General Introduction to (features in) Moodle MVU workshop in Cyprus Tutor course, June 27–28, 2005 Brian Møller Svendsen eLearning Lab, Aalborg University, Denmark

Presentation overview: What is Moodle User roles in Moodle Interface of Moodle Features/activity modules in Moodle Tips on getting started

What is Moodle 1/3 Moodle is a Course Management System (CMS) Web-based Flat structure built around topics (or weeks) For each topic one can add several different tools – resources, forums, chat, assignment, journal, workshop, quiz etc. Resources could be a document, a program, a file, a hyperlink etc. Possible to grade in many different ways, if one wants to do that.

What is Moodle 2/3 Open Source -Underlying community, which develops and supports Modulated: -Forums -Quizzes -Dialogs -… For further information, please visit:

What is Moodle 3/3 Different roles in Moodle: –Administrator –Course creator –Teacher –Student –(Guest access) The different roles come with different privileges and user rights.The role affects what you can do. E.g. students cant edit topics, but they can discuss. They cant edit the system. One can edit Moodle on the web – no programming needed. Fairly simple web-dialog interface in relation to editing – however lots of choices.

User roles in Moodle 1/6 Administrators Can do anything and go anywhere in the Moodle system Control the creation of courses Create teachers by assigning users to courses Note: There can be enrolled several administrators in one Moodle system, but only one primary administrator, who will have a few more privileges.

User roles in Moodle 2/6 Course Creators Can create new courses Can teach in assigned courses Can edit existing courses Can assign/remove teachers and students Note: As a course creator you will not be able to delete courses - only edit them. Only administrators can delete courses.

User roles in Moodle 3/6 Teachers Can teach in assigned courses Can edit existing courses - Teachers may have editing privileges removed so that they can't modify the course (e.g. for part-time tutors). Can assign/remove teachers and students Note: When you become a teacher you are only teacher on the assigned courses.

User roles in Moodle 4/6 Students Can attend courses Can upload their assignments to the server Can write entries in the discussion forum … much more …

User roles in Moodle 5/6 Guests Always have "read-only" access - meaning they can't leave any posts or otherwise mess up the course for real students Two types of guest access: With the enrolment key - If you choose to allow guests who have the key, then the guest will need to provide the current enrolment key every time they log in (unlike students who only need to do it once). This lets you restrict your guests. Without the enrolment key - If you choose to allow guests without a key, then anyone can get straight into your course.

User roles in Moodle 6/6

Interface of Moodle 1/7 Editing feature (on/off) Main navigational area List of courses Main content area " Teasers "

Interface of Moodle 2/7 Participants: Shows you a list of teachers/instructors and students assigned to the course. Groups: The group mode can be one of three levels: –No groups - there are no sub groups, everyone is part of one big community –Separate groups - each group can only see their own group, others are invisible –Visible groups - each group works in their own group, but can also see other groups Edit profile: Here you can edit your personal profile. We usually encourage students to build an online profile including photos, description etc. addresses can be protected from display if required.

Interface of Moodle 3/7 Activities Shows a list of all the activities in the course. Hence, the "Activities" box can contain other items as the one shown here – e.g. "Surveys" where students may fill out a questionnaire. Please see the handout for setting up the different activities in Moodle. Search You should note that it only searches the forums for the course, not the course description or course materials/resources.

Interface of Moodle 4/7 Turn editing on Same feature as the button in the upper right corner Settings This is where you edit the course settings like course name, ID number, course format, the use of enrolment key etc. Tutors / Participants This is the user administration feature, where you can assign/remove teachers, enroll students etc. Backup / Restore Lets you easily backup your course including a range of optional settings like users, logs, user files and more. The restore feature lets you 'unzip' your restored course Scales Teachers can create new custom scales to be used in a course for any grading activities. Format like: Disappointing, Not good enough, Average, Good, Very good, Excellent!

Interface of Moodle 5/7 Grades Overview of participants grades. Available also on excel and text format Logs Lets you view course logs like participant activity (logins, user click paths etc.). You can view individual students or logs based on total number of users / date / activity and more… Files File management feature. Lets you upload file, create folders etc. Help A comprehensive help section with links to further information. Teacher forum A forum solely for teachers

Interface of Moodle 6/7 Shows a list of the courses you are affiliated with.

