How do I access Moodle?

Transcription

1 Table of Contents How do I access Moodle?... 2 How do I visit my course?... 3 When I enter a course, what am I seeing?... 4 What is in the center column of my course?... 4 What elements are in the right and left columns?... 7 How do I navigate with the breadcrumb?... 7 What is the focus box?... 8 Where do I look for help?... 9 How do I participate in a forum? How do I post in a Standard forum or Q and A forum? How do I reply to a post in a forum? How do I delete a forum post? How do I send a message to another student in a Moodle course? How do I add a calendar event? How do I set my calendar preferences? How do I view my grades? How do I see my recent activity? How do I see my activity reports? How do I submit an assignment? How do I submit a test?... 25

2 How do I access Moodle? Log in to Moodle at Enter your MUSC NetID and password. Click Login. Introduction to Moodle Page 2

3 How do I visit my course? Once you have logged into Moodle, you ll notice that your courses may be listed in the center of the page that appears. Your professors will be able to control at what point you will see your courses, so do not panic if you do not immediately see all of the courses for which you are registered. To find the course you want to access, click on the title. Introduction to Moodle Page 3

4 When I enter a course, what am I seeing? What is in the center column of my course? You can expect to find just about all course content located in the center column of most courses. How your professor has chosen to design the course will determine how this course content is organized. Your instructor may choose to design a course by weeks or topics. When a course is designed in the weekly format, you can expect to see labeling each content area. When a course is designed in a topic format, you can expect to see topic headers. Sometimes courses may be designed in a collapsed topics format, which means topic areas can be open and closed by click on the triangles next to each topic header. Introduction to Moodle Page 4

5 Example of a course designed in the weekly format Example of a course designed in a topics format Example of a course designed in a collapsed topics format Introduction to Moodle Page 5

6 Within each topic area of a course, you can expect to find links to course resources and activities. Examples of resources might include links to lecture files, readings, or the syllabus. Examples of activities might include links to files or webpages, assignments, quizzes, or discussion forums. Instructors may add multimedia and text to the course page in order to articulate or express ideas, as well. Example of resources ( Training Workbook, Introduction to Excel, Excel Exercises ) and activities ( Excel Discussion and Excel Quiz ) Introduction to Moodle Page 6

7 What elements are in the right and left columns? The side columns provide spaces for "blocks," which are essentially widgets providing some kind of specialized function. A "People" block provides access to views of participants in the course. The Administration block provides access to your grades and profile. The Activities block provides access to all activities (Assignments, Forums, Quizzes, etc.) in the course. The Upcoming Events block may list any activities or events on the calendar with upcoming due dates. Instructors may design courses with multiple blocks or just a small collection of them. Your professor can choose to hide or reveal certain blocks, so do not be surprised if blocks are not consistently available from course to course. Introduction to Moodle Page 7

8 What is the focus box? The focus box offers a way to narrow down the focus of the whole course to a specific week or topic. This is very helpful when you doen t want to see all of the topics at once. 1. Inside a course, look for a single box in the top, right corner of the topic/weekly section. 2. Click on the box in order to narrow down the focus to the specified topic. Notice the appearance of two boxes. 3. You have now "focused" your course view to this specific topic. 4. Notice that when you scroll down the page, you will see a "jump" box, rather than the other topics. Click on the jump box to navigate to the other topics. 5. In order to return to a full view of the course, click on the double boxes with your mouse. Introduction to Moodle Page 8

9 How do I navigate with the breadcrumb? A navigation bar near the top of the page shows you where in the course you may be at any given time. If you click on the course name, you will return to the front page of the course. In this example, if you click on "Moodle you will be sent to the front page of the site. This bar is called a breadcrumb, because you can always click on previous links to get back "home" to your course page. Where do I look for help? Scroll to the bottom of any page in your Moodle course and click on either Participating in a course or Participant Help. These links will lead you to tutorials about Moodle. Introduction to Moodle Page 9

10 How do I participate in a forum? In Moodle, there are four types of discussion forums you may contribute to: a News forum, a Q and A forum, a single simple discussion forum, or a standard forum. Each of these have important characteristics, one of the most important being how you can subscribe to the forums. Subscribing to the forum means that you will receive notices of postings in your MUSC . News Forum A News forum is created automatically for all Moodle courses and appears at the top of the main course page. The News forum could be used to communicate immediate course news. Notices of items posted in the News forum are also displayed in the Latest News block. By default, all participants in a course are subscribed to the News forum, which means that whenever any course participant posts in the forum, all course participants will receive a notice of the post in the MUSC . If your professor plans not to use the News forum, they may choose to hide it. In this case you will not see it appear at the top of your course page. Standard forum In a standard forum, you will see forum instructions listed at the top of the page, a button to Add a new discussion topic, and a table of threads created by other course participants. Q and A forum A Q and A forum will operate the same as a standard forum. However, you will not be able to see other course participant s postings until you have posted a response first. A Single, Simple forum The single, simple forum is most useful for short/time-limited discussion on a single subject or topic. All posts and replies are listed on one page. Introduction to Moodle Page 10

