LBCC Educational Technology Blog: Moodle

Showing posts with label Moodle. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Linked Vs. Embedded YouTube Videos in Moodle

I received a question from an instructor:

"I'm having an issue where, when I just want to hyperlink some text so that clicking on it takes you to an external YouTube link, Moodle automatically turns it into a video embed. That might be nice in some cases, but it doesn't work very well on a page where we are listing out a ton of resources. Is there a way to disable that "show the video" feature (in certain instances) and just hyperlink the text?"

Here is my reply:

Here is probably the easiest HTML hack I know of:

Here is the URL to a YouTube video you want to place as a URL resource in your Moodle course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kNTbCxcPEA

Insert a "no embed" flag between "watch?" and "v=", like so:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?embed=no&v=8kNTbCxcPEA

This will force Moodle to show the linked video on a YouTube page, rather than embedding it in your course.

Monday, June 3, 2024

Accessible Roadrunner June 2024 - Moodle

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

Friday, January 19, 2024

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.

Thursday, January 18, 2024

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.

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

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!

Thursday, October 19, 2023

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.

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

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.

Monday, September 25, 2023

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.

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

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.

Friday, March 31, 2023

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.

Friday, March 24, 2023

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.

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Addressing a Moodle Course Import Error

Occasionally, some funky HTML in a Moodle quiz question can cause an error when importing content between courses. Here is a simple way to fix it.

Monday, January 23, 2023

Universal Design for Learning in the Moodle environment

"Prior to the advent of UDL, many teachers expected every student to learn the same way. Most often, that meant a textbook. As learning moved online, this static teaching style translated to so many words on a screen.

That approach left out auditory learners, kinesthetic learners, visual learners, and students with any number of barriers, from disabilities to unfamiliar languages. Multimodal presentation provides a solution.

Instead of teaching through text alone, UDL asks teachers to present information via multiple media formats at once. With the right digital tools available in the LMS, students can choose the features that help them learn."

Thursday, April 15, 2021

OpenLMS Moodle Mobile App Update

On April 28, the “old Open LMS” app will be removed from from the Google & iOS App stores (add to Google Calendar). You will still be able to use the old app, but will not be able to update it.

We recommend you delete the "old Open LMS" app, and ensure you have the latest version of the new app installed. The screenshot below shows the new app highlighted in yellow, and the old app is highlighted in red:

Thursday, April 8, 2021

Open LMS Moodle Mobile App Update

We received a message from our Moodle host today:

As we mentioned in past communications about the Open LMS Moodle mobile application, there are currently 2 versions of the app available in the Apple and Google app stores. One is labeled “Open-LMS” and one is labeled “old Open LMS”.

As of the end of April, new updates and changes to the mobile app will only be available on the “Open-LMS” app version. The “old Open LMS” version will not be updated and will no longer be available in app stores. Technically, this older version will still work until the end of 2021, but new updates will not be included.

As a reminder from previous updates, here is the timeline of app changes:

February 17: We started deploying the new Open LMS App in the Apple and Google app stores and we changed the name of the old Open LMS app to “old Open LMS” in the stores. In the old app’s listing description, we recommend downloading the new App, titled “Open-LMS”.

April 28: We will remove the “old Open LMS” app from the stores. (Users will still be able to use it, but will not be able to update it.)

We recommend you encourage your users to delete the "old Open LMS" app, and ensure they have the latest version of the new app installed. To assist with this process, we’ve updated the icon on the old app to make it clear which one is no longer recommended.

The screenshot on the left is iOS, screenshot on the right is Android. The new app is highlighted in yellow, while the old app is highlighted in red:

Just as a reminder, a new version was created to ensure consistency and clarity with the deployment details in the app store. We do not anticipate this approach will be needed again. We realize that this creates confusion with users and additional work for all involved. Our goal is to make this process as easy as possible for your users, and to provide sufficient notice to you to ensure a smooth transition.

Monday, December 21, 2020

Converting a Course Between LMSes

We received a request from an instructor asking for assistance in converting a Canvas course into a Moodle course. They had a Canvas backup file and had discovered a video describing the basic process. I had seen that video (and many like it) before, and found it curious that they didn't close the loop and show the resulting Moodle course.

In hopes of sharing what we on the Moodle team have observed and experienced over the last dozen years or so, here is my reply to the instructor:

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We have fielded this and similar questions numerous times over the years. The only solution along those lines that has been more or less successful is when the backup file (in this case, from Canvas) is made from a course that was built as a "file dump/repository," as in simply containing files (usually Word Docs, PowerPoint files, PDFs, etc.), but nothing representing any true LMS functionality such as those you are familiar with in Moodle: Assignment, Quiz, Forum, Attendance, Book, Lesson, etc.

Do you have any idea as to the nature of the Canvas course you are looking to convert to Moodle? If it just consists of files, your idea might work, but not necessarily better than replicating that type of course in Moodle. If the course incorporates Canvas LMS functions, we have yet to see a conversion utility or process (including the one you referenced) that will accurately translate into a Moodle course.

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That said, if you know of, or discover a utility or process that reliably facilitates a conversion of true LMS functionality from and/or into Moodle, please let us know - comment below!

Friday, December 11, 2020

Moodle Course Basics Screencast

Here are the basic processes we on the LBCC Moodle Team have seen work best for most instructors and students in most Moodle courses. Let us know what you think in the comments below!