teaching with moodle moodle management skills · 2018-03-09 · this guide has been developed to...

TEACHING WITH MOODLE

MOODLE MANAGEMENT SKILLS

Contents Teaching with Moodle ........................................................................................................................................ 1

Moodle management skills ................................................................................................................................. 1

For help with Moodle contact: ........................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 2

lynda.com training.............................................................................................................................................. 2

Logging in ........................................................................................................................................................... 2

Enrolling in a course or unit ................................................................................................................................ 3 Switching to Student view .................................................................................................................................. 3

Finding and changing self-enrolment key/s ......................................................................................................... 4

Seeing who is enrolled in your course and individual groups (classes) ................................................................. 6

Creating groups and managing group members.................................................................................................. 7

Implications of group enrolments for teachers ................................................................................................... 8 Troubleshooting student access issues ............................................................................................................... 9

Accessing unit pages from a course page ...........................................................................................................10

Grading assignment submissions .......................................................................................................................11

Viewing quiz results ...........................................................................................................................................12 Viewing the Gradebook .....................................................................................................................................13

Viewing the Activity completion report .............................................................................................................14

Backing up and resetting your course ................................................................................................................15

Appendix: Know your Moodle screens ...............................................................................................................17

For help with Moodle contact: Digital Learning Services

Email: [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

TAFE NSW Version 1.0 of 23

Introduction This guide has been developed to support teachers who are using Moodle for course delivery at TAFE Illawarra. This guide is not designed to support the development of courses in Moodle. Please refer to this guide to answer your day-to-day questions about using Moodle. If you need help with functions that are not outlined in this guide, please contact the Digital Learning Services team.

lynda.com training We recommend all teachers who are new to Moodle complete the Learn Moodle 3.1 The Basics course on lynda.com before starting to set up their course. This course runs for 1h 49m, but you can pick the sections you want to watch.

Logging in Open the Live Moodle at http://moodle.illawarra.tafensw.edu.au Or if you are at TAFE, click on the Moodle “Live” link on the TAFE Illawarra Intranet home page. Log in to the Moodle using your TAFENSW username (the long version) and password. The login block is on the right hand side of the Moodle website.

https://www.lynda.com/Moodle-tutorials/Learn-Moodle-3-1-Basics/464215-2.html?srchtrk=index%3a0%0alinktypeid%3a2%0aq%3amoodle+3.1%0apage%3a1%0as%3arelevance%0asa%3atrue%0aproducttypeid%3a2

http://moodle.illawarra.tafensw.edu.au/


Enrolling in a course or unit

To facilitate a Moodle course you need to be assigned the role of “Teacher” or “Non-editing teacher” in your Moodle course. The “Teacher” role can access all of the features mentioned in this guide, while the “Non-editing teacher” role cannot use those features that involve editing the content of the Moodle course.

If Self-enrolment has been activated for your course, search for the course or unit name in the Search Courses box.

Click on the course or unit name from the list and you will be taken to the enrolment page. Scroll down to the Self enrolment (Teacher) or (Class teacher) box and enter your Enrolment key.

You can click the Unmask box to check that you have typed your Enrolment key correctly. Click Enrol me and you will be redirected to the course home page. In future you can find your course(s) by clicking on the Moodle link (in the top left of your screen) or the TAFE Illawarra logo in the page header. If self-enrolment is not available for your course, and you haven’t already been given teacher access to it, contact the Digital Learning Services team.

Switching to Student view Once you have made your changes in the Moodle, you should check to see how the page would look to your students. You may find you need to add in more spaces or more instructions or explanations.


Go to your USER ICON, select drop down menu and click on the Switch role to…. option.

In the proceeding page choose Student.

You can then view the Moodle page as your students would.

When you have finished checking your work, click the Return to my normal role option from the User Icon area drop down menu. Please be aware that some functions will not work for you while using student view, for example submission boxes. You can view a lynda.com video on this function at Navigating Moodle.

Finding and changing self-enrolment key/s Go to the Administration block on the lower right-hand side of the Moodle page. Click on the Users folder.

