Moodle

New improved LSE Moodle and lecture recording guides

The Eden Centre Learning Technology team are pleased to announce the launch of our new Moodle and lecture recording guides.

As part of the review and reorganisation of the existing LTI website the Learning Technology team decided to move our guides to a new system that results in an easier to read page design and structure. The new system also allows us to more easily edit the guides and keep them up-to-date, with another advantage being that we are able to more closely integrate the guides with LSE Moodle, including a new search box that is visible to all Moodle teachers, course editors and managers.

Screen grab showing location of Moodle guides search box in LSE Moodle

 

We have also reorganised the Moodle guides so that they more closely match the organisation of Moodle tools and activities. We have tested the pages with some of our users, but we will of course be grateful if you would like to let us know of any problems or errors on the pages. These guides will also be integrated into the main Eden Centre resources page ready for next term.

Also, if you would like us to produce a guide on something that isn’t included in the current catalogue, please do let us know by emailing eden.digital@lse.ac.uk and we will add it to our to-do list!

December 4th, 2019|Announcements, Lecture recording, Moodle|Comments Off on New improved LSE Moodle and lecture recording guides|

How to ‘Release’ grades and feedback in Moodle!

It’s this time of the year! Marking is in progress, and you will soon need to Release grades and feedback to students via Moodle!

Don’t forget Marking Workflow is enabled for all Moodle Assignments! You need to Release the grades and feedback for students!

Firstly, the Marking workflow in Moodle is a great feature. It enables teachers to add grades and feedback to student submissions and allow them to ‘Release’ (reveal the grades and feedback) at the same time for all students when they choose to do so.

How to ‘Release’ grades and feedback to students?

Considering Marking workflow is enabled for all newly created Assignments in Moodle (2019/20), you must ‘Release’ the grades and feedback to students. To do so, follow the steps below:

1. Click the Assignment link and View all assignments.

2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and under Options > Assignments per page select All to get all assignments to display on one page.

Options > Assignments per page select All

3. Select the submissions for which you want to use marking workflow using the Select box on the left of each submission – to select all submissions, click the Select all box under Select.

Select all box under Select

4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and from the drop-down menu With selected… select Set marking workflow state and click Go.

With selected… select Set marking workflow state and click Go

5. On the screen that appears, and from the drop-down menu Marking workflow state, select Released You can choose to Notify students by selecting Yes to generate an email. Click Save changes.

Marking workflow state, select Released

6. Students will be able to review their grades and feedback.

N.B. If blind marking is in use with marking workflow, the grades are released regardless of whether student identities have been revealed. However, you and other markers are likely to want to reveal identities at some point. Grades are only released once student identities are revealed (updated Nov 2023). You can find the option to Reveal student identities in the Grading action drop-down menu at the top of the submissions table. You need to have Teacher (Editor) or higher access to do this.

Reveal student identities in the Grading action drop-down menu at the top of the submissions table

If you experience problems releasing grades and feedback to your students, get in touch with eden.digital@lse.ac.uk

November 27th, 2019|eAssessment News, Moodle|Comments Off on How to ‘Release’ grades and feedback in Moodle!|

Moodle Recharge & New Features

LTI hosted this year’s Moodle Recharge event on 12th June 2019. LTI highlighted new Moodle features on Moodle 3.5, and also reminded attendees of some underused ones, as well as aspects of Moodle design and interactivity. The event was attended by 70 attendees.

We received 60 feedback forms, and the overall feeling is that the event was much appreciated and useful. If you missed the event and would like to find out about the Moodle 3.5 and/or receive our presentation slides, please feel free to email LTI. If you wish you can watch the Moodle Recharge recording that is is available for all LSE staff to watch the video.

LTI training courses are advertised on LSE’s Training and Development system and on our Events & Workshops page. We also deliver bespoke courses to groups and departments, around your needs. Contact lti.support@lse.ac.uk to discuss your needs and how we can help.

New Features in Moodle 3.5

Course completion: shows the progress a student is making towards finishing the course according to specific criteria, Date, Enrolment duration, Unenrolment, Course grade, Manual self-completion, etc. This feature is available by default for all new Moodle courses.

