NCEPTION REPORT. Short Introduction to use of MESA Training Distance Education LMS

Transcription

1 NCEPTION REPORT Short Introduction to use of MESA Training Distance Education LMS Implementation of the training strategy of the Monitoring for Environment and Security in Africa (MESA) programme EuropeAid/134534/D/SER/MULTI Lead Company

2 Short introduction to use of MESA Training Distance Education LMS Below a short summary of how to get started in a DE training course. After registration into the MESA Learning Management System you have created your own username and password. Ensure that you keep track of the username and password. It is only with this username and password that you will have access to the course materials, even if you create a new account during the course! Your first time access to a MESA Training Course: 1: Navigate, using your internet explorer, to and select from the main top menu My Training-Portal or navigate directly to 2: Within the learning management system (LMS) different course categories are defined, note that further information on the use of the LMS can also be obtained under the top category Getting Started. Also for each of the courses offered some further general information and main course curriculum is provided. If you are interested in following more courses check what is provided into more detail. 3: Select the course, under the appropriate course category, you have registered for and login using your username and password. Scroll through the content of the course and try to get an overview of the items provided under General Course Description and the various lessons posted. 4: Under the General Course Description check the Course Forum, eventually new information is provided over there. Keep checking the Forum during the course on a frequent basis as updates or other relevant information will be posted there. 5: Download the Course Description, this is a PDF document which states the sequence of learning activities for the course, this is an essential document and should be studied in great detail! 6: Access to training materials is provided in a number of ways to cope with different bandwidth capabilities available in the various African countries. Firstly, A distinction is made between essential and full course resources. The essential resources contain all materials required to follow a course, the full course materials also provide narrated PowerPoint presentations as well as movies and videos. The full course resources are therefore having a much larger file size! Secondly you can download the materials per lesson. Access to the full course materials: Under the General Course description you can download the full course materials from the MESA Training FTP at ftp://ftp.training4mesa.org. The Username and Password to access the course material is provided as well. From the Home Page of the MESA Training Portal you find a link to FileZilla (or from the Site Pages, under the Navigation tab, when you are within a course), this software can be used for FTP data transfer. You will download a ZIP file, which, after transfer to your local system needs to be decompressed. Note that also links are provided to 7-Zip, for decompression of the files.

3 Under the General Course description you can download the essential course materials, a link is provided. Once you have the full or essential training package you can mainly study offline, only assignments have to be uploaded, this generally requires low bandwidth. It is advised though to login and keep track if new announcements are posted in the Forum and to check the Grades for your submitted assignments! Access to the course materials per lesson: Under each lesson you find specific links to the various items provided for a particular lesson For each lesson you can also download the full lesson and the essential lesson materials, sometimes the full and essential materials are the same and therefore only essential lesson material is provided. Note that the files are Zipped. Some lessons contain links to assignments and self-tests. Clear instructions are provided in the Course Description, under the Tasks to be performed for each lesson. If it is an assignment the course description clearly states if the result should be uploaded in the LMS. Other relevant elements contained within the LMS: Apart from the Forum already mention before, other important capabilities of the LMS which are at your disposal are: From the left hand menu check the options available under Navigation. Some of the main ones used are: 1: Calendar: providing information on starting dates of courses, when assignments are due to be submitted. Available under Site Pages. Furthermore a few links are provided to additional tools, like FileZilla and 7-Zip 2: View Profile: we strongly encourage you to update your profile (see below) so participants get to know their fellows, available under My Profile. 2: Messages : available under My Profile. This option allows you to send s, e.g. to the course lecturer or fellow participants 3: My courses: here you find a further menu item which provides the link to the course for which you have logged in. Clicking the link show the main course menu.

4 From the left hand menu check the options available under Administration. Some of the main ones used are: 1. Grade Administration or Course Administration: Here you find the User Report, indicating the results / grades obtained 2. My Profile Settings: Here you can change some configuration settings, most important are changing of the Password and here you can also edit your profile. Utilities from the top right menu: Username Next to your Username on the top right corner there is a drop down menu. Here you can also find links to your profile, messages and also logout. If you have uploaded a picture in your profile, this is also shown here. You can also login from here. Some guidelines on uploading assignments: Most of the courses require that you will upload the results of assignments. Below you find a short description how to do this, eventually upload a new version / modified assignment (from Moodle student guide, see also the Student User Manual under the course category Getting Started ). Assessment tasks for most subjects must be submitted electronically within your subject s Moodle site. Assessment tasks are usually listed in an Assignment Submission section of your subject s Moodle site and also in the Calendar (assignment due date). To open the assignment, click on the assignment link. To Submit an Assignment: Read the instructions provided in the assignment description (top on page). Click Add submission button. This brings up a file uploaded. You can drop and drag a document into the submission area or click Add to use a file browser. Some assignments may have been setup with a text box for answers (in addition to the file uploader). When you are ready to submit your assignment, click on the Save changes button. Once you have Saved changes a submission status page will open.

5 Note: You can add comments to your teacher / marker on this page. You can also edit your submission (such as changing the uploaded document to a newer version). You will be able to edit your submission up until the due date. Anyhow, in case of questions don t hesitate to contact the LMS Administrator or check the Student User Manual under the course category Getting Started. The MESA Training TEAM