New Features We Like in Moodle 2

Here is a list of the new and improved features we like, and have received positive feedback from Instructors on in the new version of Moodle. I will continue to add to this blog post as we discover more good stuff, so check back often!

1. Block Docking In Moodle 2x Video , you have the ability to dock your blocks to the sides of your course, giving more room for content. Written documentation.
2. File Management File Picker/Drag & Drop Video - Very different from Moodle 1.9 - Both System and Personal Repositories. Written documentation.
3. With Completion Tracking Video enabled in your Moodle 2.x course, you gain an easy-to-read display of which course items are complete, and which are incomplete. Written documentation..
4. Joule Gradebook Video - New & Improved. Written documentation.
5. Personal Learning Designer Video We are excited by this feature, as it provides the ability to automate personalized feedback to students based their progress in your course. Written documentation.
6. Moodle 2’s Filepicker integrates with a variety of repositories such as Google Docs, Flickr and Alfresco to allow teachers access to upload their course content.
7. Want a number of resources activities with similar settings? You will appreciate how Moodle 2.x lets you duplicate resources & activities.
8. Rubric Video - Moodle 2.x provides the ability to grade using Rubrics. Written documentation.

Using and Grading Groups in Moodle 2

I have been researching the new features we will have in Moodle 2, and came across these interesting videos on using and grading groups. Enjoy!

Using Groups in Moodle 2/Joule 2

Grading Groups in Moodle 2/Joule 2

By the way, when you see the word "Joule" in relation to Moodle, that is referring to the extra features Moodlerooms, our hosting company provides in addition to the basic Moodle LMS.

We Need to Take Our Own Advice

I received this question from an Instructor:

How many of us, percent & numbers, are actually using Moodle for class? Many of my students tell me that my classes are the only ones that use Moodle. If there are others, usually writing or math but not across the board. I have been told that some faculty are pulling out of Moodle because it is adding extra work just to do daily updates. (And it does.) What do you think about this?

Hi X:

The number of instructors using Moodle fluctuates from term to term, and it also depends on how you define the phrase "using Moodle." There are dozens of faculty using Moodle in a superficial way - links to files, manual grades, etc., similar to how instructor websites are typically used. There are others who invest the time and effort to learn the tool, and make it work for them, with worthwhile benefit for them and their students.

My observation is that the user who has missed the value of eLearning technology enough to let that technology do some of the work for them, and only uses the tool superficially, are the ones most often frustrated with it because it adds "extra work just to do daily updates."

An instructor who grabs ahold of even just a couple or three ways that Moodle can take a lot of the mundane, administrative work out of the equation soon realizes they suddenly have more student contact time.

Be the instructor who is willing to make the learning and effort investment up front, to reap the benefits later, in the form of a payoff with tangible benefits of lower effort and/or more effectiveness for years to follow. Don't be the person who lets themselves fall into the crisis-management rut, and not expand their knowledge and expertise to make the technology work for them and their students. Ok , now I'm sounding a little like my mom… sorry about that. ;-)

Speaking of learning the tool, and making it work for you, there are some seriously awesome upgrades along those lines in each new version of Moodle. Of course, as always, only the Instructors who take the time to look, and then realize the benefits of learning and using those tools, and then make the necessary investment of time and effort will benefit from them.

There's my 2¢ - probably a bit more than you bargained for?

LBCC Moodle 2.x Student Orientation Video

How to Add a "Subscribe" Feature to Your Blogger Blog

If there is one feature every serious blog needs, it's an easy way for readers to subscribe. Why Blogger doesn't include this feature by default is beyond me,  but luckily it's pretty easy to add. Just make sure you are logged in as the owner, and not just a contributor to the blog first!

Tasks in Google Calendar & Gmail

Are you into Tasks in Google Calendar and/or Gmail? If not, you should be. In your Gmail Inbox:

Type G and then K to open Tasks (also under the “Mail ▾” drop down above the “Compose” button)

Type Shift + T to create a task based on the open message

Access Tasks on your mobile phone at: mail.google.com/tasks/a/linnbenton.edu

Here is more than you ever wanted to know about Tasks in Google Calendar.

Oh yeah!!!

Coming Soon to an Online Course Near You: Essay-Grading Software?

Times are a-changin'… or are they? I have written about my peers in the CBT (Computer-Based Training) realm in the late '80s and early '90s who were afraid our work would someday push them out of a job. It took me a while to realize what was most likely driving that fear for a lot of them: the way they were building their CBT courses. We have all experienced the snoozefest that is the "Next & Previous" navigation buttons. Used in a limited basis, they are great, but if that's all your CBT or eLearning course is… well, a monkey could complete that with flying colors.

