How to View Individual Student’s Forum Posts

If you have been using Moodle 2.0, you should know by now that many of the editing is done through accessing links on the left-hand navigation bar. In the past, you could access student forum posts, grades, activity reports, and other activities through tabs at the top of their profiles. Those links are now found in the Navigation block. Once you select a student, you will be able to view student information in this Navigation block.

Navigation Block

Make sure you have the Navigation block installed on your course.

To install new blocks, turn editing on for your course and select “Navigation” from the list of items. Move this block up at the top, for easy viewing for students.

Cannot locate Navigation block, but have it installed?

Tip: You may have your block undocked, which will appear as a tab on the left of your site. Remember, with Moodle 2.0, you can undock any of the blocks.

Select Participants

Either select “Participants” from your People block OR

OR Enrolled users

OR “Enrolled users” from the Course Administration block

Access individual profiles

Click the link to navigate to the user’s profile

Forum Posts

Expand “Forum posts” in the Navigation block under the user’s name

Posts or Discussions

Select “Posts” or “Discussions” to view individual user’s contributions

View Posts!

You will then be able to view all posts or discussions posted by that user.

Note you can also view posts in context , too.

Moodlerooms Mobile Theme

If you access our EDTECH Moodle site on your SmartPhone, our Moodlerooms Mobile theme will appear. This theme allows you to easily navigate and use Moodle in a mobile environment. Try it out!

Simply navigate to our Moodle site on your phone’s Internet browser (http://edtech.mrooms.org) and login.

As you can see, after logging in you can post to our News Forum from your mobile device.

Login Page

Enter your username and password and click the Login button at the bottom of your screen.

Accessing your course(s)

To access your course, click the Blocks button at the upper-left of your screen.

Then, select Course categories.

Course categories

Select the semester and your course from the list.

Your course

You will then be directed to your course home page. Take a look around and notice how much you can do on your mobile device, such as participating in forums, accessing resources, and even submitting assignments. If your instructor has enabled course completion, you can view your progress.

You will want to create a bookmark so you can easily navigate to your courses in Moodle on your mobile device. In this example, I will add EDTECH 501 to my home screen.

Click the little arrow at the bottom of your screen to add this course to your home screen.

Add to Home Screen

Name your icon

Edit the icon to your course name and you will then have it available to click on your home screen.

I think you will really like this mobile interface. Let me know what you think and if you will be using EDTECH Moodle on your mobile device.

Where did the enrollment key go?

Wonder where to locate the enrollment key for your course? It’s no longer in the course settings. You need to click Users>Enrollment methods>Self enrollment (Student) to get to the page to adjust your settings.

You then can set your enrollment key and customize other settings. You may want to have your students automatically put into groups once they enroll, so enable the group enrollment feature (and of course set enrollment keys for each of your groups.)

The custom welcome message is sent to students after they enroll, so you might want to include some detailed instructions on how to get started.

How to Create a Traditional Rubric in Moodle 2.0

As you know, you can create a “Checklist” rubric in Moodle 2.0, which lists various guidelines that are added to provide a score for an assignment. In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a more traditional rubric, with criteria and categories. You will need to create a point scale in the Grades in order to complete this rubric. Don’t let these steps scare you–once you understand how scales are created in Moodle, you will be a master at creating rubrics and adding them to assignments. It’s an easy way to grade student work, provide them with detailed feedback, and eliminate any addition errors!

Click Grades under Course administration

Click View under Scales

Create the scale that works for your rubric

Enter your scale in ascending order. In this example, the scale is designed to create a maximum of 20 points in each category on the rubric.

Click “Save changes” when you are done.

Click “Rubrics”

Click “Create new rubric”

Start creating your rubric

1. Name your rubric
2. Click the dropdown arrow and select your scale
3. Click “Update Marking Method”

Fill out rubric

1. Add criteria and guidelines/cateogy information to each cell.
2. Select the number of points you want for each category.

Add more cells

To add more guidelines or criteria, simply click the green arrow. To delete any cell, row, or column, select the red X.

Save Rubric

When you have completed your rubric, hit “Save Rubric.”
In this example, a student could get a maximum total of 40 points.
Now, let’s add this rubric to an assignment!

Select rubric for assignment grading

Save

Grading student assignments with rubric

Click “Grade” as you normally would do when grading a student assignment.

Rubric for grading

You will be directed to a new page, where you can select one of the guidelines from each criteria to rate. You can enter comments for each criteria as well as overall feedback below the rubric. When the student views his/her score, (s)he will see the rubric and your comments. It makes it super-easy for students to see how they were assessed on an assignment!

Completing the rubric with feedback

Saving Score and Feedback

Moodle automatically calculates grade and is put in gradebook.

For more information on how to create scales (which I admit is kind of tricky) visit the moodle.org page http://docs.moodle.org/21/en/Scales

Using Rubrics in Moodle 2.0

Moodle 2.0 includes the ability to create and add rubrics to assignments. You can create a simple rubric that consists of criteria and guidelines for each criteria, using this as a checklist for students and also for grading.

The rubric is included when you submit grades, automatically adding all of the individual guidelines you click. You also have the ability to comment on each criteria and the assignment as a whole. Students will then be able to view the rubric and your comments in their grades.

You can also update the rubric at any time, if a student resubmits an assignment for instance.

