Teacher Facilitator Manual for the UBIS Moodle Website

The new UBIS website URL is http://ubis.urantia.org/moodle/ ALL students of UBIS must first be registered on this site. When you register, you will set up a permanent account which will allow you to take courses now and in the future using the same login user name and password. (Be sure to record your user name and password for future reference.) To Register Type the above URL into your browser and click Enter on your keyboard. You will find yourself on the main UBIS page. If the page is not appearing in your preferred language, you can change it by selecting your language (currently English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese) from the drop down menu in the upper right.

Click on Login. (Note: You can click on this in either of two places - in the upper right corner of the screen or in the gray menu bar. See above) You will be directed to a screen that allows you to login to an existing account [Returning to this web site?] or register for the first time [Is this your first time here?] Click on the Create new account button on the right side of your screen.

You will be directed to a screen that displays a set of fields to fill out. (see below) Enter the requested information and click on Create my new account at the bottom of the form. (Note: Please double check your email address to ensure accuracy) Note: all three boxes containing the red headings must be completed before you can proceed. Be sure to click on the pulldown menu labeled "choose" and select from the list the one that most accurately describes the extent of your experience in reading The Urantia Book. The HTML choice is optional.

The website will send you a confirmation email. In that email is a link you must click in order to confirm your email address and UBIS account. (If you don’t receive it, be sure to check your Spam folder.) You are now registered permanently on the UBIS website. In the future, you will only need to login using your username and password.

Entering your course During the two-week enrollment period is an excellent time to complete the following course preparation: posting your brief biographical introduction, the course introduction, the four individual period introductions, the reading assignments for each period and the six questions for each of the four periods. Each time you login, as a teacher, the UBIS home page will appear on which is printed in large bold print, "My Courses" located in the lower central region of the screen.

Note – your course is also listed on the left side in the “My Courses” block. Click on the name of your course or the book icon to the left and you will be taken to the next screen that displays a template of your entire course, including Orientation Week, the four periods each consisting of a Response Week and a Discussion Week, and ending with Summary Week.

Note – the exact text might be different when you open your course. In addition you will see an outline of the course format on the left. This allows you to quickly go to any part of your course without scrolling. On the right are blocks that show recent course activity. This will help you and your students see any changes at a glance.

To enable editing in order to enter your course material, click on "turn editing on" in the upper right corner (highlighted in yellow above). This will display toolbars for all the sections of the course you will be changing and let you enter your own course material.

With editing enabled, toolbars appear next to all the course elements.

From left to right, these icons are used to change the name, indent, move (up or down or to another weekly section), edit (the wrench), duplicate, delete, eye (hide/show), group (not used by UBIS), permissions (not used by UBIS). Note that there is a wrench near the top of each section with no other tool icons with it – this is used to edit the text in that section.

Another key tool is the eye. This is used to hide or show a section or course element. Every Sunday you will need to connect and show the next section of the course. You can also hide a previous section so that the students don’t have to scroll so much for the current section. You should also make sure that each element in the week is also visible. Most of the time you will click on the wrench to enter your course material.

For example in the first weekly section (“January 5-January 11”) above, click on the wrench following the text. Moodle will open an edit window. The edit window allows one to type text and do simple formatting. This section is where you can type your course introduction. End with instructions to the student to fill out the personal introduction and answer the roll call.

When finished, click “save changes.” You do not need to edit the personal introduction or roll call, however you should post a personal introduction so your students can get to know you.

Click on Personal Introduction (not the wrench, directly on “Personal Introduction”) and then click on Reply in the subsequent window. Type your bio, select if you want email messages when students post or reply, and then hit “post to forum.” Your students will be able to read your introduction and reply with their own.

After entering the course introduction, and posting your personal introduction, you can start editing the questions for the first study week. You may now proceed to enter your six questions by first clicking on the wrench associated with each question, typing in the question and then clicking on the "display" box followed by clicking on the "save and return to course." In each case your question will be displayed in the appropriate space. If you do not check the "display" box, your question will be hidden until you display it by checking the box. (The box might have already been checked for you – you can tell depending on whether the question text appears on the course page or not.)

