e-Learning: How To Guides

This how to guide addresses the need for a participant (student) on a course to be able to copy a template view from the convenor (lecturer) so they can populate it, and share this with their advisor. The scenario is for people to update, share and sign off their PDPs on the e-Learning Unit on the PGCAPP Course.

This is divided into a number of steps;

Step 1: Copy the view (template) created by the unit convenor

• Click on MyPortfolio
• Click on Copy a View (green button, left hand side): scroll down and find the appropriate view (for the PGCAPP Unit 6 Oct 2010 cohort this is U6 PDP Template, owned by Geraldine Jones)
• Click on the Copy View button. This will display the view in your ePortfolio

Step 2: Change the view name

Your new view should be displayed. At the moment the view has a title – copy of U6 PDP Template. You’ll need to change this to something more meaningful, ie U6 PDP. To do this,

• Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on Edit Title and Description. Change the details

Step 3: Sharing this view with your advisor

At the moment this view will be private, so only you can see it. However, you will need to edit view access and select your advisor from the list. To do this,

• Click on Next: Edit Access at the bottom of the page
• Click on the Add button next to the name of your advisor
• Click on the Save button at the bottom of the screen

[This How To has been adapted from the Panopto Support resource at: http://support.panopto.com/documentation/coursecast22/moodle/addpantomoodle]

In order for your Moodle course to show the Panopto content that has been recorded, you will need to enable the Panopto CourseCast Block on your course page. The following steps will outline how to do this.

Step 1: Adding the Panopto CourseCast block

- Go to the Moodle course that you wish to add the block to and click on the Turn Editing On button.

- From the Blocks block, click on the Add… drop down menu, and select Panopto CourseCast from the list.

Now that the Panopto CourseCast Block has been added, you can Turn Editing Off. The next step is to configure the Panopto CourseCast block.

Step 2: Provisioning your Moodle course

If the Moodle course that you are in has already been provisioned to Panopto, the block will show up with the course already configured to show your recordings.

If the Moodle course has not been provisioned yet, you willl need to select the related Panopto course or provision your Moodle course to Panopto at that time. To do so, click on Configure Block…

The Configuing a Panopto CourseCast block page will appear.

You can use the drop-down next to Course: to choose the Panopto Folder that you wish to associate with your Moodle Course. If your course does not appear in the drop down, please contact the Audio Visual team to have it created.

Step 3: Synchronising the User List

Once you have chosen your course, you will need to give access to the Panopto recordings to the Parcipicants (Teachers and Students) within your Moodle course.

In order to update the users list to control who has access to this content, click on the Configure Block… link again and then Sync User List.

Please note that each time the Participant list in your Moodle course changes, you will need to repeat this process.

A view is a collection of resources that are presented together on one page to be shared with other Mahara users. It might take the form of a CV, a reflective portfolio, a project presentation page. Each Mahara user can create many views for different purposes.

A view is created by adding a collection of blocks to an empty page which will pull in your information to form the finished page. It can include text, images, video, RSS feeds, blog posts, profile information.  Once set up, the view can then be named and allocated its own access permissions – from an individual user, to specific groups, to all Bath Mahara users, to full external public access.

To create a view

Follow these three steps. At any point you can click on the blue ? help buttons on the page for extra guidance. Any fields in red with an asterisk * are not optional and must be completed.

• Click on the tabs My Portfolio, My View
• Click on the Create a View button in the top right

Create View Step One: Layout

• Drag and drop blocks from the tabbed sections at the top of the page onto the blank view at the bottom to set up the layout of your view
• Configure the block as required, then Save
  • Leave the Block title blank if a title isn’t required
  • In profile blocks, you will only have the option to add fields that you have already completed in your Profile information
• Click on the x icon at the top right to delete unwanted blocks
• Click on the cog icon if you want to open the block to configure again
• Click on the top left link Change my View Layout if you want to amend the number and width of column
• Click on the top right link Display my View to see how your view will look to other users (then click on back or edit to go back to the editing page)
• When finished, click on the Next button at the bottom of the page

Create View Step Two: Details

• Give your view a title
• Add a description - recommended to help you and other users recognise it within a list of available views
• Add tags - to classify the view and make it easier to search for
• Select a Name Display Format – how people looking at the view will see the owner’s name displayed at the top of the page
• When finished, click on the Next button at the bottom of the page

Create View Step Three: Access

• Decide if you want to Allow copying of your view by other users
• By default the view is only available to the owner, so Add who will be able to view/copy it
  • Public
  • Logged In Users
  • Friends
  • Secret URL – creates a URL which lets you share your view with non-users
  • Individual Users – use the Search box
  • Specific Groups – use the Search box
• If required, set dates for when the view will be available
• Click on Save

Your view will now show in your list of views, along with details of its associated tags and artefacts, and its viewing and copying permissions. From here, you can return to any of the three steps above and edit details.

