2013

International School of Management and Economics Sanjul Bhakri and Core Team (Vu Trung Hieu, Nguyen Quynh Trang, Do Ngoc Anh)

[TRAINING DOCUMENT FOR MOODLE] What is Moodle and How to use this software

Contents

1.   Introduction  .........................................................................................................................................  3  

2.   What  is  Moodle  ....................................................................................................................................  4  

2.1  What  does  it  do?  ................................................................................................................................  4  

2.2  Who  can  use  it?  .................................................................................................................................  5  

2.2.1  Teachers  ......................................................................................................................................  6  

2.2.2  Students  ......................................................................................................................................  7  

2.2.3  Administrators:  ...........................................................................................................................  8  

3.   How  to  login  to  Moodle  .......................................................................................................................  9  

4.   Some  basic  terms:  ..............................................................................................................................  11  

4.1  Activities:  .........................................................................................................................................  11  

4.2  Resources:  ........................................................................................................................................  12  

4.3  Blocks:  ..............................................................................................................................................  12  

5.   Tools  &  Features:  ...............................................................................................................................  13  

5.1    Blogs:  ...........................................................................................................................................  13  

5.2  Courses:  ...........................................................................................................................................  14  

5.3  Assignment  ......................................................................................................................................  15  

5.4  Wiki  ..................................................................................................................................................  16  

6.   How  to  use  these  Tools  and  Features:  ...............................................................................................  17  

6.1  Blogs  ................................................................................................................................................  17  

6.1.1  Adding  a  blog  entry:  ..................................................................................................................  17  

6.1.2  External  Blogs  ...........................................................................................................................  18  

6.2  Courses  ............................................................................................................................................  19  

6.2.1  Adding  a  course  (admin  only)  ...................................................................................................  19  

6.2.2  Deleting  a  course  (admin  only)  .................................................................................................  20  

6.2.3  Choose  enrollment  method  (admin  only)  .................................................................................  20  

6.2.4  Manual  enrolment  (admin  and  course  teachers  only)  .............................................................  20  

6.2.5  Self-­‐enrolment  (admin  and  course  teachers  only)  ...................................................................  21  

6.3  Assignment  ......................................................................................................................................  22  

6.3.1  Adding  and  editing  an  Assignment  activity  (teachers  only)  ......................................................  22  

6.3.2  General  settings  (teachers  only)  ...............................................................................................  23  

6.3.3  Different  assignment  types  (teachers  only)  ..............................................................................  25  

6.3.4  Submitting  assignments  (students  only)  ...................................................................................  26  

6.3.5  Quick  grading  –  Marking  (teachers  only)  ..................................................................................  27  

6.4  Wiki  ..................................................................................................................................................  28  

6.4.1  Adding  a  wiki  .............................................................................................................................  28  

6.4.2  Adding  pages  ............................................................................................................................  28  

7.   Maintenance  &  Support  .....................................................................................................................  29  

   

1. Introduction    

ISME is dedicated to provide the best education to our students. As a tool to enable our students and teachers to interact more effectively, we have introduced unique course management software – Moodle. This software helps students to view their module content, download class presentations, view schedules, interact with teachers & even create blogs with their classmates. On the other hand, it helps the teachers to create a transparent & effective channel to deliver course materials & other information to their students. Moodle also helps teachers to enable and motivate students to have academic discussion after school hour and outside classroom.

This document is to enable the ISME students, teachers and admins to understand about Moodle software and how to use it. It provides detailed information about Moodle, its functionality & features.

   

2. What  is  Moodle   Moodle is a short form of Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. It is an online course management system and also a very popular tool for global educators to create online dynamic web sites for their students. It is a software designed to cater to the needs of an educational community. Watch this video for an interesting description of Moodle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=I4mmMeMDMic

2.1  What  does  it  do?  

Moodle can be used as a platform to conduct fully online course or to support face-to-face courses. It can help teachers to deliver studying content to students or to assess students using assignments or quizzes. Teachers can post course-related documents, assignment questions and quizzes to Moodle for students to read, review and attempt. Assignments can be posted and viewed by teachers via Moodle. Moodle is an interactive platform that consists of activity modules such as forums, databases and wikis. Users can communicate, exchange information and collaborate with each other in the course of their study. The Moodle user population of an educational institution can form an interactive and supportive community in their pursuit of effective teaching and learning. Moodle's basic structure is organized around courses. It provides pages or areas where teachers can present their learning resources and activities to students. They can have different layouts but the usual ones include a number of central sections where materials are displayed and side blocks offering extra features or information.