11 How do I post in a Standard forum or Q and A forum? 1. Navigate to the forum within the course and click on its title. 2. On the page that appears, you will see the introduction text provided by your professor. Underneath you will see a button to Add a new discussion topic or Add a new question. In a Standard forum, you may also see a table that lists other course participants threads. In this table, you will see the information such as the subject line of the participant s post (Under the heading Discussion ), the author of the post, the number of replies, group information if groups are used, and the date of the last post. In a Q and A forum, you will not see this table until you have posted once. In the top right corner of the page, you will also see information about subscription options. 3. To post for the first time, click either Add a new discussion topic or Add a new question. 4. Create a subject for your post. Introduction to Moodle Page 11

12 5. Create a message for the forum. 6. Choose the subscription method for the message post. When a person is subscribed to a forum it means that they will be sent copies of every post in that forum (posts are ed about 30 minutes after the post was first written). Participants in a course can usually choose whether they want to be subscribed to each forum. However, it is possible for your professor to force subscriptions. If your professor forces subscription on a particular forum, then this choice is taken away and everyone in the class will get copies. 7. Choose file to upload as an attachment. Introduction to Moodle Page 12

13 8. Click the "Post to forum" button to complete. Introduction to Moodle Page 13

14 How do I reply to a post in a forum? 1. Navigate to the forum within the course and click. 2. Click on the discussion topic to view its thread. 3. Scroll to the post to which you want to reply, and then click Reply in the right, lower corner. 4. Repeat steps 4-8 in the section above titled How do I post in a Standard forum or Q and A forum? Introduction to Moodle Page 14

15 How do I delete a forum post? 1. Repeat steps 1 and 2 in the section How do I reply to a forum. 2. Scroll to the post that you want to delete and click Delete. 3. This will delete the post and any posts that stem from it. You may choose to "Edit" the post if you don't want to lose the branch of posts that stem for this one. Your professors and Moodle administrators have the ability to delete, edit, and split a post in a forum. Introduction to Moodle Page 15

16 How do I send a message to another student in a Moodle course? In Moodle, there is no internal feature. However, you can send a message to other students MUSC from within Moodle. 1. In your course, look for the "People" block in the left or right column. Click on the Participants link within the block. If you do not see the People block in your course, your professor may have disabled it. 2. After you click "Participants" you will see a table of students within the course. This view will provide information about each user, where they are from, and when they last accessed the course. Click on a column heading to sort the table by that particular column. If your professor uses groups in your course, you may only see students in your group, rather than all students in the course. 3. To send a message to someone in the course, click the person s name. Then click Send message. A window will appear for you to type a message. This message will be sent to the student s MUSC . Introduction to Moodle Page 16

17 How do I add a calendar event? Students may add "User events" to their personal Moodle calendars. A user event is a private event. Only the student can see it. 1. Locate the Upcoming Events block on the course page, and click on the "New Event" link. If you do not see the Upcoming Events block, your professor may not have enabled it for the course. 2. You may see options to add a user, group, course or site event. If you do, choose User Event. 3. Give the event a name. Try to avoid generic names. Be specific. 4. Add a helpful description. 5. Choose your date and time, duration and repeat settings. Click the "Save changes" button to save. 6. Your event has been added to your calendar. You may edit or delete your entry by clicking on the edit or delete buttons. Introduction to Moodle Page 17

18 How do I view or hide events on the calendar? 1. Locate the Calendar block in your course or click Go to calendar from the Upcoming Events block. If you do not see either of these blocks, your professor may have removed them from the course. 2. Click on the arrows at the top of the calendar to move to the month you want to view. View the calendar and note that Global, Group, Course, and User events are indicated by colors. Note the key at the bottom of the calendar. To hide types of events, click on the "click to hide" link. 3. You can hover over days of the month to see a pop-up description of events happening on that day. Introduction to Moodle Page 18

