Introduction to Moodle: Lesson 1 Setting Up a Course Homepage Browser Choice: PC: Firefox or Internet Explorer Mac: Firefox. Do not use Safari, because some screens do not display correctly You will have access to Moodle through mywofford. Click on the Moodle.Wofford.edu link in the Systems Links channel under the Terriers tab. You also can reach the Moodle site directly with the URL http://moodle.wofford.edu. You will see an overview of the courses you are teaching. Only one is listed in the example here, but you probably will see more. Initially, the text will be in a light gray font. Click on the name of a course you want to set up in Moodle. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 1 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
The Course Homepage At the beginning, your course Homepage will look something like this. The Homepage has three columns: Left: Menus Center: Course Information Right: Miscellaneous In the first part of this lesson, we will concentrate on adding course information in the center section. Setting Up Your Course The first thing you need to do is set up your course. Click on Settings in the Administration menu. This will bring you to an Edit Course Settings page. Most of the course already will be set up. Here are some things you might want to change. You may want to change from a Topics format to a Weekly format. (see the next page) The Course start date probably will have been set to the first day of the term. You can change the start date if you like. You may want to set the course up so that the students do not see the gradebook at first. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 2 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
One of your choices will be to arrange your Moodle course Homepage with a weekly or topics format. The default setting is topics. If you choose Topics, the blocks in the center section will correspond to the number of topics you specify (15 by default). If you choose Weekly, the center section of the Homepage will be divided into blocks, each corresponding to one week of the course. We will use the Weekly format in these lessons. You can use either a topics or weekly format for your courses. You also can specify the number of topics or weeks. If you plan on using the gradebook, you may want to leave Show gradebook to students set to Yes. You can change this to No if you do not want to show the gradebook until later in the term. Finally, all courses are initially set up so they will be unavailable to students. I generally leave the Moodle page for a course as unavailable until I have the page set up. To make your course available in Moodle, change Availability to This course is available to students. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 3 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
When a course has been made available to students, the font for the course description in your overview of courses will change from light gray to black. Click on Save Changes when you are finished. In these lessons, the Homepage shows a weekly outline beginning on June 1 because I used a Weekly Format and June 1 as the starting date Metacourses If you teach only one section of a course, you may skip this part. If you teach two sections of the same course, you should read the below. A metacourse is the way to go for multiple sections. A metacourse is a combined course page to be used when you have more than one section of the same course. Instead of duplicating information on separate Moodle pages for the two sections, you can use the metacourse page as a combined course page for both sections. All information that is shared by the two sections can be entered once on the combined course page. An example might be the Bio 150 sections. Suppose there are three Bio 150 sections in Moodle (150A, 150B, and 150C). Jason Womick can set up a metacourse named Bio 150 Meta, with the three sections as children. All students in the three Bio 150 sections automatically become students in the Bio 150 Meta course. Almost all of the information for the course then can be entered once on the Bio 150 Meta page. When I teach two sections, I use the metacourse Moodle page for all information except the gradebook. It simplifies transferring grades at mid-term and the end of the term if the gradebooks for the two sections are separate. Jason Womick will be glad to set up a metacourse for you. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 4 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
Adding Information to the Course Homepage At the beginning, the Miscellaneous column on the right probably shows the latest news, upcoming events, and a log of recent activity. Let s make some changes in this column. Click on the Turn editing on button in the upper right of the Moodle window. Adding General Information Now, let s move to the center column that contains specific information about your course. First we will put in the course s title and brief description. With editing on, click on the text edit icon under Weekly outline. In the text editing workspace, enter the name of the course. Designate it as the largest heading, Heading 1, and Center the text. Click on Save changes when you are finished. The name of the course will be surrounded by a gray rectangle. Text that has been set up with Heading 1 size will be surrounded by this rectangle for emphasis. If you don t want the rectangle, you can specify the size of the text without specifying that it is Heading 1. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 5 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
You also can add some descriptive text below the tile, if you so desire. This text would have Normal size. Adding an Image Suppose you would like to add an image. You want the picture to be placed to the left of the descriptive text. Position the cursor to the left of the word This. Click on the insert image icon above the text editing workspace. In the Insert Image window that appears, click on Browse to find the image. When you have found the image, click on Upload. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 6 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