   

2.2  Who  can  use  it?    

Moodle is internationally used and supported by teachers, students, and administrators of different local, regional and international institutions. Moodle Community Hub offers a rich supportive base for its international users. It acts as a repository, a place to store registered courses that are downloadable by international institutions.

   

2.2.1  Teachers    

Primary users & content creators for Moodle are teachers. They can perform the following actions on Moodle:

• Drag their favourite teaching resources straight onto the page:

• Search for and embed multimedia at the click of a button:

• Direct their students' learning path: o Let learners meander freely around your course or restrict their access

dependent on criteria met, time or profile fields; it's your choice!

• Get their students working and learning together: o From forums to collaborative wikis and glossaries, from comment

boxes to private messaging, Moodle offers your students a number of ways to make their voice heard.

• Assess and feedback with self-grading quizzes: o A wide range of standard and contributed question types make for a

powerful tool for both formative and summative assessment.

• Set them individual, group or anonymously graded assignments:

• Provide opportunities for them to peer and self assess: o Workshops challenge your class to evaluate their own and others'

submissions according to criteria decided by you.

   

2.2.2  Students  

Students form the largest user base for Moodle. They can perform the following actions using Moodle:

• Manage their files however and wherever they like: o Store their files in their personal files area or access them from Google,

Dropbox, Flickr, Youtube, Skydrive...

• Track their progress on each log in: o Checkboxes against every task remind you how far you've come

• Create their own personal dashboard: o The customisable My Home page gives quick access to courses, work

owing, online users or other items you choose to add.  

   

2.2.3  Administrators:  

Administrators of any software are responsible for managing, promoting and maintaining the software. Moodle admins are no different; you can perform the following operations on/for Moodle, as Admins:

• Authenticate and enrol your users in a variety of ways: o Moodle's 50+ combined standard and contributed authentication and

enrolment solutions give you vast scope for getting everyone online!

• Create an attractive, mobile-friendly learning environment which can integrate with your website:

o Choose themes for different devices; add your own CSS, custom HTML and logo, all from within the admin interface

• Enhance your Moodle with contributed plugins that you can update from inside your site:

o Over 460 community generated extensions ranging from video conferencing to plagiarism detection are freely available. And if you can't find it, request it!

• Sign up to Community Hubs sharing free courses: o Every Moodle site can link to Moodle.net, allowing teachers to

download, adapt or offer enrolment in free courses shared worldwide. Why not help your locality with a hub of its own too?

3. How  to  login  to  Moodle  

-­‐ Step 1: To log in to Moodle you need to go to its login page. There are two ways of doing so, you can either:

o Go to this link directly: http://203.162.0.203/moodle/login/index.php, OR

o Go to our ISME website at http://isneu.edu.vn/, then scroll down to the bottom and click on the Moodle block on the outmost left.

Our Moodle outlook has been customized and it looks like this:

-­‐ Step 2: Enter your username and password (which will be given to you by the admin), and then click Login.

o After successfully logging-in, you will be at your homepage:

Note: Click ‘forgotten your username or password’ in case you cannot login to your account. This will direct you to a new page. On this page, fill in your username and email address to receive instructions on how to get access again.

4. Some  basic  terms:  

Before going deeper to the software, you will need to know some basic terms of Moodle first. These terms are essential for you to understand about Moodle tools, features and functionalities, which are shown in the next chapter.

A Moodle site is made from courses, which contain the learning materials, schedule/timetable & other external information shared by teachers with their students. A teacher in a Moodle course can select items from three different elements which together assist in the learning process. They are: Activities, Resources and Blocks.

4.1  Activities:  

An Activity in Moodle is a feature where students learn by interacting with each other or with their teacher. They might for instance contribute in a forum, upload an assignment, answer questions in a quiz or collaborate together in a wiki. Activities can be graded. A teacher can add activities by turning on the editing and choosing an activity by clicking Add an activity or resource in a course section. They then select an activity from the activity chooser. (If the activity chooser has been turned off, a drop down menu appears instead.) Activities usually appear in the central area of the course.

   

4.2  Resources:  

A Resource in Moodle is an item that a teacher can add to a Moodle course to support learning, such as a file, a video or link to a website. A resource differs from an activity because it is static. In other words, the student can merely look at or read it, rather than participate.

A teacher can add resources by turning on the editing and by clicking Add an activity or resource in a course section. They then select a resource from the activity chooser (If the activity chooser has been turned off, a drop down menu appears instead.) Resources usually appear in the central area of the course.

