Moodle index for Steve Draper

Mahara

Mahara 1.4 is said to:

• Be extended to be an e-portfolio.
• Used to have learner's reflection and teacher feedback all in one place: can be separated now. And conversely, can bundle author, peer, and tutor contributions on one "thing" in one place.
• To make it easier to have pictures and videos embedded in an entry.
• You can share a document with anyone, independently of setting permissions and "friends" by generating and email them a secret URL.
  Currently: myportfolio: my views: Add Secret URL

Moodle: my links

•   frozen snapshot of coursework 'support works restore'
  Meant to be a snapshot on 27 Nov, though forum contribs continue to Jan.
  Go to "psy courses" but select "archive" not "sub-categories"
  Select "support work restore" even though it is greyed out.
  The 12 forum links work, but the wiki ones don't. So select "Wiki"
  The pop-up menu "other wikis: Choose.." gives access to the other 12 wikis.

Language exercises

• "Add an activity"
• Of type "Quiz"
• And Dougal has used two types of questions in his quizzes, called (in Moodle):
  • "Embedded answers (Cloze)". This allows him to write sentences, and in place of some words, a menu of alternatives from which the student must select the right one. Thus a short passage may have a dozen questions embedded in it, exercising syntax or vocabulary choices.
  • "Short answer". The student is required to type in a few words into a box in response to a question; and the software has been pre-programmed to recognise each of the common answers, and give different feedback on what is right and wrong about it.

AAW

• "Add a new task"
• and chooses one of only 4 formats:
  • Free Text. (Feedback is either Katie's proposed solution; and/or an explanation)
  • MCQ
  • Select category: they select (drag across) a bit out of a paragraph; and then a menu appears to select what type of error it is.
  • Word click. Pick a word out of a paragraph; then freetext type in of the corrected word.

Naming moodle courses

Moodle 2

Resetting courses

I think typical resets clean out whole moodles.

To recycle a moodle, saving most content, then can get rid of last year's enrolled students by: Admin block -- Reset -- Roles (open tab/block) -- Select "student" only -- Reset course btn at foot of page.
This disenrols all students; and if the block enrols are in place, then they will restore current students over night.

Stopping moodle forum emails

• To turn off all email notifications from all the forums on all the courses you are enrolled on (willingly or not).

  (Logged in, and on some moodle page: )
  Shortcut to right page     OR

  • -- Under Administration (lower part of right hand panel)
  • -- Open "my profile settings"
  • -- Click on "Messaging"
  THEN:
  • -- Scroll down to the very bottom of the page (under "General settings")
  • -- Tick "Temporarily disable notifications"; and click "Update profile"

  BUT: you still get notifications from forums where the Administrator has marked them "forced".

• Less drastically, to reduce forum notifications to a single email a day, summarising all posts to all forums on all your courses:
  Shortcut to right page     OR
  • -- Under Administration (lower part of right hand panel)
  • -- Open "my profile settings"
  • -- Click on "Edit profile"
  THEN:
  • -- Email digest type: -- set to "Subjects (daily email with subjects only)"
  • -- Scroll to bottom and click "Update profile"

Notes on podcasts in moodle2

Moodle2 keeps trying to impose the moodle player, which doesn't allow skipping forward or back, nor downloading.

To get round this:

• Add the recording by "Add a resource" -- "file";
• (Still inside the upload screen): click tab/section "Appearance" -- select "In pop-up" not "automatic".

• Can convert Phil's podcast uploads by:
  • Turn editing on, start editing the resource on the page (Edit -- Edit settings)
  • Appearance -- Display -- In pop-up

• Can convert re-use an existing uploaded file by:
• "Add a resource -- file"
  • Name it
  • Click tab/section "Appearance" -- select "In pop-up" not "automatic".
  • In "select files" -- click icon for "Add"
  • Click "Server files" rather than "Upload a file" and browse to find existing uploads; and click on the one you want.
  • Click "make an alias" rather than "make a copy"
• External links to this resource, if they are to launch without further user clicks, need to be the hidden underlying Moodle file URL. E.g.
  http://moodle2.gla.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=209754
  http://moodle2.gla.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/313244/mod_resource/content/4/CHIP1.14.mp3

Notes on file updating: And adding an audio recording in Moodle

Creating a file "resource" on the Moodle page, for end-users: To add a file, whether podcast (audio recording) or word doc, whatever, you:
Add a resource -- file:

• Name field ["name1" e.g. 'Test resource file']: This is displayed to the end-user on the moodle page.
• (Description field: may also be displayed)
• Filename of the file you upload ["name2" e.g. 'test.doc']....
• (If file is audio, then set: Appearance -- Display -- (not 'Automatic' but) 'In pop-up')
• Content: drag and drop new file e.g. 'test.doc'
• This name may get changed (see below) ["name3"] e.g. 'test (1).doc'

The file now stored in Moodle is always available via a direct URL, even when it is not the selected one of several for that "file resource" and within a "topic" that is all hidden (from students), (but that file resource itself cannot be hidden). So you can create one file resource; store lots of files in it; hide all direct Moodle access to them, and still refer to them from outside.

