What is Moodle?

Moodle is a software package for producing internet-based courses and web sites. It's an ongoing development project designed to support a social constructionist framework of education.

Moodle is provided freely as open source software. Basically this means Moodle is copyrighted, but that you have additional freedoms. You are allowed to copy, use and modify Moodle provided that you agree to: provide the source to others; not modify or remove the original license and copyrights, and apply this same license to any derivative work.

There are no licensing fees.

The word Moodle was originally an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, which is mostly useful to programmers and education theorists. It's also a verb that describes the process of lazily meandering through something, doing things as it occurs to you to do them, an enjoyable tinkering that often leads to insight and creativity. As such it applies both to the way Moodle was developed, and to the way a student or teacher might approach studying or teaching an online course. Anyone who uses Moodle is a Moodler.

Moodle is a Moodle is a Moodle ...?

Because Moodle is open source software, it can be customized for each location where it's installed.

In this course, we have attempted to use the most standard installation options, so adaptations at individual institutions may mean that some additional features may be available or that some screen shots may differ slightly from how your home institution may have installed Moodle.

Also, Moodle has a wealth of features that continue to expand as developers around the world contribute to Moodle's base install. We won't be covering all features -- some will be "outside the scope of this class", however our aim is to cover the most standardly installed and commonly used features to give you a firm foundation on beginning your own Moodle adventure.

The Blueprint: Getting Started

In this three-week workshop, you'll be using Moodle for the learning environment where you will learn to master basic Moodle features yourself.

Your final assignment will be a portion of an online course of a topic of your choice.

You will wear three important "hats" in this course.

	1	You will be a learner in this Introduction to Teaching with Moodle course. You will use this course to learn about what can be possible in your own Moodle course.
	2	You will be a course creator (builder) of your own Moodle course. A Moodle course "shell" has been created for you in the Sandbox. When you login to the Moodle Sandbox, you will have all the privileges associated with developing and teaching that course, such as editing its structure and content. You will give your course a name and use it to complete exercises in this course, including enrolling classmates from your group in this course, culminating in a final project that will include specified features for a topic of your choice. You will also use Moodle's feedback and recordkeeping tools to monitor activity as your group of classmates visit as "students" in your course.
	3	You will be a course visitor. A group of your classmates will be relying on you to visit their courses to provide feedback and complete exercises in their courses so they can practice with the administration tools that will help them run their Moodle courses.

Review the Course Calendar

Be sure to take a look at the calendar in the left margin of this course's homepage. When you mouseover each colored entry on the calendar, you can see the important dates.

It will be important to meet these deadlines as many of our workshop activities build on earlier activities, and it will be up to all of us to participate together to make a meaningful learning experience for everyone.

As you look at the calendar, consider what the calendar can do for your students in your Moodle course.

Description of Access Privilege Levels

Moodle allows different levels of editing privileges depending on an individual's role.

The Moodle System Administrator has global privileges to set system wide defaults that affect all courses created using that installation of Moodle. Typically, the system administrator has made these choices during the installation of the Moodle software.

A course builder, often also the course instructor or facilitator, has privileges limited to his or her course--to add and edit relevant content, determine course settings such as the name of the course, its duration, etc.

The student has the most limited privileges and can interact with the course only in the ways specified by the course developer (or system administrator). The student may not edit the course, and is restricted from seeing certain features, such as the feedback provided to other students by the instructor on assignments or journal entries.

In this course, you'll gain experience both as a student and a course builder.

The Sandbox

We have set up a separate Moodle course work area for you to use to complete many of the assignments in this course. We'll be referring to this work area as your "Sandbox" course. In your Sandbox, you'll have free rein to add or delete activities and create content on a topic of your choice. You may find that there are many occasions when you want to be simultaneously logged in to both this course for reference as well as your Sandbox course while you're making changes to it.

Important tip: To make it easier to switch back and forth between this course and the course in which you have write privileges, consider opening them each in a different browser window--maybe even using different browsers. This way you can switch between them easily by clicking on the appropriate button on your status bar (if using a PC).

Logging in to Sandbox Course

Open a new browser window (use File-->New-->Window from your browser's main menu) or launch another browser (e.g., Firefox) and use it to login now to your Sandbox course to verify your access.