4.3  Blocks:  

A Block in Moodle is an item that a teacher can add to the left or right of a Moodle course page. They provide extra information or links to aid learning. Blocks are a bit like "widgets" elsewhere online and can contain; for example, RSS news feeds, quiz results, a calendar, links to blogs, glossary terms or private files. There is also a simple HTML block which can be customized as the teacher wishes.

A teacher can add blocks by turning on the editing and choosing from the "Add a block" drop down which is usually on the bottom right side of the course page. Blocks usually appear on the sides of the course.

5. Tools  &  Features:    

5.1    Blogs:  

The word 'blog' is a contraction of 'web log'. Blogs are a form of online journal used by millions of people around the world for self-expression and communication with family and friends. Blogs are usually organized as a chronological series of postings created by the author of the blog. Usually, one person writes blogs, although some blogs can be authored by a group of people.

Blogs in Moodle are user based - each user has their own blog. Users can also register their external blogs, such as Blogger or Word press, so that entries are automatically included in their Moodle blog.

For further information, please go to this link and watch the video provided by Moodle.org: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7M3sZL6wts

In Settings block, go to My profile settings, then Blogs, then Preferences, you can set how many blog entries are displayed on a page. The default number of entries is 10.

Click Save changes when you finish.

5.2  Courses:    

Courses  are  the  spaces  on  Moodle  where  teachers  add  learning  materials  for  their  students.  Courses  are  created  by  admins,  course  creators  or  managers.  Teachers  can  then  add  the  content  and  re-­‐organize  them  according  to  their  own  needs.  

 

 

   

5.3  Assignment    

The assignment module allows teachers to collect work from students, review it and provide feedback including grades. The work a student submits is visible only to the teacher and not to other students.

Students can submit any digital content (files), including, for example, word-processed documents, spreadsheets, images, audio and video clips. Assignments don't necessarily have to consist of file uploads. Alternatively, teachers can ask students to type directly into a text field in Moodle. Or they can ask student to do both, upload a file or files and type text directly into Moodle. An assignment activity can also be set up to not accept any student submissions and serve as a reminder to students of a 'real-world' assignment they need to complete and to record grades in Moodle for activities that don't have an online component.

An assignment has an 'available from' date before which no students can submit anything, and a due date, after which teachers can choose not to accept submissions any more.

Markers can choose to be notified every time a student submits an assignment, or only for late submissions. Markers can choose to give students feedback in the form of text or uploaded files.

5.4  Wiki    

A wiki is a collection of collaboratively authored web documents. Basically, a wiki page is a web page everyone in your class can create together, right in the browser, without needing to know HTML. A wiki starts with one front page. Each author can add other pages to the wiki by simply creating a link to a page that doesn't exist yet.

Wikis get their name from the Hawaiian term "wiki wiki," which means "very fast." A wiki is indeed a fast method for creating content as a group. It's a hugely popular format on the Web for creating documents as a group. There is usually no central editor of a wiki, no single person who has final editorial control. Instead, the community edits and develops its own content. Consensus views emerge from the work of many people on a document.

In Moodle, wikis can be a powerful tool for collaborative work. The entire class can edit a document together, creating a class product, or each student can have their own wiki and work on it with you and their classmates.

For further information, go to this link and watch the video provided by Moodle.org: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfkunrqQVS8

6. How  to  use  these  Tools  and  Features:    

6.1  Blogs  

6.1.1  Adding  a  blog  entry:  

o Step 1: From the Navigation block, click on Blogs > Add a new entry

o Step 2: Write your entry and give it a title.

If you want to attach a file, click the Add button to access the File picker to locate a file. Be sure your document is smaller than the maximum attachment size. Alternatively, drag and drop your file into the box provided.

o Step 3: Choose who you wish to publish the entry to i.e. who may see the entry.

There are three options:

§ Yourself i.e. your blog entry is a draft § Anyone on your site § Anyone in the world

o Step 4: Select appropriate official tags for your entry and/or add one or more user defined tags. If you add more than one, they should be comma separated.

o Step 5: Click on the "Save changes" button.

6.1.2  External  Blogs  

If enabled by an administrator, you can register external blogs, such as Blogger or Wordpress so that entries are automatically included in your Moodle blog. Go to Settings > My profile settings > Blogs > Register an external blog.

In the URL box, add the RSS feed of the blog you wish to register.

6.2  Courses  

6.2.1  Adding  a  course  (admin  only)  

By default a regular teacher can't add a new course. To add a new course to Moodle you need to have Administrators, Course Creator or Manager rights.

o Step 1: Go to Settings > Site Administration > Courses > Add/edit courses

o Step 2: Choose the category where you want your course to be.

o Step 3: Click the Add a new course button

o Step 4: Enter the course settings, then click the Save changes button.

o Step 5: On the next screen, choose your students/teachers to assign to the course.

