Enhancing the My home page to display news forum postings and more John Tutchings, Andy Syson

CUOnline Moodle - Student Orientation 1

Enhancing the My home page to display news forum postings and more

Andy Syson&

John Tutchings

Coventry University


This presentation will show how Moodle’s My home page has been customised to focus on the students’ current studies. At the heart of the page is a new block which reorganises the information that is normally displayed as an unstructured list as a highly structured compact display that enables students to see at a glance what is happening on their course.

The philosophy is to pull key information out of the students’ several module webs and display it directly on the My home page. This is to emphasize that the student is on a coherent course not just a collection of modules. To reinforce this all students now have a course web which brings together all the students on the course and is managed by the Course Director.

The new ‘Course Focused’ block occupies the central area of the My home page and has three parts. The upper part displays a link to the students’ course web together with the text of its course summary which has been edited by the Course Director. In the middle of the ‘course focused’ block there is a rolling display of unread news forum postings from all the students' modules. Only the first few lines of the news forum postings are shown but, if a posting is clicked on, the student is taken directly to the full posting in the module web. Having been read the posting is no longer shown on the rolling display.

The lower part of the block is a tabbed display that lists the students' current modules with each module indicating if any new activities, e.g. forum postings or assignments, have been added since the students' last login. Other tabs list previous year’s modules, contact details of their tutors and a full list of all their assignments.

The blocks to the left and right of the My home page have been chosen to complement the course focused nature of the My home page and use site wide roles to target information at students, staff or to faculty members.

Abstract


The Course Focused block

The enhancements are realised by a Course Focused block that is located in the middle contents area of the My home page.

View a movie demonstrating how it works

Explore a Flash interactive simulation of the course focused block

Login to Moodle for a live demonstration (conference presentation only)

Jump to the Course Focused slide of this PowerPoint simulation

http://cumoodle.coventry.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/163612/mod_book/chapter/1972/IntroToMoodle1.mp4

http://cumoodle.coventry.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/163612/mod_book/chapter/1850/CUMoodleStudentOrientation.swf

http://cumoodle.coventry.ac.uk/

Welcome to the CUOnline Moodle Student Orientation

This is an interactive simulation of the University’s virtual learning environment

CUOnline Moodle

It takes you from its Login page through to the My Course page and on to its Home page

Each of these pages has multiple clickable ‘hotspots’

The mouse pointer changes from an arrow to a finger as you move over a hotspot

These three images are hotspots

See what happens when you click on them

4CUOnline Moodle - Student Orientation

CUOnline Moodle Student Orientation



CUOnline Moodle







CUOnline Moodle






Clicking on a hotspot displays a label like this

Click the label or any other hotspot to remove it

Login Page

http://cumoodle.coventry.ac.uk

CUOnline Moodle Student Orientation - Login


Start the simulation


CUOnline Moodle






CUOnline Moodle Student Orientation - My Course

Clicking on a hotspot displays a label like this


My Course page

Displays information about you, your course and your faculty




CUOnline Moodle






CUOnline Moodle Student Orientation - Home

Clicking on a hotspot displays a label like this.


Moodle home page

Displays information about the University with links to

the Student Portal



StartIntroduction 1

9CUOnline Moodle - Student OrientationSeptember 2013

Start


The login page


The simulation has started.

Move the pointer over the page and click on a ‘Hotspot’

to continue

Login page - Student Portal images

Clicking on any of these images takes you to the relevant Student Portal

page


Login page - Menu Bar

The menu bar is present at the top of every page

Help is always available


Login page - Lost password

If you forget your password you can reset

it online if you know your Student ID number


Login page - The login block

Enter your university username and password

The simulation will do this for you

studenta

………….

Click the Login button if you are ready to move on to the next

part of the simulation, otherwise click another part of

the screen14CUOnline Moodle - Student Orientation

My Course page


My Course page – Logout link

The (Logout) link returns you to the login page

Click the (Logout) link again to logout


My Course page – Menu bar




My Course page – Course web

A link to your Course web will be displayed at the top of the central area together with some

information written by your Course Director


My Course page – Rotating display

In the middle of the My Course page is a rotating display of all the News Forum

postings from all your modules


My Course page – Toggle Headlines

Clicking on the Toggle Headlines graphic stops the rotating display and presents a list

of the New Forum postings


My Course page – Main module list

When you are logged in to CUMoodleclicking on the module’s title will take

you to its home page

Click on the tabs to see what they do


My Course page – Current

The Current tab displays the modules you are enrolled on in the student record system,

Universe, for this academic year.

These icons indicate that there are activities

available


My Course page – Other

The Other tab lists all your other modules

A link to login to the old Moodle Hub, for accessing your previous

year’s modules, is located underneath the list


My Course page – Other module list

When you are logged in to CUMoodleclicking on the module’s title will take

you to its home page


My course page - Assignments

Details of all your Moodle Assignments


My Course page – Tutors

Tutor’s [email protected]. 123456

All your tutors are listed on this tab


My Course page – Edit

Instructions explaining how you can move modules from your Other list to your Current

list are shown in the Edit tab


My Course page – Logged in user

The Logged in user block displays your photo, if you have uploaded one, and

some other information about you

Clicking on the image displays your full Moodle profile page. You can edit your

profile page to upload a photo and move modules from the Other list to

the Current list


My Course page – Calendar

The Calendar block is fully integrated with all your Moodle modules and courses. Activities such as the hand-in dates of

online assignments are highlighted in colour

Moving the mouse pointer over a highlighted date will cause additional

information about the activity to pop up

If you click the date you will see full details of the activity


My Course page – Messages

You can send messages to other students on your course. If they are online when the message is sent it will appear as a pop up on their Moodle

page. If they are off-line it will be sent as an email

IMPORTANT Moodle messaging is not a reliable method of communication as the person you are messaging may have turned their messaging off


My Course page – Private files

The My private files block displays the files you have uploaded to your Moodle

private files area

You have 100MB of storage


My Course page – Faculty links

The Faculty links block contains links

related to your particular Faculty


My Course page – Study support links

The Study support links block contains links to various University-wide units, such as the Centre for

Academic Writing, and online facilities such as LOCATE, the

library catalogue


My Course page – Student notices

The Student notices block contains the links to the two most recent

notices. Clicking on the links displays the full notice as well as allowing to view all the previous

notices


My Course page – Home link

The Home link takes you to Moodle’s home page

Click the Home link again to go to

Moodle’s Home page


Moodle Home


Moodle Home – Menu bar




Moodle Home – Student Portal images

Clicking on any of these images takes you to the relevant Student Portal

page


Moodle Home – University links

The University links block contains links to NOVA and SOLAR as well as

links to key areas of the Student Portal


Moodle Home – Study support links

The Study support links block contains links to various University-wide units, such as the Centre for

Academic Writing, and online facilities such as LOCATE, the

library catalogue


Moodle Home - Settings

The Settings block has a link to your profile. In module webs this block has

a link to your Grades

Please note that all grades in Moodle are provisional and subject to change.

Confirmed grades can be found on SOLAR


Moodle Home – My Course link

The My course link returns you to the My course page

Click the My course link again to go to the My

course page

The My course link in the ‘breadcrumb trail’ will also take you

to the My course page


Moodle Home – Logout link

The (Logout) link returns you to the login page

Click the (Logout) link again to logout


Presentations & Public Speaking

Enhancing the My home page to display news forum postings and more John Tutchings, Andy Syson