Your question text will appear in the course section. (See the previous screen shots of the course home page.) To summarize – at this point you’ve enabled editing, you’ve changed the text for Orientation Week to include a course summary and goals, you’ve posted your personal introduction to the personal introduction discussion, and you’ve inserted your questions into the next section of the course. At the start of the course be sure to login and show the first course section by clicking on the eye icon. During the enrollment period, the registrar will send you the list of students who have been enrolled in your course. The students will also be informed that they have been accepted. Orientation Week is the opportunity for you to become acquainted with each of your students and for them to learn to know each other. It is also a time of orientation to the UBIS program and the time to become familiar with the website. It is also very important to post and send a series of messages during this week. These should be posted in the “Announcement” discussion group at the very top of the course home page. This will automatically notify the students by email that there is a message for them to read. Sample messages to send during Orientation Week appear in Appendix A of this manual. During Orientation Week you will also be reading the student postings in the personal introduction, and also checking the roll call results. Note – you can read the personal introductions and check the roll call results whether you have editing turned on or off.

To check the roll call results, click on the icon to the right of roll call, or on the words “roll call.”

From this screen you can select “Analysis” to show a summary of the responses, “Show responses” to list the students, and “Show non-respondents” to show students who haven’t responded yet.

The Analysis tab lists all responses. The first question should be 100% yes – if the student is answering the roll call, they are in the course. The question here is simply to track who has answered. If anyone answers “Yes” to “Do you need help with technical issues?” then their question will be shown. Click on the “Show Responses” tab to list the students and you can click on a name to see the details. (You can also count the tick marks on this page, for example the fourth student to answer wrote “First post attempt here failed….” On the Show responses page the fourth student in the list is the one with the question.

Finally the “Show non-respondents” tab lists students who have not yet responded. You can select individual students, or “Select all,” then type a message below and hit “send” to send those students an email message. You should keep track of how many students haven’t answered the Roll Call or entered their Personal Introduction and reach out to them towards the end of the week if they haven’t yet connected. Late in Orientation Week, such as Friday or Saturday morning, if there are students who have not entered their Personal Introductions or answered the Roll Call, you should reach out to them and inquire as to the reason and offer assistance if needed. It is an excellent practice to send reminders throughout the remainder of the course if students are tardy in completing assignments. It is also important to inquire as to extenuating circumstances such as illness, family emergencies, or work related issues, that interfere with their completing an assignment. This should then be reported to the registrar to avoid problems for that student when enrolling in future UBIS courses. In addition to checking the roll call, you will be posting messages to the Announcements forum during Orientation Week. These messages are included in Appendix A.

Response Week

During the Response Week the students read passages as directed by the TF and answer three of the six questions you entered into the system. This chapter of the manual will cover how to review the questions and post them to the discussion forum for the following week. From your course page you will need to click on each of the questions.

You will see the text of the question and a summary of how many people answered that question. Tip: you can do this during the week to see how the students are progressing on answering the questions Note: in your course you won’t see an answer to the question on the screen at this point. For these screen captures one account is being used as both student and teacher, so it shows that example answer. When you click on the link that says “View n submitted assignment” you’ll be taken to the grading page for this question:

For your class you’ll see one line for each of the submitted answers to this question. Note: You’ll see the full list of students in your class. It will probably be easier if you change the value of the “show” drop down button from “all” to “submitted only.” There are two options for processing the responses – normal and “quick grade.” Each TF can pick which one works best for them. To switch between them, check the box labelled “Allow quick grading” and then click on “save preferences.” (Quick grading will be described below.) If you click on link in the column labelled “Last modified (Submission)” you’ll get a popup window with the full text of the student’s response.

After reading the response, close that window and click on “grade” to be taken to the following screen:

On this screen you can finish processing the submission. If the answer is suitable select “pass” from the grade drop down box and click “Save changes.” If there is something wrong with the response that it isn’t ready to be posted then leave it as “no grade” and write a message to the student in the feedback box.

