Create & Submit A Writing Assignment for Moodle Via Google Docs, Spreadsheets & Presentations

PSST: Guess what? Unless you are taking a class on a Microsoft Office product (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), you probably don't need Microsoft Office (that goes for real life, too). Do you have a writing assignment to turn in? Here's how to do it in Google Docs, without printing a single page (with one exception):

First, if you are just starting to use Google Drive, Check your Google Drive Upload Settings. You  will be creating a doc, not uploading a file in this tutorial, but this will be handy for when you start uploading files into your Google Drive.

Step #1: When you are logged in to your LBCC Email, click the nine tiny squares in the upper right, and then click on the "Drive" icon:

Step #2: Click the red "New" button in the upper left, then click "Google Docs"

A new browser tab will open with your new doc ready to go. 

Step #3: Click where you see "Untitled document" in the upper left:

Give your doc a name that makes sense:

Step #4: Your instructor may choose among a variety of assignment submission procedures:

TEXT INPUT: If your instructor has set up your assignment to require text input, you can select and copy all of the text from your Google Doc, and paste it into the Moodle assignment text input box.

FILE SUBMISSION: If your instructor has set up your assignment to require a file upload, you can download your Google Doc into the required file type, and upload it into the Moodle assignment:

GOOGLE DOC SHARE: If your instructor has set up your assignment to require you share your submission with them via Google Drive, you can do so via the blue "Share" button in the upper right:

Click in the "Invite people" field and start typing your instructor's name. Be sure to indicate their staff account (@linnbenton.edu), and not their student account (@mail.linnbenton.edu):

Indicate their sharing privilege setting (most likely "Can comment"), and then click the blue "Send" button:

PAPER SUBMISSION: If your instructor has set up your assignment to require a hard copy, you can print it out and hand it in. You've done this before. You know what to do:

Step #5: Be sure to follow any additional instructions in the Moodle assignment to finalize your assignment submission.

Troubleshooting Auto-Enrollment in Your Moodle Course

"Help! My Moodle course has no students!" We hear it a lot just before and after a new term begins. Luckily, we have a simple 2-step process to enable auto-enrollment for your Moodle course(s), as well as a simple troubleshooting process:

1. Click on the settings gear in the upper right to go to your course settings area:

2. Verify you have input your CRN in the "CRN" field. Make sure there are only 5 digits in that field, and that it's the correct CRN:

3. If you see the proper CRN in the "CRN" field (see above), that possibly means there is an invisible character(s) in addition to the 5 digits. This sometimes happens if you have copied the CRN from WebRunner. Remove anything other than the 5 characters, click the blue "Save and display" button at the bottom, and your Moodle course will be auto-enrolled at or shortly after the top of the next hour!

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NOTE: If you are enrolling more than one CRN (section) into a single Moodle course shell, you need to input each CRN into the above CRN form individually (one at a time), as well as input all of those CRNs into the Multiple-Enrollment CRN form (it simply ties all of the CRNs together for auto-enrollment purposes). Just like you tell your students, be sure to read and follow the instructions carefully!

Make Your Moodle Course Available to Students!

If you have enabled Auto-Enroll in your Moodle course, and you have verified your students are enrolled in your course, but your students still can't access your course, the issue is probably that your course is unavailable to students:

1. Click on the settings gear in the upper right to go to your course settings area:

2. Make your course available to students:

3. Click "Save changes on the bottom:

How to Embed a Google Doc in Moodle

By Miranda Dudzik:

When you publish a Google doc, you can either link it to your Moodle course, or embed it directly in a page.  

Step 1: Navigate to your Moodle course.

• If you have not done so already, navigate to your published Google doc and copy the embed code that appears in the “Publish to the web...” window

• Navigate to your course and turn editing on:

• You can either embed the document in a content section on the main course page as a new label, or in a new page. Navigate to the content section where you want the document or new page to appear, and click “Add a resource...” to access the pull-down menu. Select the option you want.

Step 2: Name the new resource.

• In the “Adding a new resource” page that opens, name your resource. If you are creating a new page, you will also need to add a description.

Step 3: Open the HTML source editor.

• If adding a label, there is only one text editor that appears. If adding a new page, scroll to the text editor in the Content section.

• Expand the editing toolbar (if it is not expanded already),  by clicking on the Toolbar toggle icon in the top left corner of the text editor. The expanded editing toolbar is shown in the image below.

• To open the HTML source editor, click the HTML source icon. (see image above).

Step 4: Paste embed code into HTML source editor.

• The image above is what your HTML embed code should look like, the only difference being the actual URL for your Google doc.

• Click “Update” to close the HTML source editor. You should notice that the Google doc is now displayed in the text editor, however, it is relatively small, and depending on the size of your document, there are scroll bars to the side and bottom of the frame window.

Step 5: Customize the size of the display frame.

• In order to enlarge the display frame and expand the view of the document, you need to add a snippet of code into the embed code that you just pasted in that will define the width and height of the display frame. That snippet is:

width="560" height="315"

The numbers in this snippet of code define the dimensions of the display frame. You can change these numbers to fit your desired size, as long as you do not change anything else in the piece of code.

This snippet must be added in directly after “<iframe” in your original source code, and right before “src=...”.

• For example, if your embed source code is :

<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oesyelnrioBZpLf_kGUg_sv-8mktAzQrzp-YM3nHP_g/pub?embedded=true"></iframe>

The snippet gets added like this (red font is only for demonstration purposes):

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oesyelnrioBZpLf_kGUg_sv-8mktAzQrzp-YM3nHP_g/pub?embedded=true"></iframe>

• Reopen the HTML source editor and add the snippet of code as demonstrated above.

• Click “Update”. Your new display frame should look similar to this:

The scroll bars are still there, but the frame is much larger. You can adjust the numbers in the code snippet to make it bigger or smaller to fit your needs.  The larger the numbers, the larger the display frame.

NOTE: You can use these instructions to embed Google docs in other places than just labels and pages. This technique also works in pages that you add to Lesson and Book activities as well.

Use caution when determining the size of your frame, if you make it too large it might display poorly in the page you put it in. Also keep in mind that large embedded files can be problematic for Moodlers who have small computer screens or who use mobile devices.

How to Publish a Google Doc in a Moodle Course

One of the best ways to publish eLearning content is via Google Docs, rather than as a page within your LMS (Learning Management System). This will allow you to keep all of your course content in one place (Google Drive), from which you can edit with no need to republish.

Step 1: From within a Google Doc you wish to publish in your Moodle course, click File > Publish to the web… (NOTE: not the “File” menu for the browser itself):

Step 2: In the “Publish to the web” dialog that appears, note the available checkboxes. We recommend leaving them both as-is. Click “Start publishing.”

Step 3: Click “OK.”

Step 4: In the “Publish to the web” dialog, click in the “Document link” field and copy the link to the clipboard.

Step 5: In your Moodle course, turn editing on:

and click  in the content block where you wish the link to appear.

Step 6: In the “Add an activity or resource” dialog box, select “URL,” then click the “Add” button:

Step 7: This is the “Adding a new URL” page. Note that the field with asterisks are required. Also, we recommend indicating the link to appear in a new browser window. Make your inputs and selections, and click the “Save and return to course” button at the bottom.

Step 8: Locate your new link, and move it, if necessary (with the “” icon), then test it out by clicking the link. It should open in a new browser window or tab.

OPTIONAL: You can shorten the URL via bit.ly.