Bulk edit activity completion: within a course, the default settings for activity completion may be changed and several activities may have their completion settings updated at once, from the tabs in the Course completion screen.

Collapsible comments in assignments: when grading and adding comments from the annotation tools, comments are automatically collapsed and displayed as a small dialogue icon next to the commented text line.

Switch role: switching role is now available through each user’s Profile. Access your Profile by clicking on the icon next to your name. “Switch role to…” can be found in the drop-down menu, as below.

Improved navigation: navigation is enhanced with a few changes.

  • Gear icon opens a settings menu for Course, Activity and User pages;
  • Jump to menu to navigate between course activities at the bottom of each activity page;
  • Enrol, view, search for, filter, edit and delete course users from the Participants page;
  • Change course image button.

Media embedding: Media (images, audio and video) can be dragged and dropped directly onto the course page, and directly record sound and video from the editor.

Discussion locking: enables forums to be automatically locked after a certain period of inactivity. Discussion locking is available through the Forum settings.

Override assignments: you can now override assignments for individual students or groups of students.

Restrict allowed file types: restrict students to only upload files of selected types. The setting is available through the Assignment settings (see Submission settings and choose which the file types that are accepted for uploading).

New course overview block: students can view their course progress and upcoming deadlines and quickly access upcoming activities.

Activity completion: allows you to set completion criteria for resources and activities in bulk.

Scheduler booking form: optionally set a form to be presented to students before booking a slot, see below:

Choice: choice results are shown to students, it displays whether the results are anonymous.

Filter questions by tags: the question bank includes an option to filter questions by tag.

Stealth activities: display a long list of activities or resources more neatly inside other activities on your course page. Activities on stealth mode are at first sight hidden on the course page but remain accessible to students through the pages they are contained in.

Activity navigation menu: move from one activity or resource to another through a simple click to the left (to view the previous activity) or to the right (for the next course activity), or select other course activities from the Jump to menu.

File converter: automatically converts uploaded assignment submissions to PDF format for teachers to annotate (supported documents: csv, doc, docx, odp, ods, odt, pot, potm, potx, pps, ppsx, ppsxm, ppt, pptm, pptx, rtf, xls, xlsx).

Atto full screen button: enables full screen editing mode in the Atto Text Editor, see below:

Download centre: participants of a Moodle course can download all relevant course documents in one step.

We would like to thank all of you who spared your valuable time to attend our event! We also want to thank you for your valuable feedback.

June 24th, 2019|Moodle|Comments Off on Moodle Recharge & New Features|

Moodle Upgrade 3.5 – Coming Soon

On 17th June 2019 we are upgrading Moodle from 3.1 to 3.5 and therefore Moodle will be unavailable during the day. The new version will include improvements and new features.

Here’s a quick summary:

Collapsible comments in assignments: when grading and adding comments from the annotation tools, comments are automatically collapsed and displayed as a small dialogue icon next to the commented text line.

Locking a discussion: enables forums to be automatically locked after a certain period of inactivity.

Override assignments: override assignments for individual students or groups of students.

New course overview block: students can view their course progress and upcoming deadlines and quickly access upcoming activities.

Activity completion: allows you to set completion criteria for resources and activities in bulk.

Scheduler booking form: optionally set a form to be presented to students before booking a slot.

Choice: choice results are shown to students, it displays whether the results are anonymous.

Question tagging: easily filter questions in the question bank using tags.

Stealth activities: display a long list of activities or resources more neatly inside other activities on your course page. Activities on stealth mode are at first sight hidden on the course page but remain accessible to students through the pages they are contained in.

Activity navigation menu: move from one activity or resource to another through a simple click to the left (to view the previous activity) or to the right (for the next course activity), or select other course activities from the Jump to menu.

And there are more…

Please contact LTI if you have any questions or further details.

May 28th, 2019|Moodle|Comments Off on Moodle Upgrade 3.5 – Coming Soon|

Moodle Refresh for 2019

Moodle Refresh for 2019

Each year, we refresh Moodle courses, by removing all student data and students’ contributions to activities (i.e. forum posts, assignment submissions etc). This way courses are ready for the new cohort of students. Course materials uploaded by editors are not deleted. Please make a note of this year’s Moodle refresh dates.

