Thursday, June 7, 2012

What is Moodle?


What is Moodle?


Moodle is a Learning Management System, Course Management System, or Virtual Learning Environment, depending on which term you prefer. Its goal is to give teachers and students the tools they need to teach and learn. Moodle comes from a background of Social Constructionist pedagogy, however, it can be used to support any style of teaching and learning. There are other types of software systems that are important for educational institutions, for example ePortfolios, Student Information Systems and Content repositories. Generally, Moodle does not try to re-invent these areas of functionality. Instead, tries to be the best LMS possible, and then interoperate gracefully with other systems that provide the other areas of functionality. It is, however, perfectly possible to use Moodle as a stand-alone system, without integrating it with anything else. Moodle is a web application written in PHP. Moodle is open source. Copyright is owned by individual contributors, not assigned to a single entity, although the company Moodle Pty Ltd in Perth Australia, owned by Moodle's founder Martin Dougiamas, manages the project.

What Is Moodle?
Moodle is a free, online, open source course management system
used in an increasing number of universities to conduct online and
blended courses as well as to enhance traditional classroom
courses..

Getting Started
Moodle allows instructors to add all content and activities on the course homepage. Students are able to see
and access all related content and activities from the main course page rather than having to navigate between
various areas of the course to access different types of materials. Instructors group content and activities into
modules which can be organized by topics or by weeks.
Different areas in a Moodle course include: the Activities block , the People block ,
the Administration block , Settings , Editing , Add a Resource area , and Add an Activity .
Moodle: Introduction

The Activities Block
The Activities block allows users to view a list of all course activities arranged by
category. This block will only display categories that have items available to participants.
The People Block
The People block displays the names, assigned roles, and profiles of every currently
enrolled participant in the course. You can access a user’s profile by clicking on their
name. You can edit your own profile by clicking on your name and choosing the Edit
Profile option.
The Administration Block
The Administration block is the most important block in your course. The Turn Editing
On option enables you to add activities and resources to the course. After turning editing
on there will be several small icons in each block and topic. These include arrows for
altering the position (left, right, up, or down), the update icon, the delete icon, and the eye
icon.
Changing Your Settings
To adjust the course settings, click the Settings item located under Administration block.
Here you can set the course availability to students. Additionally you may add a short
summary of the course, as well as change the number of topics.
Icons
*Note: You must create groups and set the activity to group mode to have an impact on this. Once something is in group mode, the
icon will look like .
Using the eye icons: When eye icon is ‘open’ the item is visible and accessible to participants. When the icon
is clicked the eye will ‘close’ and the item becomes hidden and inaccessible to participants. This function is
useful when you want to keep an item in your course (rather than deleting it), but do not want participants to
have access to it.
Icon Effect Icon Effect Icon Effect Icon Effect
Edit item
Close/Hide
item Delete/Remove Groups Icon*
See all
weeks/topics
Open/Show
Item Indent/shift right Move here
See one
week/topic
Help Move Icon*
Make Current (highlight)
week/topic

Making a Course Visible to Students
1. Click on Settings under the Administration block.
2. Under the Availability block, set the Availability
drop-down to This course is available to
students.
3. Click on
Note: Your course will remain in gray on the Moodle
homepage until your next login.
Changing the Number of Modules (aka Topics)
Each Moodle course, by default, is created with 10 modules (topics).
To change the number of modules, follow these steps:
1. Click on Settings under the Administration panel.
2. Under the Notes box, you will see a drop-down menu for
Number of weeks/topics. Click on the menu and select
the number of modules you want.
3. Click on .
Changing the Course Theme
Each Moodle course is created with the default Adelphi Moodle
theme. To change the theme, follow these steps:
1. Click on Settings under the Administration panel.
2. Under the Notes box, you will see a drop-down menu for
Force Theme. Click on the menu and select the desired theme.
3. Click on .
Changing the Course Description on the Moodle Homepage
1. Click on Settings under the Administration panel.
2. In the Notes box describe the course in no more than
three sentences.
3. Click on .

Navigating the Course
In order to return to the course homepage from any
other place in the course (e.g. a discussion forum,
or a resource), click on the course name (or ID) in
the upper left corner underneath the Adelphi logo,
or click on the course number on the bottom of the page.
Organizing Modules
The default view shows all course materials organized by modules as the instructor has organized them.
Modules can be displayed in different ways:
Change visibility to students by clicking the eye icon.
Collapsed modules by using the collapse button of the
module that should be the last one visible.
Expand modules by using the expand button of the module
that should be the last one visible.
Highlight the current module by using the highlight icon.
Display by Type of Content
The activities block provides a list of the types of activities deployed in the course. Clicking on a category, such
as forums, resources, or assignments, will bring up a list with all items in that category.
Display by User Activity
1. In the People block, click on Participants.
2. The following page will have the information on the
student like Address and Last Access.
3. To have a more in-depth view of student’s activity, click
on the student’s name.
4. From the students profile click on
the Activity Reports tab.
5. Orgnanized by each topic is the student’s
activity in your class. You can see the
number of times a student accessed an
activity, and the last time of access.
Allowing Pop-Up Windows to Appear in Mozilla Firefox
When Firefox prompts you that it has blocked a
popup, click Options (or Preferences) and
select Allow popups for moodle.adelphi.edu.

Assigning Roles
The Assign Roles option allows you to enroll users in your course and provide them with a specific role.
Teachers can typically assign the roles of Teacher, Non-editing teacher, and Student.
Note: Your students will be put on your Participants list as they register in the C.L.A.S.S. system. The
list will be updated regularly throughout the day. However, if a student is not showing up in your Moodle
Course, use the Assign Roles option to add them in (or add in another Teacher or Non-Editing teacher, if
you wish).
Teacher Non-editing teacher Student
Teachers can do anything
within a course, including
changing the activities and
grading students.
This role is similar to that of
Teaching Assistant. A nonediting
teacher can enter
grades for the students, but
he/she cannot edit the contents
of the course.
Students have access to the
course information provided by
the instructor and are able to
post responses in the forums,
contribute to wikis, etc.
Adding a User to Your Course
To add a user to your course and assign them one of the above roles,
follow these steps:
1. In the Administration block, click on Assign Roles.
2. Click on the role you wish to assign to the specific
user/users (Teacher, Non-editing teacher,
or Student).
3. Type in the name of the user you wish to add and
click on Search.
4. In the Search results box, select the name of the
user and click on the left-sided triangle. The user will
appear in the existing users box to the left.
5. The student’s name and email will now appear in the
existing users box.
Removing a User from Your Course
1. To remove a user from the course, select their name
from the existing users box and click on the rightsided
triangle.
Note: This step cannot be undone and a student’s data
will be erased from the course.

Quickmail
Sending an Email to Your Students
1. In the Quickmail block, click on Compose.
2. Check the box next to the name of the
student you wish to email.
3. Type in a Subject for your email
4. Type in the text of your email in the Message
box.
5. Optional: If you wish to send an attachment,
click on
6. Click on
7. Click on Continue. The email will then appear
in the inbox of the student’s designated email.

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