Key (a course specific password) to get access to your course. Your tutor will have told you what this key is. If you have problems getting into your course, contact your tutor in the first instance or call in to User Support for help. The Course Page Moodle courses come in three main formats; Weekly, Topic and Social. The Weekly Format gives dated boxes containing links to learning resources. The Topic Format gives numbered boxes containing links to learning resources. 5
The Social Format is essentially one large discussion group where students and tutors can talk about the learning activities. The top menu bar and the Jump menu help you move around different areas of the course. There are also a variety of other facilities on the course page designed to help you communicate and keep organised during your studies. For example: Latest News Upcoming Events Diary Course Notice Boards Discussion Groups Real Time Chat See Appendix 2 (page 12) for a more detailed list. Opening Learning Resources One of the main functions of Moodle is to deliver learning materials to you over the Internet so you can continue your studies and your learning outside of the classroom. In the Week or Topic section, point to and click on a resource hyperlink (see below). Depending on which internet browser you are using, either Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, the following download file options will become available. 6
Using Mozilla Firefox browser A new browser window will open and usually, a Opening box appears with 3 options: Open with I want to see the file in a new window (or print out the file). Save to Disk I want a copy of the file on my computer. Cancel I don t want to open or save the file Open with Firefox automatically chooses the system default program to open the file. If you want to open the file using another program choose it from the dropdown list. Click OK and the file (a Word document in this example) opens in a new window. You can also Save the file using the File menu in Word. Close this window to return to the course page when you have finished using the resource. Save to disk the Save As dialogue box opens so you can browse to a place on your computer to save the file. Cancel a new browser window with nothing inside it appears. Close this window to return to the course page. Or a new page with a blank frame appears. Click on the course name on the top navigation bar to return to the course. 7
Using Microsoft Internet Explorer browser A new browser window will open and usually, a File Download box appears with 3 buttons: Open I want to see the file in a new window (or print out the file). Save I want a copy of the file on my computer. Cancel I don t want to open or save the file Open the file (a Word document in this example) opens in a new window. You can also Save the file using the File menu in Word. Close this window to return to the course page when you have finished using the resource. Save the Save As dialogue box opens so you can browse to a place on your computer to save the file. Cancel a new browser window with nothing inside it appears. Close this window to return to the course page. Or a new page with a blank frame appears. Click on the course name on the top navigation bar to return to the course. 8
Note: In some cases Microsoft Office program files will open inside the Internet Explorer browser. If this occurs, the file can still be saved or printed via the file menu. File Types Anything that can be stored on a computer can be used as a learning resource within Moodle. To begin with, you may be unfamiliar with how to use some of these file types. Your tutor or the User Support staff will explain how to open, save and use the various resources that you will find on Moodle. Inside the Miscellaneous category, there is the Check Your System course for anybody to access and see if your computer is setup to open all the main file types you will come across in Moodle. This is particularly important with a noncollege computer (i.e. your PC at home, at work or in a local community centre). Appendix 1 (page 11) shows the graphics associated with the main file types on Moodle. Personal Profile Once you have accessed a course, you can edit your personal profile. Click on the Participants link in the People box (usually at the top left of the course page). You will see a list of staff and students on the course and a link to their Profile. Clicking on your own profile link gives 3 buttons: Profile Edit Profile Forum Posts On the Edit Profile page, there are a number of text boxes and drop menus for you to update. You can even upload a picture to go with your profile. 9
The End Beginning. This handout has only just started you on the road of using Moodle to support your own learning. With practice, you will become confident and competent when using this new Learning Technology. We hope you enjoy using Moodle and are very keen to hear from you about your experiences (good and not so good) of using Moodle in your studies and learning. Please send any feedback to: Moodle Admin (moodle@cityplym.ac.uk) 10
Appendix 1: Common File Types Image File Type Extension Comments MS Word doc, xls, mdb Works well if you have MS Office or MS Works on your PC. Other business software may not be able to open this file format. MS PowerPoint ppt, pps Portable Document Format Pdf World Wide Website htm, html, shtml, asp, xml, php, jsp etc General various Image jpg, jpeg, gif, png Audio Wav, mid, mp3 Video mpeg, avi, mov Compressed File zip Flash Directory You will need MS Office on your PC to run these presentations. A common file type on the Internet. Get the Adobe Reader free from http://www.adobe.com/ to open and print these files. You will need a web browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera etc) to see these web pages. You may also need to download plug in software to view some web page components. Other file types not recognised by Moodle. All these formats open in Paint or Windows XP Picture and Fax Viewer. You will need audio software to hear these sound files. You will need video software to see and hear these video files. These ZIP files should be de compressed or un zipped into a folder to see what files they contain. Use WinZip or Windows XP Compressed Folder etc to do this. Multimedia technology developed by Macromedia to allow much interactivity to fit in a relatively small file size. The Flash player plugin will run the Flash file inside the Internet browser. Follow on screen prompts. Contains course files of any format for you to browse and open/save. 11
Appendix 2: Moodle Activity Images Image Activity Comments Forum (Discussion Group) You can post messages or reply to messages from other students on any day or time. Remember to visit the Forum regularly to see what s being said and to have your say too. Chat This is real time text based conversation. For a chat session, everyone has to be online at the same time sessions are held on specific dates and times. Quiz A question set created by your tutor and marked automatically. These can be for self assessment or as end of topic tests. Assignment This facility allows you to upload your assignment to Moodle for marking. Tutor feedback on your work and a grade are shown in your personal Grade Book. Choice A type of voting system where the opinions of all students on the course can be collected for specific questions. Journal This is a space private to you and your tutor where you can reflect on specific study activities or on your learning in general. Glossary A list of words and acronyms along with their meaning or definition. Some can be created by the student group themselves. Lesson A series of information pages followed by a question or a set of choices. The route through the lesson depends on how you answer the questions and the choices you make. Wiki This facility allows a group to collaboratively create a web based information site where all contributions, editing and updates are tracked. Workshop Tutors can set up a situation where students act as tutors to mark their own and other students work according to set criteria. Learning Survey One of three surveys that look at your attitude and approach to using online resources for learning. NLN Object National Learning Network ready made learning materials. They run inside your Internet browser and usually contain a high level of interactivity. Follow on screen prompts. SCORM A structured module of learning materials containing a range of media. May also include 12
Book Schedulers quizzes which results will be stored in your grade book. An online book complete with pages and table of contents. Use the arrows to navigate from page to page or the links to jump chapters. Use this activity to book your own tutorial slot. Choose from the dates and times listed on the page. 13