Interface of Moodle 7/7 Teasers Offer quick access to the latest information; -News -Upcoming events -Recent activities

Features/activity modules in Moodle 1/5 Assignments Assignments allow the teacher to specify a task that requires students to prepare digital content (any format) and submit it by uploading it to the server. Typical assignments include essays,projects, reports and so on. This module includes grading facilities. Chats The Chat module allows participants to have a real-time synchronous discussion via the web. This is a useful way to get a different understanding of each other and the topic being discussed - the mode of using a chat room is quite different from the asynchronous forums. The Chat module contains a number of features for managing and reviewing chat discussions. Forums This activity can be the most important - it is here that most discussion takes place. Forums can be structured in different ways, and can include peer rating of each posting. The postings can be viewed in a variety for formats, and can include attachments. By subscribing to a forum, participants will receive copies of each new posting in their . A teacher can impose subscription on everyone if they want to.

Features/activity modules in Moodle 2/5 Glossary This activity allows participants to create and maintain a list of definitions, like a dictionary. The entries can be searched or browsed in many different formats. The glossary also allows teachers to export entries from one glossary to another (the main one) within the same course. Finally, it is possible to automatically create links to these entries from throughout the course. Journals This module is a very important reflective activity. The teacher asks the student to reflect on a particular topic, and the student can edit and refine their answer over time. This answer is private and can only be seen by the teacher, who can offer feedback and a grade on each journal entry. It's usually a good idea to have about one Journal activity per week. Lessons A lesson delivers content in an interesting and flexible way. It consists of a number of pages. Each page normally ends with a question and a number of possible answers. Depending on the student's choice of answer they either progress to the next page or are taken back to a previous page. Navigation through the lesson can be straight forward or complex, depending largely on the structure of the material being presented.

Features/activity modules in Moodle 3/5 Quizzes This module allows the teacher to design and set quiz tests, consisting of multiple choice, true- false, and short answer questions. These questions are kept in a categorised database, and can be re-used within courses and even between courses. Quizzes can allow multiple attempts. Each attempt is automatically marked, and the teacher can choose whether to give feedback or to show correct answers. This module includes grading facilities. Resources Resources are content: information the teacher wants to bring into the course. These can be prepared files uploaded to the course server; pages edited directly in Moodle; or external web pages made to appear part of this course. SCORM packages A SCORM package is a bundle of web content packaged in a way that follows the SCORM standard for learning objects. These packages can include web pages, graphics, Javascript programs, Flash presentations and anything else that works in web browsers. The SCORM module allows you to easily upload any standard SCORM package and make it part of your course.

Features/activity modules in Moodle 4/5 Surveys The Survey module provides a number of verified survey instruments that have been found useful in assessing and stimulating learning in online environments. Teachers can use these to gather data from their students that will help them learn about their class and reflect on their own teaching. Wikis A Wiki enables documents to be authored collectively in a simple markup language using a web browser. "Wiki wiki" means "super fast" in the Hawaiian language, and it is the speed of creating and updating pages that is one of the defining aspects of wiki technology. Generally, there is no prior review before modifications are accepted, and most wikis are open to the general public or at least to all persons who also have access to the wiki server. The Moodle Wiki module enables participants to work together on web pages to add, expand and change the content. Old versions are never deleted and can be restored. Workshops A Workshop is a peer assessment activity with a huge array of options. It allows participants to assess each other's projects, as well as exemplar projects, in a number of ways. It also coordinates the collection and distribution of these assessments in a variety of ways.

Features/activity modules in Moodle 5/5 Moodle Features Demo Course

Don't be afraid to experiment: feel free to poke around and change things. It's hard to break anything in a Moodle course, and even if you do it's usually easy to fix it. Notice and use these little icons: –the edit icon lets you edit whatever it is next to. –the help icon will provide you with a popup help window –the open-eye icon will let you hide something from students –the closed-eye icon will make a hidden item available Use the breadcrumbs at the top of each page this should help remind you where you are and prevent getting lost. Tips on getting started 1/3

Tips on getting started 2/3 Move right Move Edit Delete Hide No groups Editing activities Editing blocks Hide Delete Move up Move right

Tips on getting started 3/3 The word "Moodle" was originally an acronym for Modular Object- Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, which is mostly useful to programmers and education theorists. It's also a verb that describes the process of lazily meandering through something, doing things as it occurs to you to do them, an enjoyable tinkering that often leads to insight and creativity. As such it applies both to the way Moodle was developed, and to the way a student or teacher might approach studying or teaching an online course. Anyone who uses Moodle is a Moodler.