Without groups

If you are NOT using groups, then click on Enrolment methods and click on the relevant method. Or if you see the view below, click on the Edit icon for the relevant enrolment method.

https://www.lynda.com/Moodle-tutorials/Navigate-Moodle-course/464215/506289-4.html?srchtrk=index%3a0%0alinktypeid%3a2%0aq%3anavigating+a+moodle+course+3.1%0apage%3a1%0as%3arelevance%0asa%3atrue%0aproducttypeid%3a2


Scroll down to the Enrolment key field and click on the Unmask box – this will display the current enrolment key. If you do not want to change the enrolment key, click on the Cancel button. Type your new enrolment key into the Enrolment key field.

When you are finished, click on the Save changes button at the bottom of the screen.

With groups

To view a group enrolment key, go to the Administration block and click on Users, and then Groups. Click on the name of the group to select it, and then click on the Edit group settings button. You will find the enrolment key in the Enrolment key field. Click the Unmask box to make the key visible. Click the Cancel button when you are finished.


Seeing who is enrolled in your course and individual groups (classes) In the Administration block, click on Users and then on Enrolled users. You will be presented with a list of everyone enrolled in your Moodle page.

At a glance you can see everyone’s names, when they last accessed the Moodle page, what role they have in relation to this Moodle page, what group/s they belong to (if any) and what enrolment method was used to add them to the course. Clicking on First name or Surname will sort the list into alphabetical order by that name “part”. Clicking on the same option again will sort the list into reverse alphabetical order. If you see a record that looks like this:

it means that a student has been “pushed” to Moodle from SALM ebs but they have not yet logged into the Moodle site. When they do log in for the first time, the “Pending” student record will be replaced with the actual student’s details.


To easily see which enrolled students are in a particular group, go to the Administration block, click on Users and then on Groups. Once you are on the Groups page, click on the Group name and a list of group members will display.

Creating groups and managing group members

Create new groups

Groups can be used as a teacher management tool in Moodle, or to restrict access to resources and activities to some students and not others. To create a group, go to the Administration block and click on Users, and then Groups. Click on the Create group button. In the Group name field, give your group a name that you will understand and makes the group easy for you to identify. If you would like students to be automatically added to the group when they enrol in the course/unit, enter a group specific enrolment key in the Enrolment key field. When you are finished, click on Save changes. Note: To use a group enrolment key, you must have allowed this in the self-enrolment method setup for the course/unit page. To check this, go to the Administration block, click on Users and choose the student self-enrolment option. Make sure the Use group enrolment keys field is set to Yes.

Manage group members

To see who is in a group, simply click on the group name and the group members will appear in the column to the right.

To add or remove someone from a group, click on the group name to highlight the group. Click on the Add/remove users button. To add someone to a group, click on their name in the Potential members column and then click on the Add button. To remove someone from a group, click on their name in the Group members column and then click on Remove. When you are finished, click on Back to groups.


Note: Make sure you are also added to the group/s you will be teaching. Tip: If you want students to be allocated to the same group for all units in a course, that group must be created for all Moodle pages. It will make life easier for your students if you use the same group enrolment key for each unit page.

Implications of group enrolments for teachers

Filter using groups

If you have multiple class groups using the same Moodle course page you should have set up groups and added your students (and yourself) to the correct groups (see the Creating groups and managing group members section of this guide). Once your groups have been set up you will be able to filter all student lists throughout the course page. This will include the gradebook, reports and on the enrolled users page. On the Grader report screen (you can access this page by going to the Administration block and clicking on the Grades link or click on the link through This course at the top of the screen) you will see a Separate groups drop-down list. Click on this link and choose the relevant group (or class).

Your student list will refresh and you will only see those students who are enrolled in the group you selected. On the Enrolled users screen (you can access this page by going to the Administration block and clicking on Users and then Enrolled users) you can choose to see the students enrolled in this Moodle course.


If you want to see only those students in a particular class, click on the Group drop-down list and select the relevant group and then click on the blue Filter button.

Anywhere you can see the Separate groups drop-down list you can filter the list of students by group.

Notification emails

Where notifications have been enabled for activities (e.g. for assignment submissions), you will only receive notifications relating to students who are enrolled in the groups that you are attached to. Note: If you are not attached to any groups, then you will receive notifications for ALL students enrolled in the course or unit. Tip: It is worthwhile checking that you are enrolled in all of the groups that you will be teaching (see the Creating groups and managing group members section of this guide) so that you receive the correct notifications. If you do not wish to receive these notification emails (and would prefer to log into the course or unit page to check for submissions that need marking manually) you can modify your personal messaging preferences. Go to Profile block (under your name), click on Preferences and select the Message link. Work through the list of notification types and un-tick the check boxes for those you do not want to receive by email.