At this point, you should see the name of the image in the File Browser window, in this particular case, Internet_Visualization.gif (#1 in the picture on the right). You can specify various properties of the image: border thickness, alignment, and white space around the image, if you like. 1. Double-click on the name of the image 2. This will add its URL to the Image URL text box. 3. Enter alternate text for the image in the Alternate text box. 4. Choose a number for the Border thickness (in pixels). I usually choose 1. 5. Specify the Alignment of the image. I have selected Left to align the image to the left of the text. 6. Specify the Spacing. This is the blank space that will be left around the picture, so that the text will not be placed right next to the picture. I usually choose 5 to 10 for both the horizontal and vertical spacing. 7. The Size of the picture is given in pixels. You can change this if you want. Click OK when you are finished. You should see the picture displayed below the text. You may need to move the text down a row to position it below the top of the picture. Save your changes. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 7 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
Posting a Document You probably will want to post documents such as a syllabus or course schedule to the Course Homepage. In the Add a resource menu, select Link to a file or web site. In the next screen do two things: Enter the name you want to give the document, for example Syllabus, in the text box. Click on Choose or upload a file Click on Upload a file in the next window. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 8 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
In the following window, browse to the file you want and click on Upload this file. Finally, choose the document you have selected. You now should see the name of the file in the location: text box. Click on Save and return to course. A link to the document now will be on the Homepage. You can post any kind of file: Word, Excel, PDF, PowerPoint, audio, video, etc. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 9 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
Linking to a Web Site You also can add a link to an external web site. Let s add a link to the Honor Code on the Wofford web site: http://www.wofford.edu/uploadedfiles/studentlife/0708honorcode.pdf From the Add a resource menu select Link to a file or web site. Type in Honor Code as the name. If you so desire, you may add a summary in the Summary text editing workspace. Enter or paste in the URL of the Honor Code web page in the Location text box. Click on Save and return to course at the bottom of the page. You will see a link to the Honor Code on the course Homepage Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 10 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
Posting News or an Announcement If you would like to post a general news item or an announcement, click on the News Forum link that is already on the Course Homepage. NOTE: If you are practicing with Moodle while you build your page for a course, you probably do not want to send automatic email messages to your students when you post an announcement. See the Appendix on how to NOT force everyone to be subscribed. You can change this when you are ready to use the Course Homepage for real. Click on Add a new topic Enter a Subject and some text describing the news or announcement in the Message text editing workspace. The text can include a hyperlink to an external web page on the subject. To insert a hyperlink, select the text that will be hyperlinked, click on the hyperlink icon, and enter the URL of the external web page When you click on Post to forum, you will see it in the list of discussions. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 11 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
On the example course page, you also will see the forum you have posted listed under Latest News. Adding a Label for a Week or Topic One of the first things we may want to do is add a title to first week or topics block. Choose the Insert a Label resource in the week or topic block you want. Make sure you use the Add a resource menu under the topic or the week you want. Enter the subject for the week or topic in the Label text text editing workspace here I simply used Example: Week #1. Center the text and designate it as Heading 3 in size. When you click on Save and return to the course, you should see the label. With editing turned off, it will look like this. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 12 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
Moving an Item What if, perish the thought, you make a mistake and place a resource in the wrong section? For example, suppose that you chose the upper resource drop-down menu and put the label in the upper section rather than under the first week. We want to move this label down. This is easy to do. Move the cursor over the four-way arrow icon in the editing row below the label. When you do, the cursor will change into a larger four-way arrow shape. Hold the mouse button down and drag the label where you want it, Drop it in place. (In my experience, this takes a little practice.) You now should see the label in the correct place. Adding a Text Page An alternative to posting information in a document, such as a Word or PDF file, is to post it on a text page. Let s post a text page in the first weekly block. In the Add a resource menu, select Compose a text page. Enter the Name of the text page. Note that the first text editing workspace is for a summary of the resource. The text that will go on the text page is entered below in the Compose a text page section. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 13 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
When you have added the text, click on Save and return to course. The text page link will be in the first weekly block where you placed it. You will see the text on the page if you click on the link. The summary will be displayed if you click on the Resources link in the Activities menu Hiding an Item from Students As a teacher, you would like to see recent activity in your Moodle course, but may not want students to see it. In the Recent Activity block, click on the open eye icon in the editing icons row below Recent Activity. This will close the eye. A closed eye indicates that the students cannot see this information. Switching to a Student Role A quick way to view a page as a student will see it is to switch your role. Click on Switch role to... and select Student. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 14 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