Direct your browser to the @ONE Sandbox site at http://www.onemoodle.org/sandbox

Notice that the Sandbox site uses a different theme for the course, so the headings appear in a blue bar rather than a soft grey used in this course. This is intentional to help you distinguish which Moodle site you're using.

Find your Sandbox course in the course list.

After clicking on your Sandbox course name, login using your first initial and last name (e.g., "jdoe"), with the password "changeme". Remember to use all lower-case letters.

If you are unable to login to your course, contact Lenora Pinkston (lpinkston@cccone.org).

Moodle Layout

A new course entered for the first time will be mostly blank. Course templates have:

• Block areas on the left and right sides (the Blocks in the illustration are labeled "Latest News", "People", "Search Forums", etc.),

• Course content Sections appear under the heading: "Weekly Outline" or 'Topic Outline'. The first section is designed for general information and activities of the whole course and is fixed and unnumbered.  The remaining sections below are numbered.

• An example of a Moodle Activity appears in the top (unnumbered) section of the course: the "News Forum."  Activities will be explored in detail in Week 2.

The minimum number of sections you can set in your course is one, which means that your course will consist of at least two sections--one general (unnumbered one plus at least one numbered one). In the illustration below, there are 10 sections that will contain course content, plus the general (unnumbered) one at the top.

Editing a Course

One of the most appealing features of Moodle is that no knowledge of HTML or other programming is necessary to create and edit online instructional materials.

To edit your course, click the "Turn editing on" button near the top right corner of your window. This toggle switch shows or hides the editing controls that allow you to customize your course.

Participants in the class do not have the "Turn editing on" button--it's only available to the Course Owner or the Moodle System Administrator.

Editing Controls review:

- the edit icon lets you edit whatever it is next to.

- the help icon will provide you with a popup help window specific to the activity or element in question.

- the open-eye icon will let you hide something from students

- the closed-eye icon will make a hidden item available

Moodle has a handy WYSIWYG (a.k.a., "What You See is What You Get") editor that inserts HTML code automatically based on the formatting you specify in the text content box. The toolbar along the top uses the same familiar icons used in most word processing or web editor programs. When you first see this editor when adding text to your course, take a few minutes to explore the icons to see what they do.

Note: If you prefer to enter your content without the WYSIWYG editor, e.g., if you've already prepared it using another web page editor or prefer to code your HTML by hand (!), edit your profile setting " When editing text" to "Use standard web forms." DO NOT "use standard web forms" if you are not completely comfortable with HTML.

Blocks

The view of your course homepage and ultimately the features offered to your course participants depends on which Blocks you choose using the Blocks field. All of the blocks can be moved around, added or deleted from your course homepage.

To add a block, turn editing on and choose the block you would like to add from the "Blocks" drop down menu. This menu will only be visible when editing is turned on, and will never be visible to your students.

If you delete a block then would like it back, you can always re-add it. This process is the same as adding one of the optional blocks.

With editing on, you can see the block editing icons next to the block's title. Using these, you can hide the entire block with the 'eye' tool, move the block up and down with the up/down arrows , move the block from one side of the course to another using the sideways arrow, or delete the block altogether using the delete tool .

Block Descriptions

In an effort to keep things simple, the standard course format we use to set up new courses contains just three of Moodle's many available blocks:

Figure 1. Student view of the Administration block

Administration

The Adminstration block contains a number of controls for Administering your Moodle course. Students see only a limited set of links here (figure 1).

People

The people block provides links listing all enrolled students and teachers (Participants), and a link to the a profile editing page where you may change your information, password, etc. If you have enabled  groups, then there will be a link to manage groups here, as well.

Optional Blocks - these blocks are not included in the standard format but may be added by a teacher in a course at any time.

Activities

This block will provide a link (for students and teachers) to all the different activities in the course. When you create new Activity types in a topic or weeks block they will show up in the Activities block. Students may then click the "Assignments" link to see a list of all the (non-hidden) Assignments in the course.

Calendar

Adding this block to your course will add a miniature version of the Calendar to a side block.