SOOT is a web application that enables staff other than module tutors to be associate with a unit in SAMIS.  It also enables multiple staff to be associated with programmes of study.  These associations can then be brought through into e-tools such as Moodle and the LMF.

Note:  You do not have to use SOOT – both Moodle and the LMF can be used without it, however the benefit of storing associations in a central location like this is that only one list has to be maintained and only one interface used to do so.  This is not only more efficient, but it also avoids potential problems with membership discrepancies between multiple lists.

SOOT can be used by any member of staff – either by those who would like to request an association with a particular unit or programme (in order  to gain access to it in Moodle or the LMF), or by those who are seeking to give access.  SOOT is located at www.bath.ac.uk/soot and can be accessed from on and off campus.

Upon logging into SOOT with your BUCS username and password you will be presented with a welcome screen (as shown below).

Typical SOOT Homepage

Towards the top of the screen there are four tabs:  ‘Home’, ‘Join units’, ‘Join programmes’ and ‘Manage units’.

The ‘Home’ page is a summary page.  It shows the status of your current enrolments (listing your status as ‘tutor’ or ‘other staff’ as appropriate), and also provides access to a record of pending, approved and declined SOOT requests.

You can request to be added as ‘other staff’ on units and programmes from the relevant tabs – the process for doing so is the same.

Requesting Access to a Unit or Programme.

• Click onto the relevant tab (’Join units’ or ‘Join Programmes’)
• Search for the course you wish to be added to (this can be by title or by SAMIS code).
• Click onto the course to select it

You may repeat the process in order to include multiple courses in your request (as shown below)

Joining units or programmes

Once you have identified all of the courses you wish to have ‘other staff’ access to, simply press the ‘Review’ button and then (on the next screen) the ‘confirm’ button.  This will generate an email request which is automatically sent to the module tutor of the course (or designated SOOT representative).

Note:  Many programmes don’t have a programme manager assigned in SAMIS (i.e. someone who takes ownership of the programme and who can accept requests of this nature).  As this is the case, you may need to contact the e-Learning team in order to join programmes.

Managing Access Requests

Email requests from SOOT will include a link back to SOOT which can then be used to approve or deny access as appropriate.

If you have received requests, your SOOT homepage will display the requests alongside ‘Approve’ and ‘Decline’ buttons (as shown below).

Managing access requests

If you decide to decline the request, you will have the opportunity to provide a reason – your response (whatever it is), is then emailed back to the requester.

A summary of all your access requests (and their status) is available from  the Homepage.

Managing your units

If you are the module tutor (convenor) for a specific unit you may wish to amend ”other staff’ memberships at some point in the future.  As with making the requests, the SOOT interface to can also be used to remove access.

• Select the ‘Manage Units’ tab to see a list of units for which you are the convenor.
• Click onto a specific unit in order to manage memberships (as shown below)

Screenshot of 'Manage Units' page

From this page you can modify the ‘other staff’ associated with your courses by pressing the relevant ‘Add’ or ‘Remove’ icon – it will take up to 24 hours for any changes to ‘other staff’ associations to cascade into e-tools such as Moodle.

Additionally, on this screen you are also able to designate a ‘unit administrator’ for the course.  In this context, the administrator is simply a nominated individual to whom future access requests will be sent.  This can be useful where a unit tutor would prefer access requests to be dealt with by someone else.

Self Unenrolment

Having been given access to units and programmes as an ‘other staff’ member, you may eventually wish to unenrol yourself from them.

• Select the ‘Homepage’ tab
• Click onto the ‘Your Enrolments’ button

You will see a breakdown of courses that you have access to – either as a module tutor (course convenor) or as an ‘other staff’ member.  With the exception of courses for which you are the convenor, you can click choose to leave the unit or programme (as shown below).

