MOODLE 2.7 WHAT S NEW? INTRODUCTION The recent update of our LMS, Moodle, sees some upgrades and minor changes to interface, functionality, and tools. This document outlines some of the changes in version 2.7.3 including: Slight modifications to user interface Changes to conditional release and group submissions Added Turnitin functions New assignment workflow functions, and Blackboard Collaborate integration INTERFACE Previously, the Edit options were listed in a row next to your activity or resource. Now to edit an activity or resource, click on Edit and the options will be listed in a drop down menu. There has also been the minor addition of a full text- edit toolbar in Adding a new Label to a Subject. Page 1 of 7
CONDITIONAL RELEASE Conditional release is a feature that enables a teacher to release resources and activities for their students based on certain criteria such as date, grade received, or participation. You can now use all conditions to restrict access, and if your conditions are more complex you can use a set of nested restrictions to achieve this. You also have the option to have students meet one or more restrictions you set. To restrict access: 1. Select and add relevant details to your activity or resource within chosen subject 2. Click the Restrict access expandable subheading (you may need to scroll down before being able to see it) 3. A pop up window will appear and you have some options: a. Click the relevant restriction you wish to add, or b. Click Restriction set to enable nested restrictions To set one restriction: 1. Select your restriction (e.g. Date, Grade, or another restriction option) 2. In the dropdown menu, select whether students must or must not match the restriction (e.g. to access a forum, the student must have met a minimum grade requirement, or must not be part of a specific group) Page 2 of 7
To set multiple restrictions, or nested restrictions : 1. Select Restriction set in the popup window 2. In the dropdown menus select the restrictions you wish to set 3. Select whether students must meet any of the set restrictions (e.g. students can access a forum if they meet a minimum grade requirement) or whether they must meet all of the set restrictions (e.g. students can access a forum as long as it s before a certain date and they meet a minimum grade requirement) Page 3 of 7
TURNITIN Turnitin can now be integrated with assignments and forums, and can be used for submission of group assignments. There are added functionalities including the ability to add a rubric and submission date at the time of setup, and to allow peer review/marking called Peermark. To create a Turnitin Assignment: 1. Go to relevant subject area and click the turn editing on button 2. In your topic/subject, select add an activity or resource. A popup window will appear 3. Select Assignment and click Add 4. Enter a title, description, and when submissions open and close 5. Select the submission type (we recommend file upload, as students may lose work if they type it directly into the text field) 6. Select Overall Grade from the drop down menu 7. Select whether students can view originality reports 8. Finalise other relevant assignment details and click save and return to subject or save and display Do not enable late submissions as the student will receive an error message. This issue will be fixed in a future update. To include Turnitin when you create a Forum: 1. Go to the relevant subject area, and click the turn editing on button 2. In your topic/subject select add an activity or resource. A popup window will appear 3. Select Forum and click Add 4. Enter relevant Forum details such as name, description, and forum type 5. Click the expandable subheading, Turnitin plagiarism plugin settings 6. Under the Enable Turnitin option, select Yes from the dropdown menu 7. Finalise other Forum requirements, click save and display to preview the Forum, or Save and return to subject To allow Turnitin submissions for group assignments: 1. Go to the relevant subject area, and click the turn editing on button 2. In your topic/subject, select add an activity or resource. A popup window will appear 3. Select Assignment (usually the first option) and click Add 4. Enter relevant assignment details such as name, description, due date 5. Under the submission types box, you will see a number of expandable subheadings. Click on Group submission settings 6. Under the Students submit in groups option, select Yes from the drop down menu 7. Click on the Turnitin plagiarism plugin settings expandable subheading 8. Under the Enable Turnitin option select Yes from the dropdown menu Page 4 of 7
9. Finalise other assignment details and click Save and display or save and return to project To attach a rubric to an assignment: 1. 1. Follow steps 1 to 6 of To create a Turnitin Assignment 2. Under the Turnitin plagiarism plug in settings expandable subheading, select your rubric from the Attach a rubric to this assignment drop down menu, or 3. If no rubric has been created, click on the Launch Rubric Manager link below the drop down menu. This will bring up a popup window: 4. You then have two options: a. To create a new rubric: i. Click on the menu button in the top left of the popup window: ii. Select Create new rubric. You can then type in scales, descriptions, and criteria b. To import a rubric: i. Click the button in the top right of the popup window: ii. Select import, and follow the instructions Page 5 of 7
MARKING WORKFLOW FOR ASSIGNMENTS Moodle now allows multiple Marking Workflow states for assignments, a Marking Allocation feature to assign grading to other teachers, a search function for the individual states, and the ability to batch release all students grades at once. Marking Workflow indicates what stage you are at in the grading of individual assignments, and sets different states for different students. This has the advantage of hiding grades from students until they are set to Released, and makes clear what stage of marking another allocated teacher is up to. Allowing Marking Allocation means that teachers can be selected to grade or review the submitted work of specific students. Colleagues can then monitor progress of grading through the displayed marking workflow states previously mentioned. The available Workflow States are: - Not Marked (not yet started) - In marking (marking has started but not completed) - Marking completed (marking finished but may need checking/corrections) - In review (suggested grading with head teacher for quality check) - Ready for release (suggested grading is accepted but not ready to be released) - Released (student can access grades/feedbacks) To allow marking workflow and marking allocation: 1. Select and add relevant details to your activity or resource within chosen subject 2. Click on the expandable subheading Grade 3. Select the dropdown menu for Use marking workflow and click Yes 4. Select the dropdown menu for Use marking allocation and click Yes 5. Finalise the activity or resource details and save Page 6 of 7
BLACKBOARD COLLABORATE INTEGRATION Moodle has integrated Blackboard Collaborate as an activity. This means you can add and manage your own sessions form the Add an activity or resource window in the relevant subject. To add a Collaborate session: 1. Go to the relevant subject area, and click the turn editing on button 2. In your topic/subject, select add an activity or resource. 3. In the popup window, select Blackboard Collaborate 4. Enter the relevant details (name, description) and enter the start and end time of the sessions 5. Select other settings such as Recording mode or conditional release 6. Click save and return to subject or save and display This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial- ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Page 7 of 7