Moodle @ University of Bath

Staff may be aware that all SAMIS courses have an associated ‘period slot code’, and that this defines the start and end date of courses in Moodle.  This information is then used by Moodle to identify when students should be added to / removed from the relevant Moodle courses.

The SAMIS team have very helpfully made the list of period slot codes (and their associated dates) available online, and it is hoped that this will help to provide users with some clarity regarding their Moodle enrolments – that is, when they can expect students to be added to (or removed from) a specific Moodle course.

Please note that the e-Learning Team has extended each of the start/end dates (with the exception of Semester 2) by 3 weeks, in order to provide an additional ‘buffer’ to enrolments and unenrolments.  Moodle teachers should also be aware that users who have been added manually to a Moodle courses will not be removed automatically and that these dates do not apply in these cases.

Should you have any questions about the enrolment or removal of students on Moodle courses, please contact the e-learning team via e-learning@bath.ac.uk

Over the last academic year, the e-Learning team have been developing and releasing a number of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) databases. In particular, the following are currently available:

• Moodle FAQs: http://moodle.bath.ac.uk/faq
• Learning Technologies FAQs: http://www.bath.ac.uk/learningandteaching/ltfaq/

The aim of these FAQ engines is to provide quality assured, just in time information around the use of key e-Learning tools. The intention was to provide this in a bite sized, relatively unstructured format so departments and schools could use the content in their own specific student support material, and customise at the local level if they deemed it appropriate.

A recent news item on the LTEO website reported a high level of use of the Moodle specific FAQs database, with nearly 9000 unique visitors and nearly 40000 page views in the period January – May 2010 inclusive. For the full article, please visit: http://www.bath.ac.uk/learningandteaching/news/?p=224. The FAQs have been released under a Creative Commons licence as a set of open educational resources.

If you have any queries related to our FAQs databases, please do get in touch with the e-Learning team at e-learning@bath.ac.uk.

If you are thinking of using Moodle for the online submission of work, then the report on ‘Factors to consider for the effective use of the Moodle assignment activity’ (now available in OPUS at http://go.bath.ac.uk/siro) will be of interest.

This report investigates use of the Moodle assignment activity at the University of Bath, with a particular focus on its adoption for submitting student work online.

It highlights the factors that need consideration when introducing the Moodle assignment activity for submission of work and provides a simple and practical starting point for its implementation.

“I’m teaching on a unit this semester, but the course hasn’t appeared in Moodle yet. Why?”. As a commonly asked question, I’ve recently written an FAQ related to this issue at: http://go.bath.ac.uk/wweg

More than 75% of all Moodle support related queries that come in to the e-learning@bath.ac.uk helpdesk are already answered within the Moodle FAQs database, which covers over 200 of the most commonly asked questions. Taking a look at the database when you get stuck, may give you a quicker answer to your query, especially during  ‘out of hours’ periods.

Take look (and bookmark, favourite, tag…) the website at: http://moodle.bath.ac.uk/faq/.

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.

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.