Refresh dates:

Thursday 29 August and Friday 30 August 2019 for the majority of courses. Moodle will be unavailable for all users on these dates (including those with 499 course codes that are refreshed on  later date).

Tuesday 10th September 2019 for courses used to collect dissertation submissions (primarily those with 499 course codes). These courses only will be unavailable on Moodle all day.

If you would like your course/s to be exempt from the 2019 refresh please email lti.support@lse.ac.uk

What do you need to do?

If you have any concerns about the above refresh dates please contact LTI on lti.support@lse.ac.uk

We will send further reminders as we approach the refresh dates, but if you have any questions at this point, please do not hesitate to contact us. Also, visit our Moodle end of year arrangement (Moodle refresh) page which provides detailed information and FAQs of the process.

 

February 15th, 2019|Announcements, Moodle|Comments Off on Moodle Refresh for 2019|

LSE Moodle Archive

The LSE Moodle Archive is a read only digital record of each course from previous academic years for staff and students.

The 2018 copy was taken just before the annual refresh on 14th August 2018 and can be accessed at:

https://moodle.lse.ac.uk/archive/1718/ 

From now on a read only copy of Moodle will be taken every academic year just before the annual refresh and will be kept for three years.  See our website for annual refresh dates.

The purpose of the LSE Moodle Archive is to retain an accessible digital record of each course for students and staff.  This is useful for students who have to resit or retake courses and for staff and students who want to review material from previous years.  It also keeps the current Moodle clutter free and just for the current academic year’s courses.

The level of access to the LSE Moodle Archive reflects the level of access on the day the archive copy was created. For example, if a student was enrolled on a suite of courses when the 2017/18 archive was taken, they will have access to the same courses (albeit read-only) in the 2017/18 archive.

By default all courses in the Moodle archive are hidden from students.  Also quizzes and assignments within those courses are hidden.  The Moodle archive is currently editable by departments for a period of one month up until 16 November 2018.  In this time editors can hide or reveal any resources and/or activities within a course and make their courses visible.  After this date the archive will be read only for everyone.  For students to see their grades and feedback and to download submissions in assignments the activity needs to be visible.

All editors should go to the 2018 LSE Moodle archive and hide or reveal any activities and resources within their courses and then make their courses visible so that students will be able to see the read only copy.

  • To hide/reveal an activity or resource click Turn editing on > Click Edit (use the drop-down menu next to the activity you want to hide/reveal) > Select Hide (or Show depending on your choice)
  • Once you are happy with your changes, make the course visible in the archive.
    From the Administration block, click Edit settings > from the drop-down menu Visible select Show.

If you have any queries please contact LTI.support@lse.ac.uk

October 10th, 2018|Announcements, Moodle, Teaching & Learning, Tools & Technologies|Comments Off on LSE Moodle Archive|

Moodle refresh for 2018/19

Each year, Moodle courses are refreshed to remove old student data and prepare for the next cohort of students.

For 2018 the refresh will take place on:

Tuesday 14 August and Wednesday 15 August 2018.  Moodle will be unavailable all day for all users.

Tuesday 11th September 2018 for courses used to collect dissertation submissions (primarily those with 499 course codes).  These courses will be unavailable on Moodle all day.

Current staff and students will need to take action to ensure they have all the information they need from Moodle before the refresh take effect.  More information about the process can be found on our website:
http://lti.lse.ac.uk/moodle-end-of-year-arrangements/

If you have any queries email lti.support@lse.ac.uk

June 20th, 2018|Announcements, Moodle, Teaching & Learning, Tools & Technologies|Comments Off on Moodle refresh for 2018/19|

Delete and declutter

It’s coming up to the start of term and time to get Moodle courses ready for the new cohort of students. We have refreshed most courses and upgraded to the new theme so it’s the perfect time to clear out old material, delete and de-clutter!

The LTI Moodle audit identified many issues with layout and structure that could easily be rectified by following our suggestions below.

 

 

Common issues and how to solve them:

Poor structure

Many courses consist of one long messy list with content hard to find and often current material is hidden at the bottom of the page.