Self unenrolment

Note:  If you wish to unenrol from a Moodle course but are listed as an ‘other staff’ member for the unit, you will need to remove the ‘other staff’ association for the course via SOOT (as if you don’t, you will automatically be re-enrolled within 24 hours).

Departmental Access

SOOT also has a bulk request facility (accessible only through the e-Learning Team), which can be used to request and grant access to every SAMIS course (units and programmes) within a Department.

Typically requests for this level of access come from Directors of Studies (or similar) who need to maintain an overview of all supporting course materials in Moodle or the LMF.  Should you require information about this facility or any other aspect of SOOT, please contact the e-Learning Team by emailing e-learning@bath.ac.uk.

Your Mahara profile view will be accessible by all logged in users of mahara.bath.ac.uk.  It is also possible to make your profile available externally to the wider public. (For more information see the FAQ “Who can see my profile view on Mahara?”)

Your profile is easy to set up. First you need to add all the background information (artefacts) , then edit your profile page to bring together the elements of the view you want to display (blocks).

Use the blue help buttons on the page to access additional information.

Background information – Edit Profile

Click on the Profile tab at the top of the page and the Edit Profile section will open.  Here you can add all the background information you might want to be pulled through into your profile (and any other view that you choose).  This information will not be displayed automatically in your profile – you can choose what to show in each view you set up. Sections in red with an asterisk must be completed:

• About Me - ‘Preferred name’ will override the displayed Firstname Lastname in your profile and elsewhere on Mahara
• Contact Information - You can add more than one email address and choose which to use as the default for your Mahara messages
• Messaging
• General

Background information – Profile Icons

You can upload up to five images to use with your profiles and other views through Profile, Profile Icons.  These need to be at least 16 x 16 pixels in size.

Set one of the images as a default to be displayed in your profile. You can use your other profile icons in other views – but remember that all images are accessible to all logged in Mahara users!

Edit profile page

By default your profile page will already display:

• About Me – general information about the user
• My Groups – a list of groups the user belongs to
• My Views – a list of views that the user looking at this profile also has access to
• My Friends – a selection of the user’s ‘friends’ on Mahara
• Wall – where other users can post messages

Click on Profile, Edit Profile Page and then use the following options to set up your profile view in the way you would like:

• You can add blocks by dragging them in from the tabbed options above the profile view
• Drag blocks around the profile page to change their position
• Click on the ‘X’ at the top right of a block to delete it
• Click on the cog icon at the top right of a block to configure it (choose what information to display, which blog to link to etc)
• Change the width and number of columns by clicking on Change my View Layout (link at top left of profile view)
• Click on Display my View (link at top right of profile view) to see how it will look to logged in Mahara users
• Click on Done (at the bottom of the page) to finish

Why not set up your Moodle Gradebook so that it accurately reflects the assessment elements in your unit. This will enable the export of all the unit grades and course total into an easy-to-read Excel format at the end of the study period ready for input to SAMIS.

For example, there are five assessment elements in a unit, the grades of which need to be weighted as follows:
* Three assignments which constitute 75% of the course total.  Each assignment to be equally weighted within the 75%.
* Two quizzes which constitute 25% of the course total, equally weighted.

By default, all five items will appear in the Grader report in the same overall unit category and their grades will be aggregated by a Simple Weighted Mean of Grades.  This may not calculate the grades as expected. For an explanation of this aggregation see the FAQ at: http://go.bath.ac.uk/dm18.

To weight these assessments will require the creation of two separate categories weighted 75% and 25% and the relocation of the items into the relevant categories.

To see the current grades aggregation:

• Click on Grades in the Administration block to view the Grader Report.
• In the Choose an action dropdown menu (at the top left), select Categories and items: Full view.

To create a new category:

• Click on Add a category (at the bottom of the page).
• Choose a Category name (this will be displayed to students in their individual grade reports so it would be advisable to include the weighting in the category name by way of explanation e.g. ‘Assignments – 75% of total‘).
• Select the Aggregation method.  Choosing Mean of grades will weight all items in the category equally.
• Decide whether or not to Aggregate only non-empty grades. The default in the Gradebook is for only completed, marked work to be included in the aggregation of the course total. Choosing not to do this means that any unmarked, unattempted assessments will be assigned a grade of zero and included in the aggregation of the final course total. The course total will gradually accumulate over the unit’s life.
• Save changes.