Upcoming Events

Due dates are listed for course activities, and students may click the names of this list to directly access the activities.

Recent Activity

Displays the recent activity in the course. This is handy for teachers as it shows when students have submitted assignments, made forum posts, etc.

Search Forums

Enables teachers and students to search for particular keywords in all the forum posts in the course.

My Courses

Provides teachers and students with a list of courses which they are participating in.

Course Summary

Descriptive information from your course summary in a side block.

Latest News

Displays the latest posts in the Course Announcements forum.

Online users

Display a list of currently logged in students and teachers.

Section Links

Used to quickly navigate to a particular topic/week section of the course (depending on whether the course uses either the "Topics" or "Weekly" format). The numbered links displayed within the block are the numbers assigned to the course topic/week sections.

Quiz Results

Display the results of a quiz, including the number of the lowest and highest grades displayed and whether grades will be displayed as percentages, fractions or absolute numbers.

HTML

The HTML block is for adding additional text or images.

Messages

Provides a popup window for instant messaging individuals in the course.

Random Glossary Entry

Chooses a random entry from the glossary to display.

Add a File

A common event for instructors using Moodle is to share a handout or powerpoint presentation. You can add a file of almost any type to any section using the "Add a resource..." drop-down field.

Remember: You must have editing turned on (use the "Turn editing on" button in the top right corner of your screen).

To add a file, choose “Link to a file or web site” from the drop down menu.

This will open up a page with a form where you can enter in the title of the document, as well as any optional summary text you would like to enter.

Below the summary form is a the Location: prompt. Select “Choose or upload a file” button.

This will open up a window showing the files folder of your course. To upload a file (e.g., a Word document), click the “Upload a file” button at the bottom right, then browse your computer directories to locate the file on your computer's disk. Click “Open”, then “Upload this file” and the file will be uploaded to your Moodle course files directory.

Finally, click the “Choose” link which will return you to the add resource form.

Here you can decide whether you want the file visible or not, and then click “Save Changes”.

Moodle will send you to the file so you can be sure it’s the right one and it uploaded correctly. To get back to your main course page, click on your course name at the top in the breadcrumb trail.

If you set the file to be visible to students, then your students can now view it.

The steps above will also work for Acrobat (PDF) files, other Office files such as Excel and Powerpoint, audio(mp3, wav) and video (Quicktime, Flash, Windows Media) files, etc.

Moving Resources

With editing turned on, you will see the move arrows next to each of your activities. You can move activities to other places in the course using the move icon . You can also delete them using the cross icon , and re-edit them using the edit icon .

The sideways arrow next to an activity (1) will move it sideways in the topic block. This can be used to set activities off from each other. The activity movement arrows (2) can move an activity from one block to another. If you click one, you will see boxes appear on your course's screen with all the destinations where you can move that activity.

Each of the boxes with the arrow next to it represent a place to move an activity. Just click in the box after clicking the activity movement arrows, and the activity will be moved to a new spot.

You can move hidden activities the same way.

Administration Block

The Administration Block has many functions, most hidden from your course participants.

While all functions are useful, this workshop will address only the most basic functions that an instructor will be likely to use with every course.

Settings

You will need to identify some basic fundamental course level structure, such as who has access to your course and the name of the course.

Start in the "Administration" block on your course homepage and click on "Settings..." Note that this link in the Administration block is only available to you (and the site administrator).

The Summary block will show up to students in their "MyCourses" page, so it is good to type a brief course summary here.

Changing the format

Below the Summary is the format choice, simply select a new format from the drop down list and click "Save changes" down at the bottom of the page (refer to the Course Formats section for more information about the different formats).

Start Date

To change the start date of your course, simply select a new start date in the "Course start date" menu. Don't change the enrollment period setting. Selecting a date here will provide the reference point for the dates that automatically present in each section of a course in a "Weekly" format.

Number of weeks/topics

Below this you will find the "Number of weeks/topics" menu, simply choose a new number here. If you add more topics Moodle will add new, blank topics below your old ones. Move topic/week blocks up or down using the up/down arrows in the right margin of each section's block. If you remove topics or weeks, Moodle won't delete the activities in those weeks.