When we entered the age of machine-graded quiz questions, that fear ramped up a notch or two… and then settled down when people realized there really is no loss of quality student contact time; actually, there is usually more, when the instructor makes use of their LMS's tools to handle more of the mundane tasks.

But I digress (I know, that's not like me). Check out this interesting read about essay grading software, let it simmer in your brain for a while, then share your impressions here.

Personailized Learning Designer

I am hearing a lot of instructor buzz about the Personalized Learning Designer in the upcoming Moodle upgrade!

A Use for (the Other) Google Drive!

I received an email from one of my favorite instructors, Dr. Stefan Seiter:

 

 "Is there a way to load a document from the web (e.g. a pdf file) directly to a particular folder in my Google drive or is it always a 2 step process: download to the computer and then transfer it to the Google Drive?" 

 

Leave it to Dr. Seiter to stretch my thinking! I had been of the impression there is little use for the Google Drive software you can install on your computer to put a copy of all of the files in your Google Drive on your hard drive, to sync with your Google Drive in the cloud, but that would do exactly what he was asking about. My reply:

 

"If you install Google Drive on your computer, Stefan, you could right-click on any link on a web page representing a file, and send that file right into your Google Drive. Make sense?"

 

There is Google Drive, and there is the "other" Google Drive. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to determine for yourself the value of each, and USE IT!

If You Don't Believe in What You Do, Then Why Do You Do It?

Once upon a time, in a previous life as an Employee Development Specialist (a glorified name for "Training Coordinator") with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, I started pushing for what we called "CBT" or Computer-Based Training. I didn't like the term then, and I don't like it now, because, to some it implies that the learning process is completely facilitated by technology. "What am I going to do for work when all the computers take over?" was a question I heard from not only many of the instructors I trained and supported, but from my supervisor, and his, and his, etc.

I was only partially successful in getting them to realize the value of… well, I prefer "eLearning" now, but I'm going to coin a new label soon, so stay tuned for that. Back on topic: I was only partially successful in getting enough people there to realize the true value of CBT before I left for a new position. Actually, I had two things in mind regarding the value and benefit of CBT: content consistency and time flexibility - both very valuable learning concepts - concepts only available since eLearning technology started taking root just a few years ago.

Fast forward about twenty years, and read how 72% of professors who teach online courses don't think their students deserve credit. If you are looking for an answer to the obvious question, "then why are those professors teaching online?" you won't find it in that article. You might enjoy reading the comments below the article, though.

How NOT to Deliver an Online Course

An online course offered at Georgia Tech got off to a bad start, and soon thereafter had to be cancelled. Ironically, the course was entitled: “Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application.”

The instructor "…tried to use Google Docs to help the course’s 40,000 enrolled students to organize themselves into groups. But that method soon became derailed when various authors began editing the documents."

Do you know how she could have better deployed those Google Docs? Discuss it below.

Read the full story here.

Web Accessibility: Required, Not Optional

Did you get the memo on website accessibility? With the latest legal and regulatory developments, you’d better make sure you did. The time is now for web accessibility in higher education.

Read more here.

Copying & Pasting from Word to Moodle

Just an reminder to avoid copying from MS Word and pasting into a Moodle course. Microsoft Word is notorious for including bits of formatting code that wreak havoc on web pages. We have seen a number of issues crop up recently in LBCC Moodle courses, including a pop-up like this that appears when a user tries to go to a course start page:



Imagine being the Instructor whose course delivered the above pop-up, and emailed us, saying "All of a sudden most of my moodle site disappeared. I can see only week 1 and 2. I can jump to later weeks but they are not visible." As you can imagine, this could throw some of your students into a near-panic. This is a known issue that is much easier to avoid than to diagnose and fix after-the-fact.

I have seen this happen with text copied from Word for Windows and Mac, so the best solution for Word users is to copy from Word and paste into Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit or Bean (Mac), and then from there into a Moodle text input box to appear in assignments, forums, Moodle web pages, etc.. You will lose any text formatting you incorporated into the Word version of your document (I have had success keeping formatting from Bean documents!), but any effort spent to reformat your text in Moodle itself is much easier than fixing the issue that pasted Word text can do to your Moodle course. I drafted the copy for this forum post in Word and copied/pasted from Bean - it looks great, huh?

This issue has been a big reason I shy away from Word, and use Bean and Google Docs more and more.

As always, comments and questions are welcome!