Troubleshooting student access issues

Student can’t log into Moodle

To log into the Moodle site, students need to have a current enrolment that is active. Enrolments usually become active within 24 hours of a payment being received from the student. Once the enrolment is active, the student needs to know their TAFE username and password. Students can get these details from either the Customer Service Centre (CSC) or the Library at their campus.


Tip: Please note that usernames must be entered into Moodle in all lowercase letters. Passwords need to be entered exactly as they have been created for the student. Students can have their passwords reset by either CSC or Library staff, or by teachers who have access to the Educational Management Utility (EMU). If these steps have been followed and the student is still not able to log into Moodle, contact the Digital Learning Services team.

Student can log into Moodle, but can’t log into their course/unit page

Students usually need an enrolment key to access their course and unit pages for the first time. Please confirm that the student has the current enrolment key and that they are entering the enrolment key correctly, as the enrolment keys are case sensitive.

Student has logged into their course/unit page in the past, but can’t access it anymore

This may be caused by the student trying to access Moodle with a different TAFE account to the one they have been using. If this is the case do not encourage the student to re-enrol in the course/unit. Check the list of users in your course/unit page and advise them of the correct username to use (see the Seeing who is enrolled in your course and individual groups (classes) section of this guide). If the course/unit has been reset by the teacher, the previously enrolled students will no longer have access to the course/unit page. This is normal. Ask the student to enter the self-enrolment key to re-enrol in the course/unit. The last and least common reason is that a student’s account in Moodle may have been suspended for some reason. If this is the case, please contact the Digital Learning Services team. You can find more information on username and password issues on the Moodle Help page.

Accessing unit pages from a course page If your course has been set up with separate unit pages, the links to these unit pages will be found on the My Learning tab of your course page. If you have the “Teacher” role in your course and need to change the order the unit links are displayed in, you can use the Move tool. Make sure editing is turned on. Left click and hold on the Move tool, drag the link to the position you want and then release the left mouse button.

http://moodle.illawarra.tafensw.edu.au/course/view.php?id=3&section=18


At times you may choose to hide the link to a particular unit. To do this, again make sure that editing is turned on, then to the right of the link you will find the editing tools, click on Edit and then choose Hide.

The link will appear grey instead of blue to you, but will not appear at all for your students. To make the link visible to students again, click on Edit and then Show.

Grading assignment submissions Go to the page where your assessment submission boxes are listed, click on the link for the relevant Assessment submission box to open it. Scroll down a little and then click on the View/grade all submissions link.

If this is the first time you have visited this area, you will see the submissions for every student enrolled in the unit. To view only the submissions of a particular group of students, choose that group from the drop down menu next to the words Separate groups near the top of the screen. You will now see the list of submissions for that group only.


Click on the Grade icon for the student you want to mark. The next page will show your student’s submission. You can download the student’s submitted files, read any comments they have made and confirm the details of the student you are grading. Use the drop down menu in the Grade box to assign the appropriate result. In the Feedback comments, you can type any comments that may be useful to the student. The Feedback files area allows you to attach any files to be returned to the student, such as your marking guide or their marked work. You can drag and drop your file(s) into the upload box. Alternatively, you can find your file and manually upload it. Click on the Add icon. In the File picker window, make sure the Upload a file option in the top left hand corner has been selected. Click on the Choose file button to begin searching your computer’s files. Click on the required file and then click on the Open button. Next click on the Upload this file button near the bottom of the window. Repeat this process to add additional files as needed. If the student’s work is not satisfactory and an additional attempt is required, select Yes from the Allow another attempt drop down list. When you have finished, click on the Save changes button near the bottom of the screen or, if you want to continue marking, click the Save and show next button at the bottom of the screen to go to the next student’s submission to grade. After you save your changes, you will see a confirmation message that your changes have been saved. Click on the Continue button to return to the list of submissions. Your student will receive an email to notify them that their work has been marked. You can view a lynda.com video on this function at Moodle Gradebook.