To move items into a new category:

• Tick the Select checkboxes in the column on the right.
• In the Move selected items to dropdown list, choose the category where the items need to be moved.
• Repeat for the second category.

To weight categories:

• In the Aggregation column (for the overall unit category) select Weighted mean of grades from the dropdown list.
• A new column labelled Weight will appear, add the weightings for each category (0.75 and 0.25) and Save changes.

To view and export the grades:

To return to the Grader report:  click on Grades in the links at the top left of the page, then Turn editing off.

To view how students will see their assessment grades:  click on View: User report from the Choose an action dropdown list (at the top left).

To check an individual student’s grade report:
* From the front page of the unit, click on Participants in the People Block.
* Find the student in the participants list and click on their name to view their profile.
* Click on the Login as button at the bottom of their profile, then Continue.
* Click on Grades in the Administration block.
* When finished, go back to the front page of the unit and click on your own name in the top right of the Navigation Bar to login as yourself again.

To export the unit grades, feedback and course totals:  see the FAQ at http://go.bath.ac.uk/asn4.

Ideally, when creating quizzes and quiz questions in Moodle you will pre-plan the structure and naming of the elements in your questionbank so that your questions are easy to identify and your quizzes simple to update.

However, the reality is that a questionbank often evolves over a period of time and questions end up falling into the default category for that unit (see Image 1). Tidying up the questionbank in your Moodle unit is fairly straightforward, just take a look at the tips below for advice on:

• creating new question categories
• moving questions to new categories
• renaming questions
• deleting questions and categories

Bear in mind that you can’t add or remove questions to a quiz once students have taken it, but you can rename the questions or alter their question category while they are still in use.

Creating new question categories

Newly created questions will have automatically been added to the ‘Default’ question category for that unit on Moodle.  As the number of quizzes and questions in your Moodle unit increases, it may be wise to manage the structure of your questionbank.  Creating a new question category is simple.

• Click on Questions (in the Administration Block) and then the Categories tab
• You will see all existing question categories and the number of questions currently in that category (see Image 2).
• Click on the ‘Parent‘ dropdown menu and choose ‘Top‘
• Name the question category
• Click on Add Category to save

• It is possible to add sub-categories once you have created Top level categories for the unit (see Image 3)
• Use the delete, edit and move icons to rearrange your question categories

Moving questions to new categories

1. To move individual questions from within the quiz itself.

• Go to the quiz in your Moodle unit
• Click on the Edit tab at the top
• For the question you want to move, click on the Edit icon (pen and paper) in the Action column
• Untick ‘Use this category‘
• Choose the new category from the dropdown list
• Click on the ‘Save changes‘ button at the bottom

2. To move individual or groups of questions from within the question bank

• Click on Questions (in the Administration Block)
• In the Action column, tick the questions to be moved
• In the ‘With selected‘ section at the bottom, use the dropdown menu to choose the new category
• Click on the ‘Move to >>‘ button

Renaming questions

If you decide to rename the quiz questions (see Image 4), your naming convention may want to include:

• author
• question type (eg multiple choice, true/false, cloze)
• topic or other identifying text
• date created

Deleting questions or categories

When you come to delete questions that are no longer needed, remember that you will not be able to do this if students have already attempted the quiz.  You will need to remove all quiz attempts before deleting.

A question category can be deleted from the Categories tab (Administration block, Questions) by clicking on the delete icon (red cross).  You will not be able to delete unless the category is empty of questions and sometimes hidden questions will prevent deletion.  To view hidden questions, click on the Questions tab, tick the checkbox for ‘Also show old questions‘ and then delete from here.

One of the interesting new features that will be coming soon in Moodle 2.0 is the ability to create conditional activities. This will allow teachers to make the availability of activities dependent on conditions such as marks obtained for or the completion of another activity.