The URL is of this form: "http://moodle2.gla.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/362546/mod_resource/content/1/CHIP8.14.ppt.pdf"     The last bit is 'name1' i.e. original filename; and the rest is the same for all files in that resource. The "/1/" may be the version number of that file name1 in that resource.

Overwriting, re-naming, switching versions: You can drop multiple files into that area, either at once or later.
You can set which the end-user gets by clicking on the file's icon and then clicking "set main file".
If you re-upload a file of the same name (same name2), then it will ask whether you want to overwrite the existing one, or rename the new one.

Thus you can update installed files by going to the on-page resource that uses it; Edit -- Edit settings -- Content (the drag and drop area) -- and re-up-load a new version with the same name; or indeed with a new name, but setting it to be the "main file".

Re-using pre-uploaded files from another "resource": In the Content (drag and drop area):

• Under the label "select files" just above drag and drop box, click left hand mini icon ("Add ...").
• Click "Server files"
• You get a list of "name1" resources displayed as folders. (If you have two resources on the page with the same name, then you will see both of these.)
• Clicking on one, it displays the set of one or more name3 files stored under that resource.
• Clicking on one, it asks if you want a copy or an alias (pointer) to it; and whether to select it.

Notes on guest access

It is unclear how I can find out what guests can do (controlled by system admin). How to give them read-only access.
But it seems that it is set so that when I enable guest access, anyone can get directly in without course login (as opposed to Moodle general login).

Restricting access to a moodle page

Notes on Moodle 2 and my course

• (Put in course code in main settings: picked up later in enrolments.)
• For a plain front page: choose weekly format, then say number of sections = 0.
• OR use new-ish collapsible sections, for organising big course pages but giving an overview and making it easier for students to find what they want.
  RHS Admin - Edit settings - Course format - Collapsed topics. [opens params]
  Params: (leave all to defaults except:)
  Nmb of sections e.g. 3 or 6.
  Toggle bg: ccffcc
  Toggle bg hover: 88ff88

  At least for the section for slides and recordings, creater a folder in the section (called e.g. "Lectures 2016: slides & recordings").
  Set folder's "display folder contents" to "Inline on a course page"

• So students can see their group members. Course settings; visible groups. Then under "participants" students should be able to select a group and see who is in it.
• To see which students are in NO group, have to: (Admin) Users:: Enrolled users:: Enrollment methods -- All:: scroll down looking to see if they are in any group.
• Create groups. Manually;
  OR read in csv file, one col., with group names; col header "groupname" 0-19 (too much hassle to give longer names)
• Wikis: create one top level wiki.
  • "First page name": Give an empty / space / small-font name for the wiki: you can never edit this, once created.
  • Group mode = Visible groups
  • Grouping = none
  • Default format = HTML
• Wiki links: create a list of links straight into each group wiki page.
  • Put the list as text inside the description of the wiki.
  • Tick box for showing the description.
  • It works; and it shows the list of links both on the top page where the wiki is AND on each top page inside the wiki (a better alternative for the dropdown menu of groups there)

• Forums: [for all types] Create one top level forum.
  • Grouping = none
  • Subscription mode = auto [all at first get email, but can opt out] Or "optional".
• News forum: To get rid of the news forum: settings (Administration -> Course settings), set News items to show: 0.
• Social forum (whole class):
  • Forum type = "Standard forum displayed in a blog-like format"
  • Group mode = No groups
• Separate private groups forum:
  • Forum type = "Standard forum displayed in a blog-like format"
  • Group mode = Separate groups
  • Tick "Available for group members only"
• Forum for collected critiques of other student groups' wikis:
  • Forum type = "Standard forum for general use" (the top level lists threads)
  • Group mode = No groups
  • Me start a thread for each and every group (create in reverse order).

• Enrollment: could use a key; and have the key assign them to a group

• A pain with the moodle2 wiki block is that they insist you name the top page; then you can never change the name AND it is shown not only on the window title but as a big (< H2>) header at the top of the page.

  This undermines the whole idea of having the wiki do different things with diff. groups.

  In principle, it should be possible to suppress it by redefining CSS class "wiki_headingtitle".

• What I would actually like, to make the use of wikis in courses for different groups but as a class resource go well, is: A single student-editable place where they edit the name of the topic which there group eventually does. This one place should automatically change all of:
  • The first major heading on the group's top web page
  • The window TITLE the group's top web page
  • The group name: editing the title into part of the group's name, so dropdown menus inside the wiki show it.
  • The link text for links from the top course page into each group's wiki. This is almost inherently needed for the concept of wiki with "visible groups": because each group's product should be visible to all others; so you need an index/ TOC of this. Perhaps using the TOC which is automatically generated would do this, if it were extended one level up instead of only separately for each group.
• Subscription (whether a person gets an email copy of a forum post) seems only to be modifiable when in the page for writing a new post; AND doesn't seem to be a setting you can inspect anywhere.