Viewing quiz results Go to the page where your quiz is located. Click on the name of the quiz activity you want to review. When the quiz activity opens, click on the Attempts link - it will be highlighted blue and you will be able to see how many students have completed the quiz. You will then see a table showing all of the attempts made on the quiz with the students’ names down the left column. If you only want to see the attempts made by students in your class, click on the Separate groups drop down arrow at the top of the screen and choose your class from the list. If a student has correctly answered a question it will be highlighted green, if they have incorrectly answered a question it will be highlighted red and if they got the question partially correct it will be marked yellow. To check what the student actually answered for a particular question, click on the

https://www.lynda.com/Higher-Education-tutorials/Gradebook/491701/569256-4.html


mark for that question. The question, along with the student’s answer and the feedback they received, will be shown in a popup window. If you want to change the students’ mark for this question (or make a comment on their answer), click on the Make comment or override mark link. Another popup window will appear and you can type in a comment or manually change the student’s mark for this question in the green section of the screen. Once you have finished, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on the Save button. If you want to download a copy of the students’ results, scroll back to the top of the screen and click on the Download table data as drop down list and choose Excel spreadsheet.

Then click on the Download button and your report will be downloaded to your computer.

In the Excel spreadsheet you can see the date and time the student started the quiz, the date and time they finished the quiz and how long they took to complete the quiz. The mark in the Grade column is the weighted result each student has received for this quiz. You can save the Excel file and print it if required. You can view a lynda.com video on this function at Quiz .

Viewing the Gradebook The Gradebook (or Grader report) provides a consolidated view of all the grades achieved by students for all assessable activities within a Moodle page. To view the Gradebook, go to the Administration block and click on Grades. You will then see a table showing all of the grades achieved with the students’ names down the left column. If you only want to see the attempts made by students in your class, click on the Separate groups drop down arrow at the top of the screen and choose your class from the list.

https://www.lynda.com/Moodle-tutorials/Quiz/433722/458300-4.html


The Course total column shows the students’ cumulative grade for the course as a whole – it reflects the tasks that have been undertaking up to date, and may change up until the point that all tasks have been completed. The activity name in the header of each column provides a quick link to the activity within the Moodle.

Clicking on the Grades icon next to the students name will display that student’s results for each activity including the actual grade, grade as a percentage, grade range for the activity and any feedback that has been given. To export a copy of the Gradebook, click on the Export tab and then the Excel spreadsheet tab.

Tick all of the Grade items you would like to include in your spreadsheet and the Export format options you require. Then click on the Download button and your report will be downloaded to your computer. You can view a lynda.com video on this function at Gradebook – Categories and items.

Viewing the Activity completion report The Activity completion tracking report gives you an overview of what tasks have been completed, or resources accessed, by the individual students in your class. Tip: You should recommend that your students use the progress tracking tick boxes on their course/unit page to monitor where they are up to and which tasks they have completed. That way you will also be able to monitor their progress regularly.

https://www.lynda.com/Moodle-tutorials/Learn-Moodle-3-1-Basics/464215-2.html?autocompleteMovieId=506318


To view the Activity Completion report

Go to the Administration block. Click Reports and then Activity completion.

Hover over the ticks with your mouse to see the date completed. Depending on your web browser you may need to scroll sideways to see all of the columns. You can also download this report as an Excel spreadsheet.

Backing up and resetting your course Once your classes have finished for the year there are a few things you will need to do to finalise your Moodle course and set it up for the next class. The first is to complete a backup of each of your course and unit pages (they will each need to be done separately). The backups will be a complete copy of the Moodle pages, including all student activities, logs and results from quizzes and assignments. We suggest you store a copy of your


backup with your roll book, or on your section’s SharePoint site, for each unit in the course. The second thing you will need to do is clear out all of the student data from Moodle so your course and unit pages are ready for a new group of students next year. This reset process will un-enrol all of your students from your course and unit pages and remove all of their activities and results (this will also need to be done separately for each unit page). If your current students will continue to use your Moodle course page(s) next year, you should NOT perform the reset process, but you should still complete a backup. You can find detailed instructions on how to perform a backup and reset on the Moodle Help page.

http://moodle.illawarra.tafensw.edu.au/course/view.php?id=3&section=17


Appendix: Know your Moodle screens A. The Dashboard – key areas

1. Moodle Help – this page is available without being logged into the Moodle. It contains

information about the Moodle platform, including an orientation video; logging in and password profiles; editing your profile and more.

2. Log in link – this link takes you to the Moodle log in screen.

3. Log in block – this block also contains a link to the Moodle log in screen, as well as a link to the Username and password problems information on the Moodle Help page.

