MA TESOL (by distance) Lancaster University. Moodle User Guide

Transcription

1 MA TESOL (by distance) Lancaster University Moodle User Guide

2 Contents 1. LOGIN ENTER YOUR COURSE MOVING AROUND MOODLE BREADCRUMBS SIDEBAR THE MAIN CONTENT YOUR PROFILE ADD A PICTURE OF YOURSELF DISCUSSION FORUMS READING AND REPLYING TO MESSAGES ADD A NEW DISCUSSION REFLECTIVE JOURNAL GLOSSARY

3 1. Login Within the course we will be using Moodle, primarily for providing course materials and discussions about assigned tasks, but also for news and announcements and frequently asked questions. We would also like to encourage you to use it to communicate with each other both to ask questions and raise issues, there is a social forum setup for general chat. Remember, the more you ask questions and engage in discussion the more you will benefit from the course and each others experiences. You can access Moodle using the following URL: Click Login now to get started. You ll see the CoSign login screen this is also used to login to the library via OneSearch ( and uses your Lancaster University network username and password. 3

4 Enter your Lancaster University Network username and password. You will either have been sent these at the start of the course (Distance Learners) or collected them as part of registration (on campus). NOTE: You will need to have changed the initial password, either by logging into a computer on campus or using the online form at Navigation Gives you access to modules you are enrolled on and your profile. Settings allows you to edit your profile. After logging in you will see the Moodle My home page Modules you are enrolled on are listed in the main area along with notifications of recent activity. The side panel has links and information. Including access to the Library OneSearch service, Access to Help Guides from Lancaster Answers 2. Enter your course Once you have logged in you will see a box in the centre labelled Course Overview. This will list all the courses that you currently have access too. Select LING530: Second Language Acquisition (distance) [1] You will now be in your course Moodle space. 3. Moving Around Moodle There are a number of ways to move around Moodle. 3.1 Breadcrumbs This is a menu positioned just below the course title which shows your position in the course. These are hyperlinks and you can use these to move around the site. 4

5 My home: Clicking on this would take you to the Moodle homepage which displays the list of your courses. LING : This is the shortened name for this course, and clicking on this would take you to the course homepage. News & Announcements: This is in the activity currently being viewed. The above is only one example of how the breadcrumbs menu may appear. Keep an eye on this as you navigate around the course, and you will notice that it changes to reflect your current position. 3.2 Sidebar The sidebar on the right hand side of the page contains access to important information and updates on your course module. The People block provides links to a list of all participants in the course by clicking Participants. Search Forums allows you to do a text search all the discussion forums within a course. The advanced search allows you to carry out a more detailed search. Recent Activity is one of the most important lists it shows the latest activity and posts. Clicking the link to full report of recent activity shows you everything that has happened since you last logged in. OneSearch is a search box to search on the library catalogues. LancasterAnswers information on Moodle components and full how-to guides. 5

6 3.3 The main content The main course page is organised into topics. You will see general information about the module at the top of the page, including module timetable, recommended reading and resources. Further down the page you will find specific information for each week/unit. Modules typically contain 8-10 units and each unit is intended to cover a week s work. At the moment you will only see unit 1 as the units are timetabled to be available only at specified start dates, and materials for each unit will be available to preview one week prior 6

7 to the start date, they will then be available until the end of the course. See the Module Timetable for details of unit start dates. Under the heading 'TASKS' you will find all the tasks, materials and reading for the unit. Where tasks require you to post to a discussion forum or reflective journal entry there will be a relevant link under the heading FORUMS & JOURNALS. 4. Your Profile You can edit your profile at any time by clicking on the edit profile link on the left hand navigation menu. (click the + sign to open the my profile settings menu). 7

