Moodling Along...

2012 Summer Session Courses in Moodle

Kent Villard — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:08:38 +0000

If you are teaching a course this summer it should now be appearing in Moodle. If you don’t see the courses you expected just give the “Help Desk” a call (566-0465) or send them an email @ helpdesk@upei.ca

47 (or more!) Interesting Ways To Use Moodle in the Classroom

Kent Villard — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:51:34 +0000

I stumbled on to a great Google Docs Presentation which features 47 (at last count) “Interesting Ways To Use Moodle in the Classroom”. It was originated by Tom Barrett (@Tombarrett) but the Moodle community at large has been contributing as well.

Check it out at MoodleNews.com (http://www.moodlenews.com/2011/42-interesting-ways-to-use-moodle-in-the-classroom-started-by-tombarrett/)

The Ten No-Nos of Teaching with a Projector or Interactive Whiteboard

Kent Villard — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:46:58 +0000

I know this blog is called “Moodling Along…” but I will be posting lots of things that I think are useful to ‘E-Learning’ and technology in education in general. After reading this article I thought that it was worth sharing. Many of the things mentioned in this article are common sense but some are not. Sometimes when we are knew to using a particular technology we can forget to use common sense because we are so wrapped up in trying to make sure the technology works and the class runs well!

Read The Ten No Nos of Teaching with a Projector or Interactive Whiteboard

[UPDATED] “Clicker” Information sessions

Kent Villard — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:38:28 +0000

There will be two information sessions on Oct 24th/2011 regarding TurningPoint’s “Student Response Systems” otherwise known more commonly on campus as “Clickers”.

Oct 24th/2011

10:30 am – 12:00 pm – Introduction to TurningPoint, how it works and what you can do. (Location: Kelley Lab – Rm 118)

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Best Practices/Pedagogy in Practice (Q & A for existing users as well) (Location: AVC 218S)

Anyone one who would like to setup a meeting with our representative can send me a note and I’ll see what I can do.

For more information email me (kvillard@upei.ca) or give me a call (x0465).

2012 Moodle Courses Now Available

Kent Villard — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:18:07 +0000

The next time you log into Moodle you should see any course you are listed as teaching (according to the Registrar’s office) in the Winter 2012 semester. If you log into Moodle and do not see the coursers you expect then you can give me a call or send me an email with the name of the course(s) you are missing (head on over to the Moodle site to locate the Help Desk phone number and email address). Don’t forget to let me know if you need content transferred from the last time you delivered the class in Moodle (unless you already know how to do it yourself).

Winter 2012 Courses

Kent Villard — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:49:56 +0000

The Winter 2012 Moodle courses will be available in Moodle soon. They will not be accessible to students until much closer to the start of the new semester. I will make an announcement when the courses are ready for you to work with. Once announced, if you do not see your course in Moodle then just give me a call or send me an email and I can give you access to the courses you need.

I hope everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving Holiday!

Upload Larger Files Now!

Kent Villard — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:02:31 +0000

I’ve recently increased the maximum size of file uploads for Moodle Instructors from 80Mb to 256Mb. This is to allow Moodle Teachers to upload larger files without my intervention. With the increase in use of larger files (videos etc.) it became necessary to revisit the file size limit that we imposed on Moodle when it first went into production.

Even though we have increased the maximum upload limit for files I would still appreciate your attention when saving or converting files. Do try to optimize your files as much as possible.

Not only does this benefit our services by taking less space on the Moodle server and using less network bandwidth, it also makes the files load faster for students which will improve their experience. If you have any questions about how to best optimize your files you can send me an email for advice. (moodle@upei.ca).

File Formats and Moodle

Kent Villard — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 18:05:21 +0000

It is true that you can upload any digital file format to Moodle but this does not necessarily make it a good idea to do so.

It is very important that your students can access the resources that you post to Moodle. It is true that the use of Microsoft Office is widespread (or other Office compatible suites like OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice) but you should not assume that all of your students will have access to this software.

Convenience Is The Key
It can be very convenient for most students when you to post documents in PDF format. PDF files are easy for students to access and will appear as you intended regardless of the computer platform the student is using. This goes for PowerPoint slide decks as well. They can be easily converted to PDF for posting to Moodle. This also allows for some advanced formatting such as displaying more than one slide per page. There are other options for PowerPoint presentations such as SlideShare (http://www.slideshare.net)

If you do have to post an uncommon file format for a resource make sure you post a link to the software that can be used to open the file. On a side note, very few programs open WordPerfect documents well and even less can open Corel Presentations files. WordPerfect Office can easily convert these documents to PDF.

ps. Yes, we do know that recent version of the Corel Office suite are now referred to as WordPerfect Office. It will always be Corel Office to me!

Course Checklist

Kent Villard — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:07:37 +0000

When using Moodle to offer or enhance a course there are a lot of little things to remember to get the most out of the teaching (or for your students, learning) experience. Here are a few items to remember when you are preparing your course:

Backups

Yes, the Moodle server is backed up on a regular basis but that is not always the easiest solution for recovering files or other resources in Moodle that for one reason or another you may have lost. (You did make sure you were deleting the correct assignment right?).

If you have more than a syllabus in your course then you should make sure you have a clean backup (without user data) of your course. Download that backup to your computer and keep it on a USB memory stick or burn it to a CD or DVD. Anytime you add a significant amount of material to your course you should create a new backup.

Syllabus

The first thing you should put in your Moodle course. This can be created as a web page in Moodle (very easy to update) or you can upload a PDF.

Check the Course Settings

Is the course start date correct? (This is very important if you choose the ‘weekly’ course format)
Does the number of topics/weeks reflect your needs or the length of the course?
Is your course available to students? (It is convenient to set your course to ‘unavailable to students’ while you are preparing content but you must remember to make it available before the start of the course)

Other Things To Do

Go through all of your course material and activities and hide any that you do not need or want showing up when the course starts.
If this is not the first time offering the course make sure that any activity you have in the course are set to the correct date.
Are there any other teachers that you need to have access to the course? Now is the time to assign them.

A litte bit of planning can go a long way when preparing your course. It is definitely easier to do these things before your course starts than to troubleshoot problems once you have started teaching!

Fall 2011 courses in Moodle

Kent Villard — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:07:40 +0000

Hello good Moodlers. You should now be seeing your courses in Moodle for the Fall 2011 semester. If you have logged into Moodle recently and DO NOT see your Fall 2011 courses you should email the ITSS Help Desk for assistance.

If you are teaching two sections of a course (MDL 101 A and MDL 101 B for example) and want to combine those courses in Moodle so you only have to post content to one Moodle course, contact me directly (kvillard@upei.ca).

If your course is cross-listed with another course and you plan to only post your course material in just one of the two courses you should also contact me directly to discuss how you can ensure that students enrolled in both classes will be able to access your course material posted in Moodle.