Groups

We will not be covering the "groups" feature in this course.

Course availability and Password (enrollment key)

Your course has been available to students since it was set up. To make it unavailable, use the Availability setting. Add an enrollment key now so you can control all access and enrollments to your course. You can allow Guest access by enabling guest access and sending the password to your guests. Now when guests try to enter your course, they will have to type in the password you set to get in.

Other settings

By default, sections hidden with the 'eye' tool or Course Program block are completely invisible to students, though you, as the instructor, will see them in a light gray color. If you would prefer these be visible to students (but not accessible), set this in the Hidden sections: menu.

News items to show will only have effect if you have the "Latest News" block enabled. If so, then the latest postings in the course Announcements page will be shown to the students.

If you are not grading your course and you would prefer to hide the gradebook from students, choose "No" in the Show grades menu.

Activity reports are available for each participant that show their activity in the current course. As well as listings of their contributions, these reports include detailed access logs. These are always available to teachers, setting this menu to "Yes" enables students to view their own activity reports.

Finally, you can choose a new word for teachers and/or students in your course, and you can choose to display the course menu in a different language if you would like (there are ~60 translations available).

Once you have made changes to your course settings, click the "Save changes" button.

Course Formats

The course format that you choose will decide the basic layout of your course, like a template. Moodle currently has three formats - in future there will probably be many more.

Here are some screenshots of three sample courses in each of these three formats (ignore the different colors, which are set for a whole site by the site administrator):

Topics format:

In this example, the instructor has changed the default topics labels by typing new ones into the topic's titles in the topic sections.

Weekly format:

Social format:

The "weekly" and "topic" formats are very similar in structure. The main difference is that each box in the weekly format covers exactly one week, whereas in the topic format each box can cover whatever you like. Using the "weekly" format, the dates associated with the weeks of the courses are automatically added into each section for the course content. The social format doesn't use much content at all and is based around just one forum - this is displayed on the main page.

See the help buttons on the Course Settings page for more details.

Edit Profile

First name, surname

The first two fields are quite self-explanatory. The first and last names that you supply should be those that you wish to be known by on the course. They will be used by other course participants to identify you when grading work and responding in forums and other activities.

Email address

The email address should be the address you wish to use to receive acknowledgements and messages from the system, and is also the address that is displayed to all other users of the moodle site, assuming that you have set the "Email display" option to allow other participants in your course to see your address, so it should be a mail address that you check regularly. Other email display options are to hide your mail address from all users, or to make it available to all users on the moodle system, not just members of the courses you are enrolled in.

Email display

This controls the visibility of the address to others, allowing you to show or hide your email in the class. There are three options: you can set it so that all users (including guests) could see your email, or so that only other students in the class could see your email address, or so that no one could see your email address at all.

Email activated

You can either enable or disable emails being sent to your address.

Email format

For the messages to come into your mailbox, you can choose between "Pretty HTML format" (which means that the messages will be formatted with different fonts and colours to make them easier to read) and "Plain text format" (plain text with no fancy formatting or colors).

Email digest type

This setting allows you to choose how you want to receive any emails you get from forums. A digest is a compilation of all the posts to a forum for a given period. There are three possible choices: No digest, complete or subjects.

Forum auto-subscribe

This setting lets you decide if you want email copies of posts that are added to forums. If you set this to subscribe, the system will email you copies of new posts in forums that you join. This setting will override your efforts to unsubscribe from individual Moodle forums.

Forum tracking

Enabling forum tracking means highlighting the posts you have not read yet. This feature significantly improves time management when working with discussion forums.

When editing text

This can usually be left on "Use HTML editor (some browsers only)". This allows for text formatting options, with a WYSIWYG text editor--but requires newer browsers that can accommodate Javascript. If you find your browser is not letting you edit text, change this setting to "Use standard web forms". Also "Use standard web forms" if you want to input your course content using your own HTML.

City/town; country

These fields are used to further identify you by geographical location.

Timezone

This field is used to convert time-related messages on the system (such as assignment deadlines) from the server local time to the correct time in whichever zone you have selected.

Preferred language and theme

The E-learning server can display in several different languages and color themes, which you can choose from in these two options.