4. Slideshow – this banner contains information for students on current TAFE Illawarra events and services.

5. Scheduled Maintenance Advice – this area contain information about upcoming scheduled Moodle outages so that users are aware of when Moodle will be unavailable.

6. Search Courses block– allows students to search for their course page without being logged in.


When the student clicks on their course’s name, they are then prompted to log in. •

7. Quick Links block – a selection of links to TAFE Illawarra information and support services for students. B. “My Courses” page

This page appears immediately after you log in to Moodle. The appearance is the same for all Moodle users, although users can choose to Customise the page layout once they log in.

1. Course Overview – this displays a list of links to all Moodle course and unit pages the user is

enrolled in. Reminders for outstanding tasks from each of these pages are listed underneath the page name. When someone logs into Moodle for the first time, this area may be empty – course links will only appear here for first time users if their enrolment in the Moodle course/unit has been pushed from EBS.

2. Messages shortcut – this provides a drop down list of recent messages sent to the user. The

number next to the envelope icon indicates how many new/unread messages are waiting for the user.

3. Messages block – this provides a link to the user’s dedicated messaging page, where they can send and read messages from other Moodle users.


4. User menu – this provides the user with a variety of shortcuts to functions like messaging, forum posts and grade information, as well as the Log out link.

5. Blocks area – this side of the page is where the standard blocks sit. The blocks can be minimized to only show the block title, or docked so that they appear only as a tab on the left-hand side of the screens.


C. Course/unit page – student view The appearance of these pages will vary between users, as students will not be able to see activities and resources that have been hidden, or have been restricted to a group that they do not belong to.

1. My Courses shortcut – this provides a shortcut to the user’s My Home page as well as links to

the courses listed in their Course Overview. 2. This course shortcut – this provides shortcuts for a variety of activities and resources contained

in the course, such as forums, quizzes, files and grades.

3. Arrow icon – clicking on this takes the user to the bottom of the page.

4. Activity Completion Tracking block – this may have different names in different courses/units (or may not be included at all). It is an indicator for the student as to how many of the “mandatory” tasks on the page they have completed. Hovering over each segment in the block identifies the necessary task. As tasks are completed the segments change colour – green for successful completion, red for unsuccessful completion.

5. Navigation block – this gives the user a quick way of navigating both the Moodle page they are on, as well as the site in general.


6. Administration block – this gives the student access to view their grades and to view and edit their profile settings.

7. This is how a block appears when it has been minimised. Blocks can be minimised by clicking on the icon next to the block name, and can be restored to full size by clicking on the icon next to the block name.

8. This is how a block appears when it has been docked. Blocks can be docked by clicking on the icon next to the block name, and can be restored by hovering over the docked block and

clicking on the icon next to the block name.

9. A ticked Activity completion tracking box indicates to the student that they have accessed a specific item on the page. Some of these boxes will be ticked automatically once a student completes a task (indicated with broken lines) and others can be manually ticked by the student (indicated with unbroken lines).

10. Unticked Activity completion tracking boxes indicate to the student that they have not accessed (or completed) an activity on that page.

11. Breadcrumb trail – this is a structured list of links that shows you the navigation path taken through Moodle to get to the current page. When you are in areas like forums, quizzes or submission boxes, clicking on the name of the page in the breadcrumb trail will take you back to the beginning section of the page itself.


D. Course/unit page – teacher view

1. Breadcrumb trail – this is a structured list of links that shows you the navigation path taken

through Moodle to get to the current page. When you are in administrative areas like the Users page, Gradebook or a Report, clicking on the name of the page in the breadcrumb trail will take you back to the beginning section of the page itself.

2. Turn editing on button – pressing this button will put the page into edit mode and change the

colour of the button to red. Pressing the button while it is red will turn editing off.

3. Activity Completion Tracking block – the teacher version of this block contains an Overview of students button. Pressing this button takes you to an overview of all students in the course, indicating which activities each student has completed.

4. Administration block – the teacher version of the Administration block contains links to editing, course settings, reports, grades and more. All of the behind the scenes work on your Moodle page is done via links in this block.

5. This is what a link looks like when it has been hidden. It appears as greyed out to you, but is invisible to your students.


6. This is what a link that is available to a particular group looks like. It appears as greyed out to you, looks like a normal link to group members, but is invisible to the other students.

teaching with moodle moodle management skills · 2018-03-09 · this guide has been developed to...

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