Creating groups and wikis in my courses

B] This is a note on my method for the (Moodle) enrollment of students into groups.

• Given an SS with student assignments to groups (partly auto done; partly hand-adjusted), print this out to use.
• Manually enrol students into groups using Admin -- Users -- Groups: select a group, see the members; and can add/delete individuals.
• Tedious: select a group but then must search students for each name individually before can add it. I.e. in class of 100, 100 searches plus btn presses to enrol.

• I have a spreadsheet (SS) with one nmb col. from 1-37 for the groups/topics; and a col. with the title of the topic.
• In creating the groups, Moodle will take a 1-col SS list of group names; which I generated from my SS. (Import groups cmd.)
• Best to put in this char as a non-break space into the group name as first char in 1-digit group nmbs.:-   &#160; This is because the menus list groups in alpha order, so if group titles start with their nmb., must be something to pad 1-digit ones.
• Same SS generates HTML for the first heading on each group's page (with the topic title).
• Same SS generates HTML for index list for jumping straight from course top page into each group's wiki page.
• I generate a sample text with text; Link; IMG; a 2nd section heading.
• In index, I use not pageID but groupID which runs sequentially because of my import-groups. So doesn't matter which order I create each group's page. wid= is one id for whole wiki block; title can be empty string but must be given; group= is an id for the group.
• Then repetitive passes through the groups:
  • Create group's wiki page
  • Paste in std. page contents body (as text not html).
  • Paste in HTML of heading at top for each group
  • Paste in whole block of index links to something on the top page. This is only one operation.

Managing groups

• ** Admin -- Users -- Enrolled users: Group -- All participants:
  Can scroll through the long list and see which groups each is in; and can add them into others right there. Particularly good for spotting double enrols, and no group.
• Admin -- Users -- Groups: select a group, see the members; and can add/delete individuals.
• Navigation -- ... participants: Visible groups: : You get a list of the students in that group, with full details. (Also clicking on a student there, you see which group(s) she is in.) Students can use this one too.

Enrollment. Moodle 2

Unenrolment  

Enrollment notes   If a course is "hidden", then users can't login into it, nor guests.

If an enrolment module (e.g. "UofG Enrollment database") is disabled (the 'eye' mini-icon, then those users can no longer enter the course, until it is re-en-abled. (This can include the course owner!)

New googleDocs approach

• Create one moodle file resource per group. Initialise the first one:
  • With a demo doc setting; Actually, with an alias to the demo doc file, stored somewhere else in moodle.
  • With popup for displaying the file (in a new window)
  • With that window size set bigger than their default (but what about iPhones?)
• Then duplicate that file resource manually one per group
• Go back and edit the title (not inside resource, but on top level) of each to show the group and topic title.

• Make all students, staff so they can upload. This is best done at START of course so they get that role on enrolment. AND so it is turned off at the courswork deadline.
• Possibly role "non-editing staff" if that role can be modified.
• There doesn't now seem an easy way for any of what I want:
  • Giving them all permission just to upload/edit their file resource, not create /del it;
  • Only allowed to edit their own group's resource as in a wiki;
  • Freezing it all read-only at the deadline;
  • Changing roles of all students in bulk, rather than individual mouse clicks.

New method for student sharing work across the course

• Create a demo doc, to initialise all resources with. Store it in a resource elsewhere as well (doesn't have to be nearby).
• Create first topic, and carefully decide and set all params in it. Stage 2 is to dup. this N times, and then edit the title for each of the N groups.
• Settings for the resource before dup. might include:
  • Alias not copy of demo file
  • Appearance: in Popup (?)
  • Popup window size? But what about mobile screens?
  • Resource deadline restriction i.e. auto-shutdown?

• Duplicate N copies of this.
• At top level edit (paste in from a spreadsheet) the topic title including group nmb.

So:

Freezing wikis. Moodle 2 (old)

2) Block by an automatic setting:
Go into the wiki     → Wiki Admin → Edit Settings → open tab "Restrict access" → Add restriction → set time and date to close.

3) ?Hide enrolment block for students: prevent them logging in?

Seeing students / participants. Moodle 2

Video plugins

xx

ToDo still

Write in section names doc above.
Write doc on moodle failing to delete/replace uploads.
Instrs on how to create groups, wikis, forums
Ptr to SLH doc for students, wiki-users.
Check/edit whether workshops generally available now.
key acadstaff

Strategic lacks in Moodle

2) Work flow views. What we should provide perhaps in all courses, and should be available in Moodle, is a workflow view: so a student can see at a glance what their next required action (e.g. assignment deadline) is and when it must be done by. This should be available not only per course, but for all the courses a student is enrolled on as a unified workflow / priority to-do list. Moodle has the information but makes it hard to find for students.

Web site logical path: [www.psy.gla.ac.uk] [~steve] [this page]
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