Note: You can leave a message in feedback, but the student will only see that if they click on their question again. It is probably more reliable to send the student an email if you need to speak with them. If you gave them a Pass grade and then clicked “Save changes” then their response will be moved to the discussion group for the following week. If quick grade is enabled, then the fourth column of the main grading table (labelled “grade”) will have a drop down box in each row. You can also type in the comment box to send feedback. Note that to use quick grade you’ll still have to click on their submission to get the popup window as only the first word or two of their response will be displayed. Once a student’s response has been given a grade of “pass” the table will look like this:

Note the “pass” under final grade, and “status” column has changed from grade to update. (If you need to update a grade, click on update.) In this case quick grading is turned on so you can see the drop box under the “grade” column and the entry box for a comment. Note: when quick grading make sure you click on “save all my feedback” or else it will be discarded when you close the window! Note: make sure you go through this process for each of your six questions. When there are multiple submitted answers for a question grading one and clicking “save changes” will bring you to a screen showing the next response. It sounds complicated in words, but when you’re processing a whole class the steps will be something like: Click on question 1 Click on “View n submitted responses” Click on “grade” in the top row of the table. Select “pass”, add an optional comment, and click “save changes” Repeat the above for each response. Go back to the main course view and click on the second question. So although there are a lot of fields in this table you’re normally making only two mouse clicks per student answer (select “pass” and “save”).

After you’ve done this the discussion group for the next week will have one topic for each of your questions. The topic will have the same name as your question, so by default “question 1” etc. but if you’ve edited the question titles it will have that instead.

Discussion Week

During the Discussion Week you will guide the students’ responses and participate in the discussion, answer questions, or post additional questions. There is no right or wrong way to lead or structure the Discussion Week. The discussion will be organic and flow on its own, sometimes people posting in one topic, sometimes in another. As TF your role is to also keep the students focused on the material. It’s okay and natural that the students will think of other topics and questions. The main point is to make sure they stay focused on The URANTIA Book. There are many wonderful spiritual texts with truth, beauty, and goodness, but for UBIS students must focus just on The URANTIA Book. (And indeed the students agree to do so when they sign up for a course.) If you are having any difficulty with students, whether posting inappropriate comments, not following course guidelines, trying to steer people to other sites or material, please contact any of the UBIS admins or staff while also contacting the student and reminding them of the rules and guidelines. Other than the above duties as a TF, you use the discussion group the same way you would have as a student.

Periods 2-4

There are four periods during the course, each with a Response Week and Discussion Week. Each Monday make sure you make the next section visible to the student and check that all of the activities in the week are visible.

Summary Week On Monday of the Summary Week please post an announcement informing the students of their responsibilities for the week. An example message can be found in Appendix B.

During this week, the students are expected to write a brief essay of not more than four or five paragraphs. They are given four essay titles to choose from. An example taken from "A Study of Seraphim" included the following four titles:

1. My Thoughts about the Ministry of Seraphim 2. This Course as a Learning Experience 3. Personal Highlights and Insights From the Course: A Study of Seraphim 4. A Course Summary

There is space to edit the essay question in the template for the introductory text for the weekly section, so while entering your introduction for the week, also enter the essay questions.

There are some additional tasks you will have this week. The webmaster will send email as a reminder and with further instructions, and this section of the TF manual will be expanded at some point.

Appendix A

Course Announcements – First Week The following section lists all the messages that must be sent (there might be other course-specific announcements you make based on how the course is going), from Orientation Week through to the end of the course: The first message should be sent on Monday morning of Orientation Week as follows: Dear Students, I am very pleased to welcome you to this UBIS course. I look forward to a rich time of sharing and fellowship as we together study these marvelous teachings. Over the years we have found that to derive the greatest benefit from this course of study, it is important to participate fully in the class. Each week, generally Monday morning, a new section will be made visible to you. The sections will have activities that you are expected to complete. For example this week you should complete your personal introduction and respond to the roll call. During future weeks be sure to read all text in the weekly section. The text will include course material as well as directions for you for that week. You are responsible for knowing the school’s Rules and Procedures, summarized below:

• To interact with other students and teachers according to the spirit of the teachings of The Urantia Book by being respectful of the different levels of comprehension, diversity of perspective, and varied communication skills of fellow readers;

• to adhere to class deadlines and study requirements; • to respect the privacy rights of fellow students by keeping course content, student

responses and contact information, and discussion within the confines of the classroom; • to use the classroom site for discussion of course topics and The Urantia Book and refrain

from engaging in discussion of other nonrelated topics, texts or websites; • to refrain from exceeding the maximum length of 150 words when entering responses to

the study questions; • to refrain from sending attachments; • and to refrain from copying long quotations from the book.