6.2.2  Deleting  a  course  (admin  only)  

-­‐ Step 1: Go to Settings > Site Administration > Courses > Add/edit courses

-­‐ Step 2: Click the course's category (to drill down the category tree) and find the course you wish to delete. Or use the "Search course" textbox at the bottom of the category list.

-­‐ Step 3: Click the "X" icon to the right of the course's name to delete it.

6.2.3  Choose  enrollment  method  (admin  only)  

Online enrolment is one of the main features in Moodle. To managing a course enrolment, Moodle provides a system called “Enrolment plugins". Only administrator enables these plugins. He/she has to decide which plugins are suitable for the current situation. It is possible to choose more than one enrolment method: -­‐ Manual enrolment: the administrator or course teacher adds users manually. -­‐ Self-enrolment: a user can choose to enroll him/herself into a course.

To set an enrolment method: -­‐ Step 1: Click on Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Enrolments >

Manage enroll plugins. -­‐ Step 2: Click on the enable checkboxes opposite enrolment plugin(s).

6.2.4  Manual  enrolment  (admin  and  course  teachers  only)  

In a manual enrolment, the administrator or course teacher will add users manually. A link will be sent to particular users and when they follow the link, they will enroll the course. The plugin should normally be enabled as certain other enrolment plugins, such as self-enrolment, require it. As a teacher/administrator, he/she can edit: Default role (the preselected role when enrolling users), Enrolment duration (length of enrolment), and Notification threshold (how long before expiration should be users notified)

6.2.5  Self-­‐enrolment  (admin  and  course  teachers  only)  

Self-enrolment is the method whereby users can choose to enroll themselves into a course, either immediately by clicking "Enrol me in this course" or by typing in an enrolment key they have been given. This plugin needs to be enabled by the site admin; the manual enrolment plugin has to be enabled in the same course as well.

As a teacher/administrator, he/she must edit such settings i.e. Custom instance name (custom enrolment method name), Enrolment key (If use key required for enrolment), Max enrolled users (specify the maximum number of users who can self-enroll into the course)

Furthermore, he/she should prepare a fixed schedule/timetable for each course and make it available for student before the enrolment in Moodle. Time and date of the enrolment is also need to be announced.

6.3  Assignment  

6.3.1  Adding  and  editing  an  Assignment  activity  (teachers  only)  

To add a new Assignment activity to your course login with the appropriate access rights (e.g. editing teacher, course creator or administrator) and Turn Editing On. Within the required Week or Topic Block click Add and Activity or Resource link.

In the Add an activity or resource dialogue box that appears, select Assignment and click Add.

To edit an existing Assignment activity, login to your course with the appropriate access rights (e.g. editing teacher, course creator or administrator) and Turn Editing On. Select the Update icon against the relevant Assignment item.

6.3.2  General  settings  (teachers  only)  

Assignment name

Give your Assignment a name (e.g. “Report on Topic 1 Content”). The title entered here will be the name that learners see in the course content area. Learners will click on this name to view the details of the assignment and, if applicable, submit their work.

Description

The description of the assignment should include precise instructions for students regarding the subject of the assignment, the form, in which it should be submitted, the grading criteria etc.

Use this area to describe the assignment and explain what learners are expected to do to complete this task. The assignment description can be as brief or as detailed as you feel is necessary to meet the needs of your learners. However, it is to your benefit to provide as much detail and information as possible, especially at the start of the course while you are still establishing procedures. Generally, the more information you are able to provide here the fewer questions and problems your learners will have completing the task.

The assignment description field can also be used to provide information or resources related to the assignment. An instructor, for example, could provide some literature, a video clip, an image, or a link to a webpage, and then ask the learners to use these materials in completing the task.

Available from

The Available from setting prevents students from submitting their assignment before the shown date. This option allows a teacher to set a day, month, year and time (24 hour clock) from which learners can begin to submit their assignments. Please note that this setting does not hide the activity from the learners. Instead, the learner will see the activity, be able to view the instructions and use any materials you have included in the description, but the learner will not be able to submit or complete the assignment until the Allow submissions from date.

Due date

The Due date setting prevents students from submitting their assignment after the shown date.

This option allows a teacher to set a day, month, year and time (24 hour clock) before which learners must submit their assignment.

Prevent late submissions

Setting Prevent late submissions to Yes will prevent learners from being able to submit this assignment after the Due date (where specified). If you set Prevent late submissions to No, then learners can submit the assignment as long as the assignment is visible or accessible to them but their submissions will be marked as late.

