Moodle at Wesleyan

LAE Grader Report displays only first 100 students (Moodle 2)

Kevin Wiliarty — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 20:54:00 +0000

If you have more than 100 students in a Moodle 2 course, and if you use the LAE Grader Report, be advised that the report will show only the first 100 students. We are looking into a solution, but in the meantime instructors with large classes on Moodle 2 should use the simple Grader Report to view and edit grades.

Enrollment problem resolved

Kevin Wiliarty — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 16:59:30 +0000

With the broader issue now largely resolved, any Moodle-specific issues should now have been addressed. Please let us know if you find this is not so.

Widespread enrollment problem

Kevin Wiliarty — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:58:13 +0000

Wesleyan ITS has been made aware of a problem involving several campus systems, including but not limited to Moodle. We are working to fix the problem as quickly as possible and to keep everyone up to date.

How to make your courses available

Kevin Wiliarty — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:54:42 +0000

As the semester kicks off, remember that your course may not yet be available to students. You can change the course availability in Moodle 1 or Moodle 2 by following the "Settings" link on your main course page. The "Availability" section is about three quarters of the way down the page. Just change the setting and save the change.

You can watch a brief video demonstration of the process at:

http://moodle.blogs.wesleyan.edu/moodle-in-fifteen/change-course-availability/

Minor security upgrades, Tuesday morning, 1/22/2013

Kevin Wiliarty — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 18:27:52 +0000

On Tuesday morning, January 22, 2013 we will apply minor security updates to both Moodle 1 and Moodle 2. The process should be confined to the usual Tuesday-morning downtime (6:15am - 6:45am), and should not affect any functionality, but of course if you notice any oddities, please let us know.

Minute 9: Email your class

Kevin Wiliarty — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 16:00:28 +0000

applies to:

Moodle 2

Send email to all or some of your students

Notes

Teachers can email all or some of the students in their Moodle courses in two basic ways. One is to use the Announcements forum that every course includes by default. The Announcements forum works much like a regular forum except that the teacher is the only person able to post, and all members of the course are automatically subscribed to receive email notifications. There is no way, using the Announcements forum, to email only a subset of the members of the course. For more flexibility, you can use Quickmail, a feature also included automatically with every course:

Downloads:
https://wesfiles.wesleyan.edu/departments/ITS/Academic%20Computing/Moodle/moodle2-public-video/email-class.mp4
https://wesfiles.wesleyan.edu/departments/ITS/Academic%20Computing/Moodle/moodle2-public-video/email-class.webm
https://wesfiles.wesleyan.edu/departments/ITS/Academic%20Computing/Moodle/moodle2-public-video/email-class.ogv

To post an Announcement

On a course page click on the link to the Announcements forum
Click on the button to Add a new topic
Provide a subject in the Subject field
Add the content of your communication to the Message field
When you are satisfied with the message, click Post to forum
Note that forum posts are sent within about five minutes of posting, but they do not go out immediately, even if you tick the Mail now checkbox

To send a Quickmail

On the main course page, click Compose New Email in the Quickmail box, generally in the upper right.
On the next screen you can select the recipients of the message
1. Choose Add All or Remove All
2. Or select individuals in the one of the columns and use the Add and Remove buttons to move them across
When you have selected your recipients you can proceed to the Subject and Message fields
If you wish to receive your own copy of the email switch the Receive a copy option to Yes
You can save a draft, or if you are finished, just click Send Email

Minute 8: Who sees what?

Kevin Wiliarty — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 21:10:06 +0000

applies to:

Moodle 2

Availability: course, gradebook, item, section, block

Notes

By default our Moodle courses are closed to students until the teacher changes the availability setting. The video below demonstrates how to change course and gradebook availability, and also how to hide various elements on the main course page. Teachers will also find options for timed release of materials in the settings for individual activities and resources.

Downloads:
https://wesfiles.wesleyan.edu/departments/ITS/Academic%20Computing/Moodle/moodle2-public-video/who-sees-what.mp4
https://wesfiles.wesleyan.edu/departments/ITS/Academic%20Computing/Moodle/moodle2-public-video/who-sees-what.webm
https://wesfiles.wesleyan.edu/departments/ITS/Academic%20Computing/Moodle/moodle2-public-video/who-sees-what.ogv

To modify the course or gradebook availability

In the Settings navigation on your main course page, click on "Edit settings"
Set the dropdown options for course or gradebook availability as desired
Remember to save your changes by clicking the button at the bottom of the page

To hide or reveal items on the main course page

Turn editing on
Toggle the "eye" icon for the relevant item, section or sidebar block
Grayed out items are hidden from students

Default File Display on Moodle 2 is now “Force download”

Kevin Wiliarty — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 15:06:40 +0000

One of the most common uses of Moodle is to share PDF files. When a user clicks on a PDF file link, Moodle sometimes tries to open its own PDF reader within the user's web browser. Unfortunately that approach causes problems for a number of users. In order to improve that experience we have changed the default file display method on Moodle 2 to "Force download." The change will apply only to new file resources, and it can easily be overriden. In the settings for the file look for the "Display" drop-down:

Using the new default "Force download" will ensure the widest accessibility to your PDF files. For certain other file types, video or images for example, you may prefer to use one of the other display options in order to allow users to view the media in their browser. In that case "Automatic" may be the best choice.

Moodle 2 course creation now available in portfolio

Kevin Wiliarty — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:07:45 +0000

During fall 2012 we have been running a small Moodle 2 pilot while most of the campus continues to use Moodle 1. During spring 2013 we will continue to run Moodle 1 and Moodle 2 side by side, but we will be opening the Moodle 2 pilot to all interested faculty.

There are many reasons an instructor may wish to start using Moodle 2. You can find a summary of advantages and a growing list of introductory videos at:

http://moodle.blogs.wesleyan.edu/two-in-twenty/

To facilitate participation in Moodle 2 this spring, the Moodle Course Request app in the faculty portfolio now offers an option to create courses on either system. While requesting courses in the accustomed way, faculty who wish to do so will easily be able to opt in to Moodle 2.

Our course creation process will automatically create not only the desired course, but also a counterpart redirect course on the other system so that wherever a course is, students will be able to find it easily.

Moodle 2.4

Kevin Wiliarty — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 18:52:10 +0000

Highlights

Integration with external calendars such as Google Calendar
Updated activity icons
Group assignments
Blind marking
Submission date extensions
Submission statement

For full details on whatever version is currently under development please visit the official Roadmap at:

http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Roadmap