  • Consider a different course format. Perhaps the grid or collapsed topics if you have lots of content.
  • It may be worth hiding and revealing content as the course progresses so students see the most current information at the top of the page.  You can also highlight the most current section by clicking on the light bulb on the right hand side.
  • If you have lots of material on the same topic then it might be worth consolidating it into a Moodle page or Book.
  • Consider the order that you present material to students – you might want to move sections around so important information is at the top of the page and is quicker and easier to find.
  • You might want to add a table of contents block with links to each section highlighted.
  • When using the grid format Images can provide visual clues and signposts to students as to the type of material each section contains.

Inconsistent titles

Once you have chosen your course format make sure that you have consistent titles for each section or topic.

  • Try to use titles that are clear and descriptive rather than the default section 1, section 2.
  • Remember that you can add labels to clearly sign post material.
  • You can also use the text editor to add colour, or different text size if you want to emphasise certain text.
  • If you have a large course you may want to use the groups and groupings features on Moodle to ensure student can differentiate and access between the various resources and assignments.

Too much clutter

Many courses have old material hidden that dates back years and can clutter the page for editors – don’t be afraid to delete things!

  • Moodle now has a recycle bin so things can be restored within seven days if deleted in error.  LTI also keep back up copies of all courses every year and retain them in an archive so your current course does not have to contain a historical record of old course files.
  • If you have lots of sections that are not in use then delete them, you can always add more sections later.

Broken links
  • Check that the links on your course still work, if you are linking to LSE reading lists make sure you use the reading list activity and if you are linking to lecture recordings you will need to use the Echo360 activity and make sure that you have consented for your lectures to be recorded on LFY.

Deadlines and dates
  • Make sure that your course start date is correct in the Edit Course settings, this is especially important if you are using the weekly format.
  • Ensure that any dates and deadlines are up to date and check your settings if you are using the assignment activity.

Check enrolments

Automatic enrolments are now active on Moodle, so when students make course choices in LSE for You, they will automatically be enrolled in the corresponding Moodle course.  Choices for 2017/18 made by continuing students have already been processed.

Check your course is set up for automatic enrolment. This can be done by going into the settings: Administration block > Edit Settings. If the “Course ID number” field is empty. Please contact Lti.support@lse.ac.uk.

If using alternative methods of enrolment please check that they have been set up properly. This can be done by looking in the Administration block > Users > Enrolment methods.

Teaching staff may still be enrolled on the course from previous years.  Email LTI to remove any enrolments that are no longer accurate.

Lastly remember to make your course visible to students.  Even if students are enrolled on your course they will not see it in their list of courses or be able to access it if it is still hidden in the edit settings.

September 18th, 2017|Assessment, Moodle, Teaching & Learning, Tools & Technologies|Comments Off on Delete and declutter|

New look Moodle for 2017/18!

We hope you like the new look of Moodle and can find you way around. When you first log in you will taken to your dashboard

On your first access you should see a tour which takes you through the new layout.  Also see our online guide on finding your way around.

If you are a Moodle editor we have devised some new guides to get you going and we have updated our FAQ’s for staff and students.

If you really don’t like the new look you can change it back, just follow our instructions on our website.

We are running Moodle basics training for Moodle editors on Tuesday 22 August and Wednesday 20 September. Book a place via the Training and Development System.

Remember that all courses are automatically hidden after the refresh so you need to make them visible to students before the start of term.

August 17th, 2017|Announcements, Moodle, Teaching & Learning, Tools & Technologies|Comments Off on New look Moodle for 2017/18!|

Moodle refresh for 2017

Moodle will be unavailable all day on Tuesday 15 August and Wednesday 16 August for all users, and on 12th September for courses used to submit dissertations.

Don’t forget: you must download any information and documents you will need from Moodle before the refresh date that applies to your course. Course content will not be available to you after these dates.

See the LTI website for further details: http://lti.lse.ac.uk/moodle-end-of-year-arrangements/

 

July 31st, 2017|Announcements, Moodle, Teaching & Learning, Tools & Technologies|Comments Off on Moodle refresh for 2017|