Moodle @ University of Bath

The following survey is being carried out by a number of educational institutions across the UK to act as a snap shot to identify student awareness of QR Codes, what experience people have of using them and the type of technology they have in their pockets.

This piece of research is very important as it will give us a much better appreciation of how we might use QR Codes and similar technologies in teaching and learning. People are becoming increasingly interested in the potential of using QR Codes to connect physical and electronic learning spaces. This is being investigated in a JISC LTIG Project run by the University of Bath (http://blogs.bath.ac.uk)

The survey is available from http://www.survey.bath.ac.uk/qrcode1109

The survey should take you only a few minutes, and you will be able to enter for a prize draw to win an iPod Touch or a Nintendo DS Lite. There is an iPod Touch and a Nintendo DS Lite available for each of the seven institutions involved in the JISC LTIG Project (Gloucestershire College, Manchester Met University, University of Bath, University of East Anglia, University of Gloucestershire, University of Leicester and University of Sheffield)

The survey is available from http://www.survey.bath.ac.uk/qrcode1109

The closing date is 6th December, 2009

The e-Learning team have recently purchased a new Moodle-related e-book, which is now available for download through the Library website.

Moodle 1.9 Multimedia, a useful resource to help you to create and share multimedia learning materials within your Moodle courses, is  available for download at: http://go.bath.ac.uk/r86z

This book complements a publication that was made available some time ago, Using Moodle, 2nd Edition. Whilst written for Moodle 1.8 rather than version 1.9.6 this we currently use at the University of Bath, the e-book still holds a great deal of value. Some areas of Moodle may differ between the two versions, but this resource nevertheless continues to provide a helpful “hands-on guide with examples, screenshots, best practices, and suggestions for using Moodle tools effectively and creatively”. It is available at: http://go.bath.ac.uk/63fb

Finally, and for anything else, you can (still) get in touch with the e-Learning team at: e-learning@bath.ac.uk.

posted on behalf of Katie Evans (Library)

The Library is aware of a handful of recent incidents where links to e-journals from Moodle have not worked properly for off-campus users.  The recently updated FAQ “How do I make a link to an electronic journal article?” may help.

Also updated recently, FAQs on including material from books or journals in your Moodle courses or presentations.

Due to scheduled maintenance, please note that the Learning Materials Filestore (LMF) will be unavailable on all day on Tuesday 17 November 2009.

You should expect to have no access for the whole day but the Web Services team anticipate that the service will be restored within a shorter period. Further information on this work can be found at: http://go.bath.ac.uk/tmje

Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause. Please contact web-support@bath.ac.uk if you would like to discuss this further.

During the maintenance period this morning, we successfully upgraded to Moodle 1.9.6. This is the latest, stable, secure release from the Moodle community. The full set of Release Notes for this version can be found at: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Release_Notes#Moodle_1.9.6

As well as a including a range of security patches, this release covers an enhancement to the multimedia plugins filter includes support for mp4 and mpv files, as well as the option for processing YouTube links and auto-embedding the video in the text with correct XHTML.

Should colleagues have any questions related to the upgrade (or otherwise), please do get in touch with the e-Learning team at: e-learning@bath.ac.uk.

A question, how did the Moodle service perform for you at the start of this semester? Given its availability and responsiveness could you achieve what you wanted to do?

The following survey enables the e-learning Team to gather information on Moodle performance during the start of this academic year (2009-10). We are aware, although Moodle did not stop working, there were some periods when service performance was very slow. Therefore, I’m keen to identify how the experience was from the perspective of staff and students who were attempting to complete tasks.

The survey has only 7 questions, it should only take a few minutes, it will be available until the 15th November, and your input (both positive and negative) is greatly appreciated. The survey is available from;

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dENlc0g1TElIbWdBalR2QTVxQUtGa0E6MA

Over the last few weeks, the e-Learning team has received a number of queries relating to how Moodle integrates with SAMIS.

Following a review of a number of helpdesk tickets over this time period, the team have recently updated the FAQs related to this functionality. These can be found at: http://go.bath.ac.uk/samisblockFAQs

The answer to the most popular question, I’m teaching on a unit but am unable to see the corresponding Moodle course on my home page. Why is that?, can be found at: http://go.bath.ac.uk/frk7

For any further questions related to this functionality, or indeed anything else, please do get in touch with the e-Learning team at: e-learning@bath.ac.uk.