It is important to remember that the teacher facilitators are all volunteers and have dedicated a large amount of time preparing the courses. It is expected therefore that each student attends the course regularly, reads the assigned papers or sections, responds to the questions to the best of their ability, participates regularly during Discussion Week and completes the Student Evaluation Questionnaire at the completion of the course. Only students who fully participate in the activites will receive a completion certificate.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation and enjoy the course. In friendship, _________________, TF On Tuesday of Orientation Week it is recommended that a second message be sent as follows: Dear Students, Once again I am pleased to welcome you to this UBIS course. To date, [the number of students who have answered the roll call] of our registered students have answered the roll call. Several have introduced themselves. It is really exciting to learn to know one another and soon we will get to know each other much better as we begin to share and learn from one another as we study together. We look forward to hearing from the rest of you soon. If you are not receiving the messages by email that have been posted on the “Announcements,” please let me know and I will try to resolve the problem. If necessary, please inform your email server not to block emails from UBIS Admin. However since some email clients might have message blocking rules that we can’t control, please log in every few days and click on the announcements section so that you are up to date – the email is a courtesy and reminder for you, but all course materials and activites are on the site. ____________________, TF __Your email address___ On Wednesday or Thursday of Orientation Week you should post and send the following message: Dear Student, Thank you for your wonderful personal introductions. Your backgrounds, experiences, individuality, motivation and expressive writing are truly inspiring. I am very much looking forward to our study together for it is evident already that it will be a time of enrichment for all. I hope that all of you have read the course introduction, the personal introductions, the messages that have been posted on the "Announcements" as well as the information listed under the tabs of the gray menu bar on the UBIS Home page. Each UBIS course is of 10 weeks duration consisting of Orientation Week that we are in now, followed by eight weeks of study divided into four periods, consisting of a Response Week and a Discussion Week during each period. These are followed by Summary Week, concluding the course. The requirements for completion of a course are posting your personal introduction and answering the roll call, responding to three of six questions for each of the four Response Weeks, entering three or more discussion comments during each of the four Discussion Weeks, completing the essay during Summary Week and completing the Student Evaluation

Questionnaire at the end of the course. If for some reason you are unable to meet all of these requirements, please inform me of extenuating circumstances such as illness, family emergencies or unexpected career demands. The Board of Directors of UBIS has requested that the registrars give enrollment preference to students who have completed all of their previous courses. Therefore, if there are extenuating circumstances preventing you from completing your course, I will inform the registrar so that non-completion of the course will not be held against you should you seek to enroll in another course in the future. I am sure we are all eagerly anticipating partaking of the rich spiritual blessings that await us as we are about to begin our study of the marvelous truths of this Fifth Epochal Revelation to our planet. In friendship, ___________,TF

Appendix B

Course Announcements – Summary Week

Dear Student, Our course is nearing the end. I trust it has been a wonderful and enriching experience for each of you. There are two required activities for this week, completion of the Essay Assignment and the Student Evaluation Questionnaire (SEQ). The essay should not be more than four or five paragraphs on the topic of your choice, selected from the list of four titles. Please post your essay in the classroom as soon as possible so that everyone can enjoy reading it as they come in during our last week together. Your SEQ responses will help us improve our services. Please read and enter brief, comments to each of the questions. I can assure you that all of your comments will be read and seriously considered. Your feedback is very important to us as we strive to make this educational experience as effective and meaningful as possible for both TFs and students. This week is open for all of you to share your final thoughts, comments, and farewells. Please note that your e-mail addresses and other contact information are held confidentially by UBIS, but if you desire, this is your opportunity to share them with any of your classmates. We hope that this experience has been both valuable and enjoyable and that you will soon join us again for another opportunity of learning together on UBIS. Generally, registration for each trimester begins on the first Monday of January, April and September. In friendship, __________,TF