If your rubric style consists of criteria and categories, with students receiving points for just one category in each criteria. then you have the option of creating that type of rubric, too, in Moodle. You will need to create a scale for your rubric (Grades>Scales>View) and then assign that scale to the rubric and the assignment.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a checklist rubric.

Select Rubrics

First, you need to create your rubric. Click the Rubrics icon under your course administration.

Create new rubric

Name and complete rubric

You will need to name your rubric and then fill in the criteria and guidelines. You can add or delete criteria by clicking the green plus or red X buttons. Remember, each guideline will add up to the total of your assignment points. If you do not need one of the guideline cells, you will need to delete it before you can save your rubric.

Also, the rubric cannot add up to more than 100 points.

Save Rubric

In order to save this rubric, you need to delete any cells that have no information in them. So, I would click the red X to delete the cell and then click “Save Rubric.”

Rubric saved

You should see a “Rubric saved” at the top of your rubric.

View your rubric

To see what your rubric will look like for students, click “Manage Course Rubrics.”

Select “View Rubric” icon

Your finished rubric

Add rubric to assignment

Edit an exisitng assignment or create a new assignment.

Add your rubric to this assignment.

Make sure the number of points for the assignment matches the rubric!

Save assignment

Grading Assignments with Rubric

Click “Grade” like you usually do to grade an assignment.

Grade student’s work with rubric

You will check the guidelines the student included in their assignment. You can post comments on each criteria, as well as a comment on the work overall. This information is then available to the student in their gradebook.

Moodle automatically adds the items and places it in the gradebook after you click “Save Score and Feedback.”

Nice, huh?

Joule has a handbook with more information about all of the features. Here is the link for more information on rubrics:

http://manuals.moodlerooms.com/display/JOULE2/Rubrics+Manual#RubricsManual-CreateaRubric

Messaging in Moodle 2.0

I think you will appreciate the updates to the Moodle Messaging system in 2.0. In the past, you could either view messages when logged in to Moodle or have them forwarded to your email after a certain period of time elapsed. In the new version of Moodle Messaging, you have options.

According to the moodle.org website, the messaging system in 2.0 has been revamped significantly:

• it is now event-driven.
• it allows users to control exactly what messages they receive and how.

All users need to do is adjust their messaging options in their Profile Settings. To access Profile Settings, click Messaging under My Profile Settings:

You will see a screen “Configure notification methods for incoming messages” where you can select how you want to be notified for various types of information.

Depending upon your permissions, you will have different options. However, it’s nice to set your messages maybe as pop-up windows when you are online and then receive by email when you are offline. You can do this also with forums you are subscribed to. This way, you can not only avoid email inbox overload (one of my pet peeves), but can stay on top of current information while you are logged in to your Moodle site.

Making it easy for students to receive updated information when they are on their Moodle site is a great way to keep them engaged and informed. Moodle Messaging improvements also include the ability to to integrate with Jabber if the system admin enables that setting.

 

How to Enable Course Completion and Set Up Activity Completion

Moodle 2.0 has an excellent option called Course Completion, which allows both instructor and student to monitor requirements to be completed in the course.

These could be any type of activity or resource interaction. The addition of a Course completion status block quickly helps a student stay on track and allows an instructor to view student progress.

This handy feature is enabled through the Course Settings in the familiar Administration block and then is available as an option when creating an activity or resource.

Following is a tutorial showing you how to enable course completion in your Moodle 2.0 course and then how to set up a completion requirement for viewing a course syllabus.

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Why use Course Completion in Moodle?

You might want to make sure students complete certain activities before others. In this example, you will view how to adjust your course settings to include course completion and then how to set a viewing requirement for a resource page.

First, click “Edit settings” in your Course administration section to enable Course Completion.

Student progress section

Scroll down to the Student progress section and select the option below.

You might also want to click the “Completion tracking begins on enrolment” box.

Click “Save changes.”

Next, you will want to add a “Course Completion Status” block.

Editing Page

At the beginning of the semester, you will probably want to make sure students view the course syllabus. In this example, you will have the option when creating or editing your Syllabus Resource Page to enable Completion tracking.

Enable Syllabus Completion

You will need to adjust your items you want tracked for completion in the Completion tracking section of your Course administration block.

In this example, the Page-Syllabus is selected, along with another Workshop activity. Make sure you select “Save changes” at the bottom of the page.

Student View

When a student views the course, this is the view of the Course completion status block, indicating that none of the required completion activities have been started.

This is what the student sees when (s)he clicks the “More details” link on the Course completion status block.

Now, the student is viewing the syllabus. After doing so, a checkmark will appear on the course homepage, indicating he has viewed it.

Course completion: Teacher View

This teacher view of the Course completion block helps the teacher quickly see who has completed which of the required completed requirements.

Easy Practice with Moodle 2.0

If you want to easily test Moodle, you can access an online site already set up. Any changes you make will be lost after some time, but this will allow you to work with the various activities and resources in Moodle, logging in as an admin, teacher, and student. I like to open several browsers, log in to the same course as different users, and see how the various activities/resources look with those permissions.

The site URL is http://demo.moodle.net and will show what version of Moodle is currently installed on the site. After you login, select “My Courses” and then select the course named “Features Demo.” This is in English (always helpful!) and is set up by separate topics, with each topic discussing an activity or other resource.

You can use this just like your own course site, so take advantage and make edits, add content, and whatever else you want to do. It’s a great way to begin the Moodle 2.0 journey.