Accessible Roadrunner June 2024 - Moodle

Enjoy this month's issue of the Accessible Roadrunner. The topic is Moodle!

Moodle Assignment Default Settings Tour

 Take a tour of all of the most useful settings of the Moodle Assignment Activity, with a few added-value tidbits added along the way.

Moodle Attendance Activity Settings Tour

The Moodle attendance activity module enables an instructor to take attendance during class and students to view their own attendance record. The instructor can create multiple sessions and mark the attendance statuses as "present," "absent," "late," or "excused," or modify, and and/or delete the statuses to suit their needs. Reports are available for the entire class or individual students.

Moodle Course Calendar - Google Calendar

Do you recognize and appreciate the value in using a calendar that includes things you want to do, along with thing you need to do, all in one view? It makes it easier to avoid double booking. Here is how to make a Google Calendar version of your Moodle course(s) calendar, in a simple, step-by-step process.

Using Panopto In Moodle (for Students)

At the request of a few instructors who want to assign their students to produce a brief self-introduction and/or demonstration videos as assignment submissions, forum posts, etc. Here is a screencast video directed toward students for you to include in your Moodle course.

Watch it here:

Time Delay on Moodle Quiz 2nd Attempt

I posed a question to Colleen Sanders, Open Educational Resources & Course Materials Affordability Faculty:

I received a question about how to implement an automated delay in a second attempt in a Moodle quiz for a student who didn't score above a pre-determined threshold on their first attempt. Do you see any pedagogical value in making a student who fails a quiz attempt wait a certain amount of time before reattempting?

Colleen's reply:

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It depends on the type of class and how the instructor is teaching it. Is it forced choice or short answer, for example, and is it an online class or hybrid/F2F? When I see faculty do this, it's often with the hope that the student will study the material in between to learn from their mistakes. Some faculty do this to prevent students from trying to quickly memorize the quiz feedback and re-take it with the right answers in their short term memory. But there's no guarantee that happens in between unless the faculty member has some sort of follow-up assignment for students who score below a certain grade that would be a valid measure of new learning. And it can also turn into an equity issue if students now have to re-work their schedules to come back to a quiz in a set time. So, yeah, it depends, and just checking the box to make them wait doesn't guarantee better learning. A follow-up assignment where students demonstrate they learned from their mistakes would be a more valid assessment that they learned from those mistakes.

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Thanks, Colleen!

Changing Your Moodle Course Grade Expression

By default, Moodle displays grades in the gradebook in points. Here is how you can have the grades expressed in different ways.

The Proper Moodle Mobile App for LBCC

We have sensed some student confusion on which Moodle mobile app to use. The regular, official Moodle Mobile app is not compatible with LBCC Moodle, but that's not a bad thing, because the app that does work has more features! Here is the app you DO NOT want:

… and here is the app you DO want:

If you would like some clear instructions for your students, here you go:

1. Click to get the Open LMS mobile app or scanning the QR code below.

2. Launch the app and enter this URL (one time only) into the app text field: moodle.linnbenton.edu

3. Use your login credentials to sign in to the LBCC Single Sign-On (SSO) portal.

Introducing The Accessible Roadrunner

Dionna Camp, Accessible Technology Specialist in Accessibility Resources will be sending out monthly newsletters that will contain information on how to create accessible documents, videos, activities, and more.

Each month, we encourage you to institute the discussed accessibility aspects in your course materials. You are also welcome to submit materials for an accessibility audit. You can find details on how to submit materials in our first ever edition of Accessible Roadrunner - October 2023. 

In addition, Dionna will have drop-in times available for folks who would like to discuss aspects of accessibility within their own materials and disciplines. Check out Drop-In with Dionna - October 2023 for available drop-in times.

Moodle Announcements Forum Duplication

New Moodle courses have an Announcements forum pre-loaded, and thus, care must be taken when importing content so as to not duplicate this forum because having more than one will break the emailing processes.

Read more here.

Also check out our new eLearning Support site (bookmark it!), where you will find all kind of great support info and resources, including most of our help guides. We are adding great stuff to the site, so stay tuned!

Asking ChatGPT to Compare Moodle and Canvas

Which LMS is better: Moodle or Canvas?

Moodle and Canvas are two popular learning management systems (LMS) used in educational institutions. Both platforms have their strengths and weaknesses, and the choice between them will depend on the specific needs and requirements of the institution or organization.

One of the main advantages of Moodle over Canvas is its flexibility. Moodle is an open-source LMS, which means that it can be customized and modified to meet the specific needs of an institution or organization. Moodle supports more than 12 types of assessments, and there are multiple grading alternatives available to grade different assessments in different ways. Moodle also has an optional, fully-branded mobile app. However, Moodle has limited support, and organizations will need to contact their Moodle partner for additional support.

In contrast, Canvas is a closed-source LMS, providing fewer opportunities for customization. Canvas is equipped with various in-built features, but it is less adaptable than Moodle when it comes to personalizing the platform. Canvas LMS offers more robust collaboration features, and it has more robust support than Moodle. However, Canvas can be more expensive than some other LMS platforms, while Moodle is free to use as it is an open-source platform.

Ultimately, the best LMS platform for an institution or organization is the one that meets its specific needs in the most effective way, regardless of cost.

Which LMS is better: Canvas or Moodle?

Moodle and Canvas are two popular Learning Management Systems (LMS) used by educational institutions and businesses worldwide. Both LMSs have their strengths and weaknesses, and the choice between them depends on the specific needs of the organization.

Moodle is an open-source LMS that offers more control and advanced customizations for e-learning programs. It is the most used LMS globally, with a modular design and open-source technology. Moodle is free to use, and users can build a powerful learning environment from scratch with high flexibility. Moodle is suitable for both schools and businesses, and it has an optional, fully-branded mobile app. However, Moodle has a stale interface, which some users find unappealing.

Canvas, on the other hand, is a premium LMS that offers a modern, prettier interface for students to interact with. It is suitable for beginners who need a simple LMS to work with. Canvas is exclusively available to schools, colleges, and universities. It has more integrations than Moodle, giving users more freedom to customize the LMS to their needs. Canvas also offers more robust collaboration features. However, Canvas is limited in terms of functionality compared to Moodle.

In terms of user reviews, Canvas has a higher rating than Moodle. Canvas has 3617 reviews and a rating of 4.54 / 5 stars, while Moodle has 2912 reviews and a rating of 4.3 / 5 stars. Both LMSs offer networking conferences for users to exchange ideas. Moodle cloud users can contact only Moodle Partner, whereas Canvas provides additional support in the form of email and phone.

In conclusion, the choice between Moodle and Canvas depends on the specific needs of the organization. Moodle is suitable for those who want more control and advanced customizations, while Canvas is suitable for beginners who need a simple LMS to work with and want a modern interface.

Moodle Course Imports into a Collapsed Topics Course

As you know, the "Collapsed Topics" Moodle course format is now our systemwide default for new course shells. We have seen a few issues when a course import is processed into a Collapsed Topics course shell, the instructor doesn't see content imported into their future term course, and then attempts the import a second (or more) time. You can verify that your future term course has content by clicking the "Open All" feature:

​IMPORTANT: If you discover you have multiple copies of course content from duplicate course copy attempt(s), please let us know ASAP, and definitely before any student activity has occurred in your course, at which point it will be necessary to delete redundant resources and activities one at a time.

Downloading Student Assignment Submissions in Your Moodle Course

Have you ever needed to download all of your students' assignment submissions in your Moodle course? Here is an efficient way to download all of the submission files for an Assignment activity, and upload them into your Google Drive.