Description

In this field you can enter some text about yourself, be it information about your studies, hobbies, qualifications or anything else that does not break the acceptable use policy of your Moodle site. This text will be visible to anyone that views your profile.

Files

This option allows you to upload files e.g., photos (.jpg), PDF files, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, into your course, for inclusion in an activity or layout. Clicking Files lets you see a list of course files arranged under four headings: file name, file size, the last time a given file was modified, and the action you can do with a given file (or folder).

Using the box on the left below the filelist, you can move the files you choose (by checking a box on the left to the file name) to another folder, delete them completely or create a zip archive.

There are two more actions you can undertake: 'Make a folder' and 'Upload a file' - both are positioned on the right-hand side of the screen under the list.

As you can see in the screenshot, folders are listed first(1) then files. You can create any number of folders to organize your files and move them from one folder to the other.

Files and folders can be renamed clicking the "Rename" link (3), and some types of files (htm/html, text) may be edited online--you will see an "Edit" link next to files that may be edited online(4). Other files will need to be edited on your local computer and uploaded again. If you upload a file with the same name as an existing file it will automatically be overwritten.

If you want to upload a number of files at once, it can be easier to use a zip program to compress them into a single file, upload the zip file and then unzip them again on the server (you will see an "unzip" link next to zip archives).

To preview any file you have uploaded just click on its name. Your web browser will take care of either displaying it or downloading it to your computer.

Remember:  If your content resides on an internet site then you don't need to upload the files at all - you can link directly to them from inside the course!

Enroll Students

When clicking Students you will find the note saying that students themselves can enroll in your course as soon as they know the enrolment key, which is also reminded here in the box. You can enrol/unenroll students manually without giving them the enrolment key.

Below, you will see two fields separated by two arrows (left/right).

The left field lists enrolled students to your course and the right one contains the names of all potential students (i.e. students that the system already has registered). To add a student to the course, find their name in the field on the right, highlight it and click on the left-facing arrow, which will transfer the student to the left field (you can also type in the student’s name in the “Search” field if there are too many students to list).

To unenrol a student from your course, you should repeat the above procedure but this time transferring the student from the left field to the right one (using the right-facing arrow). The student should move from the “Enrolled students” column to the “Potential students” column.

Teachers

You have already been added as a Teacher in your Sandbox course.

Teacher information is edited using the Teacher link in the Administration block.

Currently, your course facilitator is listed also as a Teacher in your Sandbox course. This will be important later in the course when evaluating your work on the gradebook assignment of your final project. However, to remove this other name from the list of teachers that others see, use the drop down box labeled "Order" to select Hide for your "Introduction to Teaching with Moodle" course facilitator's name. Now only your name appears as a Teacher.

Week 1 "To Do" List

	Learner	Introduce yourself in the Let's Get Acquainted! discussion forum. Tell us something about yourself -- be sure to include the subject of the class you want to deliver using Moodle, as well as some personal information about yourself that you want to share. Edit your profile in this course. Respond to the Learning Management System poll. Use the "Choose a Group" poll to select a group of learning partners. Complete your reflective entry in this week's journal. Write at least five multiple choice or true/false questions to be used for a quiz next week on Moodle; submit in the designated Assignment drop box. Respond to the discussion question in the Week 1 section. Read and respond to classmates' posts. Share your ideas! Take this week's quiz before 7:00 p.m. on Sunday at the end of the first week (beginning of Week 2). Check the course calendar.
	Course Builder	Configure your Sandbox course "Settings" (use the link in the Administration block to get started). Hint: To prepare for this week's quiz, be sure to check the help icon next to each setting to learn more about them! Edit your profile in your Sandbox course so your students (and visitors) will know something about you. Enroll students from your group in our Introduction to Teaching with Moodle course in your new Sandbox course. Select blocks for your Sandbox course. Be sure to add the calendar and arrange the blocks in the format you prefer. (You may find you want to change this later.) Upload a syllabus (add a file), then place it in the topmost section in your Sandbox course. Set it to open in a new window. Hint: Use "Add a resource" to get started. Add text to a topic/weekly section (keep it simple--for example, the name of the week's topic, and/or objectives for the week/topic).