19 How do I set my calendar preferences? You may tell Moodle how you want the calendar to work for you. 1. On the front page of your course, locate the Calendar block and click on the name of the month. This will show you a large view of the month. 2. Click on the Preferences button in the top right corner of the page. 3. Using the drop-down menus, choose your preferences for the time display format, the first day of the week, etc. Then click on the "Save changes" button. Note: While you can accept default values, you must select "Yes" for "Remember filter settings" (number five in the image above) if you want Moodle to maintain these values for you. It is possible to return to this page and edit these settings at any time, of course. Introduction to Moodle Page 19

20 How do I view my grades? 1. Locate the "Administration" block in the left or right column of your course. 2. Click on the "Grades" link. 3. View your grades for all assignments. Introduction to Moodle Page 20

21 How do I see my recent activity? 1. Navigate to the Recent Activity block in the course. Frequently, it is located in the right column near the bottom of the page. The block will reveal public activities in the course since your last login date. If you do not see this block, your professor may have chosen to remove it from the course. 2. Click on the Full report of recent activity link. Click the Show Advanced button. 3. Filter participants and activities and set a date for the report. The report will reveal all the public actions within the course by participants since that specific date. Introduction to Moodle Page 21

22 How do I see my activity reports? 1. In the upper right-hand corner of the page, you see "You are logged in as [your name]. Click on your name. 2. Select the "Activity Report" tab in your profile. 3. The page will open on the "Outline report" sub-tab. The Outline report will list all of the course activities along with your associated grades. 4. Choose the "Complete report" sub-tab. The Complete report will list all of the course activities along with your submitted work, your instructor's feedback, and your associated grades. 5. Select the "Today's Logs" sub-tab. This will reveal your activity within the course during the day. 6. Select the "All logs" sub-tab. This will reveal your activity in the course for as long as you have been associated with the course. Introduction to Moodle Page 22

23 How do I submit an assignment? There are four types of assignments your professor can use in Moodle: single file upload assignments, multiple file upload assignments, online text assignments, and offline assignments. Online text requires that you complete the assignment by typing text into a form field uploading files is not allowed. Offline assignments do not require that you submit anything it is a way for your professor to store grades for activities that you complete outside of Moodle (for example, attending a special seminar or guest speaker lecture). Below are the instructions for complete single file upload or multiple file upload assignments. 1. Navigate to the assignment in the course view and click on its title. 2. Read the instructions for the assignment. 3. Near the "Upload a file" label you will see a small upload form. Click on the "Browse" button. Be aware that your professor may limit the size of files that you can upload. 4. Locate the file you wish to upload from the folders on your computer, and then click the "Upload this file" button. If your professor has set up the assignment to allow for multiple files, after your first file has been copied to Moodle, you may upload another in the same way. If you professor has not allowed for multiple files to be uploaded, you will not be able to upload a second file. 5. To delete a file you have copied to Moodle, click on the "X" beside the link to the file. Note that if you do not see the "X" icon, your instructor has not enabled this feature. 6. To enter text notes about the files, click on the "Edit" button near the bottom of the page. Note that if you do not see this button, your instructor has not enabled this feature. Introduction to Moodle Page 23

24 7. To submit the assignment, click Send for marking. You will be warned that you cannot upload any files again after you submit. Click Yes. 8. In the top right corner of the page, the date and time that you submitted your assignment may appear in red. Introduction to Moodle Page 24

25 How do I submit a test? 1. Navigate to the test and click on its title. 2. Read the instructions on the page that appears. This page may provide information about how long you have to take the test, when it is due, and how many attempts you are allowed. At this point, you have not begun taking the test, and if the test is timed, the timer has not started. 3. Click on the "Attempt quiz now" button. The quiz will open. If the quiz is timed, you will see a timer in the top left corner of the page that should remain visible even as you scroll down the page. 4. Answer the questions. On this page, your professor may choose to show you all questions on the page or one question at a time. Additionally, if your professor has allowed it, you may see a Submit button after each question that will allow you to submit your answer and receive feedback on a question before submitting the test for grading. 5. At the bottom of the test page, you may see two or three of the buttons shown below. Save without submitting allows you to save your answers without submitted the text. You are strongly encouraged to click the Save without submitting button periodically to save the choices you have selected in case you lose Internet connectively while taking the test. You can always go back and change your answers as long as you have not submitted the page or submitted the entire test. Submit page allows you to submit all of the answers you chose for the questions listed on the page. Submit all and finish allows you to submit the entire quiz for grading. 6. When you have completed the quiz, click the "Submit all and finish" button. Introduction to Moodle Page 25