While Moodle 2.0 is currently still in development, it is possible (with a little tweaking) to set up something equivalent in the version of Moodle that we are using.   This has been introduced in a first year core Maths unit as a means of making the availability of an assignment submission point dependent on a student submitting correct answers in a quiz. The quiz is used to check that the functions that students have written are correctly calculating the anwers to specific mathematical questions before they are able to hand in their completed code as an assignment. The tutor’s attention is then immediately drawn to those who haven’t submitted and therefore don’t have a working program.

Such conditionality could also be used to require students to:

• check specific understanding of terms/content before opening an online submission point
• confirm understanding of a plagiarism declaration/assessment offences before submitting work
• route students through to differentiated learning resources dependent on their achievement in a test

How to set up a conditional assignment submission point:

• Create an assignment in the very end topic of your unit on Moodle.
  • If you need to change the number of topic sections you have in the course go to Administration, Settings.
  • Click on Save and Display when you’ve completed the set up page and you will see your assignment submission point
  • Copy the URL of the assignment activity you’ve just created from the address bar at the top of the page (eg http://moodle.bath.ac.uk/mod/assignment/view.php?id=156426)
• Create a quiz activity in your course.
  • In the Review Options untick all Answers
  • In Feedback, set the first Grade Boundary as 100% and in the Feedback for this grade add some text such as “Well done, you may now submit your assignment here” and link this to the URL of the assignment activity you copied earlier
  • Set a second Grade Boundary of 99.99% with Feedback “Sorry, you need to answer all questions correctly to be able to submit your assignment”.
  • Set the quiz questions
• Hide the assignment submission point so that students can’t accidentally stumble across it
  • Switch off the Gradebook (in Admin, Settings)
  • Hide the Activities block (Turn Editing On, click on the eye icon at the top of the Activities block)
  • Hide the final topic section of your course (eg in Admin, Settings change the number of topics from 10 to 9 if your assignment has been set up in topic section 10)

Further help and information:

• For more detailed guidance on setting up an assignment see here.
• For help with creating quizzes in Moodle see here.
• Find out more about the conditional activities planned for Moodle 2.0 here.

Overview

The Assignment Activity lets students submit work and allows teachers to give grades and feedback in Moodle.  This document will guide you through the process of giving feedback and marks for assignments submitted online via Moodle.  Information in italics will include pointers on administrative and procedural questions that you might want to take into account.

Screenshots that highlight the information below are available to download as a PDF.

Finding the submitted work

You can access your assignments for marking from one of two locations:

* At the assignment submission point in the Topic or Week where the assignment activity was added
* In the Activities block (usually found to the left), click on Assignments to see all assignment activities for that unit

Once the Assignment Activity is open, click on View submitted assignments (top right) to go to the list of submitted work.

Marking submitted assignments:

1. If the unit participants have been organised into groups then clicking on the separate (visible) groups dropdown list will let you choose to view only one group of students – no need to search through the whole cohort for work that needs marking.
2. Clicking on the column headings will reorder information, so sorting by Status will separate out unmarked work.
3. Click on file names to open a file.  If you want to save a file: right-click on the file name and select ‘Save link as’ or ‘Save target as’ (depending on your web browser) and browse for a location to save.
4. If you have a large number of files to download you might want to use the Firefox Add On ‘DownThemAll’ to download multiple files at once.  More information on how to do this is available in the Moodle FAQs here.
5. If you only need to add grades and comments, tick the box to Allow quick grading. Then Save preferences to move to the quick grading screen. The quick grading screen lets you grade and comment on all submitted assignments for that unit (group) in one marking session without having to save each and move to a new screen.

Using the grading screen:

There are several approaches you can take to providing grades and feedback:
* Add a grade or comment only
* Add a grade and comment
* Upload a standard feedback sheet (in Word) as a Response File
* Download the submitted work, annotate it with feedback and then re-upload as a Response File

1. Add grades through the dropdown menu and comments in the text box. Customised Grade Scales can be created in the settings to reflect the mark scheme for the assignment.
2. If the assignment activity has been hidden from students they will not be alerted that their work has been marked.   If the assignment has not been hidden for marking, untick Send notification emails if you don’t want students to be sent an email that links them back to their grades as the work is marked.
3. Save and show next takes you to the next unmarked assignment.
4. Upload a feedback sheet or annotated work as a Response file.  Note: for this response file to be visible to the student, you must have added a grade and written something in the comments.