6.3.3  Different  assignment  types  (teachers  only)  

File submissions

A file submission assignment allows students to submit/upload file(s) to be assessed, for example, a word document for an essay assignment.

The advantage of file submissions is students’ work is collated into one space, and it is easy to find. The assignments can be opened from within Moodle, or can be downloaded in bulk for marking.

Steps to take:

• Scroll down to ‘Submission Settings’

• Ensure that ‘File Submissions’ is set to ‘Yes’.

• In the ‘Maximum number of uploaded files’ field, click the dropdown menu to select the relevant number for your assignment. This will enable multiple file submissions.

• The ‘Maximum submission size’ field provides a maximum limit for the size of student submission. Using the dropdown menu, select the appropriate submission size relevant to the assignment.

Online text

The online text submission setting allows students to create and edit their assignments in Moodle. They can add text, format text, add images, tables, videos and links to web pages and files.

The advantage of online text is the assignment text is stored and can be read within Moodle. There are no files to download. It is particularly well suited to assignments requiring shorter word counts.

Steps to take:

• Scroll down to ‘Submission settings’

• For Online text assignments, set ‘Online text’ to ‘Yes.’

• Change the ‘File submissions’ setting to ‘No’, to prevent students from uploading files. Note, students can still add files using the ‘insert/edit link’ button.

Submission comments

Submission comments in the assignment module replace the 'Notes' functionality in previous versions. The ‘Submission comments’ allows students to comment on their submission and teachers to reply to the comments. Comments by teachers are different to the Feedback supplied by teachers when marking.

6.3.4  Submitting  assignments  (students  only)  

File submission

To submit a file submission, students complete the following steps:

• Click the ‘Add submission’ button to bring up the file upload page.

• Upload the relevant file into the submission. They are able to ‘drag and drop’ the file into the submission box.

• Click ‘Save Changes’

• There should now be a Last modified date and the file(s) uploaded will also be

displayed.

• Depending on how the assignment is setup the status will either read ‘Submitted for grading’ - in which case no further action is need, or ‘Draft (not submitted)’.

• If changes are required, click on ‘Edit my submission’.

• Once ready to submit, click ‘Submit assignment’. Note that once the assignment is 'submitted’ no further changes are allowed.

Online text

To submit an online text submission, students complete the following steps:

• Click the ‘Add submission’ button to bring up the online text editor page

• Type the relevant text into the HTML editor, or paste from a previously written file.

• Click ‘Save Changes’

• There should now be a Last modified date and the first 100 characters entered will also be displayed.

• Depending on how the assignment is setup the status will either read ‘Submitted for grading’ - in which case no further action is need, or ‘Draft (not submitted)’

• If changes are required, click on ‘Edit my submission’.

• Once ready to submit, click ‘Submit assignment’. Note that once the assignment is 'submitted’ no further changes are allowed.

6.3.5  Quick  grading  –  Marking  (teachers  only)  

Under Options (scroll to bottom of the page) you can determine your preferences for the number of assignments you wish to display per page. You can also filter assignments either to show all (no filter), submitted, or requires grading. This is also where you can turn on quick grading.

Quick grading allows you to enter grades and a feedback comment directly into the grading table. Quick grading is not compatible with advanced grading and is not recommended when there are multiple markers.

Enter the grades

Scroll to the bottom of the grading table and click 'Save all quick grading changes'

6.4  Wiki    

6.4.1  Adding  a  wiki  

§ As an editing teacher for a course, click "Turn Editing On", and go to the section in which you want to add the wiki.

§ From the dropdown menu labeled "Add an activity", select "Wiki". This will take you to the wiki settings page titled "Adding a new wiki".

§ In an existing wiki, the wiki settings can be found in Settings > Wiki administration > Edit settings.

6.4.2  Adding  pages  

§ Type the name of your page inside double brackets. (1 in screenshot below) You can preview it by clicking the "preview" button towards the bottom of the screen.

§ Press the "save" button.

§ Now click the (red) link for one of the pages (2 in screenshot below) and you will be prompted to create it in the same way you create the first page:

§ A page once created has a blue link.

7. Maintenance  &  Support  

As mentioned earlier, ISME is dedicated to provide the best education to our students. In case of any issues & concerns about Moodle and its functionality, you can visit www.moodle.org. All the support will be provided by ISME at any given point of time.

In case of any issues & concerns, please contact ISME Office:

Ms. Trinh Thi Thu Giang

Manager of UoS Program

International School of Management and Economics

Room 304-305, Level 3, Building 6, NEU Campus - 207 Giai Phong, Ha Noi

Email: trinh.giang@isneu.org