When you are ready, click on Return to my normal role to see the Teacher s view again. If you switch to the Student role, it will turn editing off. You will need to Turn editing on again when you return to your normal role. Adding a Block in the Miscellaneous Column Let s add a calendar in the right-hand miscellaneous column. Under Blocks, click on Add and select Calendar. You will see a calendar at the bottom of the column. Moving a Block in the Miscellaneous Column Let s make the calendar more prominent by moving it to the top of the column. If you move the cursor over the shaded area at the top of the calendar block, the cursor will change its shape into four arrows. If you hold down the mouse button, you can drag the cursor to where you want and then drop it. Drag the calendar to the top of the column. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 15 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
Deleting a Block in the Miscellaneous Column To avoid clutter, you may want to remove block(s) from the Miscellaneous column. In editing mode, clicking on the X icon in a block s editing row will delete the block from the column. Showing Only One Week or Topic One problem with Moodle course pages is that a long list of weeks or topics with many activities can produce a very long web page. Because scrolling up and down a long web page can be a lot of trouble, you or your students may want to hide weeks before and after the current week. In the non-editing mode, clicking on the Show One Week icon for a given week will hide all weeks except that one. Hiding a Week from the Students You may not want your students to see the activities awaiting them in future weeks. If not, with editing on, click on the open eye icon in the week blocks you do not want them to see. Clicking on the open eye icon will close the eye. Clicking on the closed eye icon will open it again. The students will see Not available by the dates of the weeks you have hidden. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 16 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
Moodle Docs Moodle is very well documented. If you have a question about an individual setting you can click on the question mark icon beside the drop-down list for the setting. If you want more information about the settings on the page, click on Moodle Docs for this page, which will be found at the bottom of the page. I have found this information to be extensive and quite useful. The Moodle Gradebook Although it is not absolutely necessary, it is useful to start setting up the Moodle gradebook for your course early in the process. See Lesson #2 for instructions on setting up a Gradebook in Moodle. Recording Attendance To set Moodle up so that you can record attendance, in the section at the top of the page, click on Add an activity and then Attendance. If you have set the Moodle gradebook up with Graded and Nongraded categories do the following: In the Grade category menu, choose Nongraded if you do not plan on including attendance in the grading for the course. Grades if you plan on including attendance in the grading for the course. Save and return to the course. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 17 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
In this example, I have chosen to record attendance, but not include it in the grading. You now will see Attendance included in the list of links in the weekly outline. Click on the Attendance link. You will be told that no session exists for the course. To add sessions, click on the Add tab. Under Create multiple sessions, enter the start and end dates of your course. Suppose that your course meets on MWF from June 1 through July 30. Enter this information and click on Add multiple sessions. If you click back on the Attendance tab, you will see that the dates for the class have been filled in. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 18 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
NOTE: When you click back on the Attendance tab, if you still see a No Session exists for this course message, then do the following. If you still see No session exists for the course, you need to change the Course start date in the Settings for the course. Click on Settings in the Administration menu. Change the Course start date as described on page 2 of this lesson. You also can set up nonregular single class sessions a field trip for example. You can specify the number of points you want to give for attendance under the Settings tab. You can give a grade of 0 for all categories if you don t want attendance to count toward the points in the course. When you are ready to take attendance, click on the Attendance link, the Attendance tab, and the green circle by the class session you want. Fill in the attendance and click on OK. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 19 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
Note: An easy way to record attendance is to click on the P link, which will record all students in the class as present. Then you can change the few who are absent, late, or excused. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 20 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+
Appendix: News Forum Forcing Everyone to be Subscribed The default setting on the News Forum is to force everyone to be subscribed to the forum. This means that all users will be sent an email message whenever you post an announcement on the forum. Forcing everyone to be subscribed may be a good thing when you are using the News Forum as part of your class you probably want your students to be aware an announcement has been posted. On the other hand, it is not a good thing if you are testing your Course Homepage as you develop it prior to the course. While you are testing your Course Homepage, I would recommend turning this feature off. With editing turned on, click on the Edit icon beside the News forum. In the Updating page, change Force everyone to be subscribed to No. Save and return to the course. When you are ready to use your Course Homepage, you can change this option back to Yes. Moodle Lesson 1 Homepage 21 Version: Moodle 1.9.5+