Remember to switch back on the grade book for the unit and unhide the assignment submission point in order to make grades and feedback available to students.  Students will not now be emailed automatically to alert them to feedback at this point. However, adding a post about the return of grades in the News Forum will email this message to all participants.

Further information on using the assignment activity in Moodle

If you are thinking of setting up an Assignment Activity in Moodle, more information can be found here.

The paper ‘Factors to consider for the effective use of the Moodle assignment activity in online submission of work‘ is available on Opus.

Assignment activity FAQs are available here: http://go.bath.ac.uk/bxs6

General FAQs about using moodle.bath.ac.uk can be found at: http://moodle.bath.ac.uk/faq/

There is also support available from the Moodle community:
* Documentation on the assignment activity module: http://go.bath.ac.uk/lmoc
* FAQs about the assignment activity: http://go.bath.ac.uk/mozi
* User forum with answers to questions about the assignment activity: http://go.bath.ac.uk/dr77

• Last updated: 28th February, 2010

Introduction

There are a number of tools available at the University for you to use to help facilitate real time, online based communication. There are also an increasing number of externally hosted solutions. The aim of this how to guide is to enable you to make a more aware of the choices when deciding on the tool(s) you will use.

If you are using externally hosted solution please read the guidelines available at the bottom of the e-learning Tools page <http://www.bath.ac.uk/learningandteaching/themes/e-learning/tools>. It is important to be aware of some of the issues surrounding using externally hosted web 2.0 solutions in your teaching and learning. To help the implementation of an externally hosted solution, such as Skype, Google Chat etc. you might encourage students to include their skype username within their Moodle profile.

University available tools

Text (instant messenger)

There are two instant messenger tools available. One is Moodle Chat available in your Moodle course the other is Pidgin (http://www.bath.ac.uk/bucs/tools/wikisandblogs/PidginHowTo.html). Pidgin is an instant messenger tool supported by BUCS. It will also allow you to integrate your other instant messenger software.

An advantage of both these solutions are they use the University of Bath authentication so students will not need to create more accounts, and they integrate with group management tools and SAMIS unit codes. A disadvantage is not being easily able to include non-Bath people, and these offer text only.

Desktop Conferencing

There are two conference solutions available. Firstly, Megameeting (http://blogs,bath.ac.uk/desktopconferencing). This is provided by the e-Learning Team, it enables people to video conference, share desktop, run lectures, ask questions from your desktop. The second is the Access Grid (http://www.bath.ac.uk/bucs/services/audiovisual/accessgridnodes/) network.

Which ones should I use?

The following questions are intended to try to help you identify what might be the best solution for you. You are advised to contact the e-learning Team if you have any further questions.

• Q. Will text (instant messenger) only conversations meet my aims and needs?
• A. If yes, you are advised to keep it simple and look for the Moodle Chat or Pidgin as University supported solutions. An advantage of these is students will have a university account therefore they will not need to create a new account on an externally hosted solution.

• Q. Will the meeting be 1-2-1?
• A. If yes, the again look for the simplest solution. However, if no, be aware the more people involved the more difficult it maybe to manage the desktop conference. Therefore, I’d inclined to use specialist tools such as Skype or Megameeting. I’d also suggest Megameeting over Skype as you can set up note pages to help manage the meetings and inform people of responsibilities.

• Q. Will it be students arranging meetings with other students or will staff always be involved?
• A. If your session is staff led, i.e., the lecture is presenting and in control, then Megameeting or Access Grid might be appropriate. However, if students need to meet other students then you should focus on a system where they have administrative control, such as an externally hosted solution, i.e Skype, google chat etc., That said, you can easily set up a general room for your course in Megameeting, and share the room name (and password) with your students, They can then arrange their own meetings in the Megameeting service.

• Q. Do you need a recording of the event?
• A. In some cases you might need a recording of the session. In such a case it might be would be easier to use Megameeting or Access Grid.

• Q. Do you want to share and annotate docs
• A. If you need to share and annotate docs, presentations or what is being displayed on your desktop then conference solutions such as Megameeting would be easier to use compared to Skype or MSN.

• Q. Do you want it integrated with your moodle course?
• A. If this is the case, the only available solution is Moodle Chat.

Where do I go next?

You are also strongly encouraged to contact the  e-Learning team at e-learning@bath.ac.uk .