8 You will see a screen which looks similar to this: Format By default this is pretty HTML format however you may want plain text if you often access mails on a mobile phone Digest Type - This is important! By default you will get a copy of every message posted to the VLE sent by . We strongly recommend changing this to a digest posts either Subjects (daily with subjects only) or Complete (daily with full posts) Forum tracking We recommend you change this to Yes: Highlight new posts for me. This isn t 100% reliable but does help quickly identify where new posts have been made on forums. Location and Description Please edit these fields (and keep them up to date) to give information on where you are (city and country, timezone). In the description please include some information about who you are, what you do and what you re interested in / why you are studying on your programme. This *really* helps people get to know each other and remind themselves who s who as you start out on the course. 8

9 4.1 Add a picture of yourself Scrolling down the form you will see the option to add a User Picture, click the + symbol then you will see the following information: Either click Choose File and browse to locate your file or drag and drop a file from your computer onto the blue area. Make sure you click the Update Profile button to save any changes you make. 5. Discussion Forums A discussion forum is shown by the following icon. If the course task asks you to post your results to the discussion then there will be a discussion forum setup for that task. In addition to the course tasks there are several other discussion forums setup, News and Announcements, Social Forum and the FAQ forum. 5.1 Reading and Replying to Messages If there are discussion messages then when you enter the Discussion Forum you will see a screen similar to this: The top of the page shows a description of the forum. Each link under the discussion heading is a separate discussion topic. 9

10 The screen also shows the number of replies within a discussion topic, and how many of the messages are unread. If there are unread messages then the number is displayed as a link enabling you to click to reveal the unread messages. If you wish to simply mark all the messages as read, click the tick next to the number. Click on the discussion topic that you would like to read or reply to. This will open a page revealing a string of messages associated with the original message. You can alter the way the replies are displayed by clicking on the drop down box at the top centre of the screen. Choose the message that you would like to respond to by clicking the reply link in the bottom right corner of the message. Type your message in the space provided. If you do not wish to receive an each time someone replies to your message or adds a new topic then make sure the subscription box reads I don t want replies.. Click the Post to Forum button. You will have 30 minutes to make any alterations to the message. After this time you will need to contact the site administrator to request them to remove the post. 5.2 Add a new discussion Most discussion forums allow you to create new discussion topics. However, if your message is related to an ongoing discussion then you should reply to the message rather than starting a new discussion topic. See the instructions for replying to messages in section

11 To add a new discussion topic, click on the Add a new topic button and you will see the following screen: Give your discussion topic a subject and type your message in the space provided. If you do not wish to receive an each time someone replies to your message or adds a new topic then make sure the subscription box reads I don t want copies.. 11

12 You can attach files to a forum post. You can browse for documents on your computer or bring in files from various online storage sites such as dropbox, flickr, google docs/drive, or picassa. Upload a file Takes you through a standard system for browsing your computer, finding a file and uploading it. Upload from online file storage You can also login to your Google Docs/ Google Drive, Dropbox, Flickr or Picassa accounts and then browse and upload files from those. You will need to authorise access. Click the Post to Forum button. You will have 30 minutes to make any alterations to the message. After this time you will need to contact the site administrator to request them to remove the post. 6. Reflective Journal If the course task asks you to post your results to the Reflective Journal then there will be a journal setup for that session. The journal is private and can only be seen by you and your tutor, who can offer feedback. Click on the journal link and you will see a screen similar to this: 12

13 Click on the Add submission button. You will be presented with a page to enter your journal entry; you can format your text using the HTML editor buttons. Type your journal entry into the box or edit what you have already written and click the Save changes button. Your tutor can add comments to your journal; these will appear at the bottom below your journal entry. 7. Glossary To add a new term to the glossary: 1. Click the 'Add a new entry' button. 2. You will see a text box labelled Concept', enter in this box the term for which you are going to provide a definition. 3. In the box labelled Definition', add your definition. 4. If you wish you can add an attachment to provide examples, or evidence for your definition. 5. When you are ready, click the Save Changes button. 6. Your glossary entry will now appear in the glossary. You can also add your comments to a glossary item by clicking the 'comment button' (found in the bottom right hand corner of each definition). 13