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Moodle: Managing your Course Dashboard

Your Moodle Dashboard is the page you go to when you log into Moodle from https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk –  it contains, supposedly, Recently Accessed Courses, and a full list of all the courses you are enrolled on under Course Overview. However, you may have noticed that Recently Accessed Courses sometimes lies, and that it can be quite complicated to locate a particular course, and, indeed, since the Moodle Rollover, to locate this year’s instance of the course.

I offer the following tips:

  1. “Star” the modules you most use (e.g. those you’re teaching/marking on this term). To Star a module, locate it in the list in your Course Overview section (if you are on a great many courses, select View All, and try searching on the page for the module). Look to the right hand side of the module (you may need to scroll across a little, depending on the size of your screen) and click the three dots. Select Star this Course. This will bring the module to the top of your Course Overview list.

  2. “Remove from view” courses you are no longer teaching on / need to view. This option is just beneath the Star this Course option, as above. This does not remove the course from anyone else’s view, only your own dashboard, and you can easily access these courses again by changing the Course Overview view to Removed from View. This will also not unenrol you from those courses.

  3.  Use specific searches to find the precise instance of a module. From your Home page, the Course Search block on the right hand side allows you to enter the module code and year (e.g. ELCS0044 22/23 – in that format) to find the precise instance of a module you’re looking for (as long as nobody changed the defaults!). Note: This search will not work in the Global Search (the magnifying glass at the top of the page) – that search space is for content and resources within modules.

 

 

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CMD: How to Link to your Mentimeter in Moodle

To share your presentation in Moodle, you’ll need the direct URL from Mentimeter. You’ll find this via the “Share” button in the top right corner of your presentation. Copy the voting link. In Moodle, go to Add an Activity or Resource, and select URL. The name you give the URL will be the text the student needs to click on.

When linking, ensure that your Mentimeter has been changed to Audience Pace, from the default, Presenter Pace. Presenter Pace: useful in-room when students are responding “live”. Audience Pace: students move through the questions in their own time as they answer them (useful in-room or asynchronously).

To change pace, from your Mentimeter, go to Settings, and select the pace you want. Give the page a second to automatically save (visible just above).

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Activate Mapping: How to enrol your students into Moodle from Portico

Students need to be “mapped” from Portico into Moodle. We use an enrollment block to do this. The advantage of using Portico mapping, rather than any other method, to enrol students onto your module is that Moodle and Portico sync on a nightly basis, so any students who enrol/unenrol will henceforth be automatically updated. This method is recommended for all taught modules in A&H.

The above screenshot illustrates a module where the mapping is not active.

  1. Turn Editing On in the module. Scroll down to the Portico enrollments block on the right hand side.
  2. Click View/Activate Mappings.
  3. If no cohort information is present, click the little “add mapping” words to bring up a search box. Put your module code in the Search box and select your cohort.
  4. Check the mapping/s on screen contain the correct cohorts for this module. You do not need to check the additional boxes next to the cohort around pre-enrollment and group mappings.
  5. Tick Activate Mappings and (crucially!) select Save mappings.
  6. Once Moodle syncs with Portico overnight, your students will all be enrolled.

UCL Wiki guidance on Portico Mappings

If anything untoward happens, or these instructions don’t suffice, do feel free to get in touch with me, abigail.shaw@ucl.ac.uk. Alternatively you can log a ticket with ISD: itservices@ucl.ac.uk

 

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Continuous Module Dialogue: Session #3 for A&H Module Leads and Teaching Admin

Continuous Module Dialogue (CMD) is a pilot for 2022/23, requiring each module to survey its students 3-4 times across the life of the module (i.e. whether across 1 term, or 2).

NOTE: Please ensure that all text in your Moodle courses referencing Continuous Module Dialogue and student feedback uses the term “Continuous Module Dialogue”, and that all references to SEQs, MEQs and other previous methods of module-level feedback are removed. 

Recordings

  1. A&H Deputy Faculty Tutor Ashley Doolan explains the CMD policy at institutional level, discusses how this might look in individual modules, and outlines the requirements around the reporting process. [13 min]

2. A&H Arena Fellow Jesper Hansen demonstrates the use of Mentimeter for Continuous Module Dialogue [26 min]

Links and Resources

UCL Continuous Module Dialogue Policy, Guidance and Resources

Enrol on UCL centrally-provided Mentimeter training, 11th October 2022

 

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Digital Accessibility: A&H Module Lead & Teaching Admin Session #2

1. UCL Head of Digital Accessibility Ben Watson’s presentation on Digital Accessibility, what it is and why it’s important, the concept of microkindnesses, minimum actions we can take to create accessible digital content first time, and the Accessibility Report in Moodle.

[Zoom recording, captioned, 38 minutes]

 

2. UCL Accessibility Policy, PDFs, Transcripts: a brief roundup [5 min].

 

UCL Digital Accessibility Training, Support and Resources

Courses provided by ISD Digital Skills Development on how to create accessible content and courses on assistive technology.

UCL Guides to Creating Accessible Content – from email, to live sessions, documents and more.

UCL Short Course on Digital Accessibility – 3-hour, Moodle-based, self-paced course.

Further Resources

InYerFace – a gamification of the most appalling aspects of the inaccessible web. (mentioned in webinar)

Simplifying Content Accessibility – Kent University webinar by Huw Alexander (mentioned in roundup video)

W3C Web Accessibility Initiative – extensive open access collection of standards, guidelines and resources.

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In need of fresh IDEAs?

Last year I and colleagues from Digital Education and Arena collaborated on this resource which looks at ideas for digital engagement – a broad variety of activities, scaffolds, academic and assessment literacy exercises and suchlike.

If you’re curious for strategies for group work, outlines of the workload involved in trying new tools and activities in Moodle, or simply wanted to remind yourself how many different strategies and tools you already use in your teaching, follow the link below…

Inspirations for Digital Engagement Activities

An academic reflection on the use of IDEAs for PGTAs/early career academics by Leo Havemann and Silvia Colaiacomo (Arena).

 

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A&H Module Lead & Teaching Admin Session #1: Student Moodle Experience; Moodle Rollover & Recommendations.

  1.  How do A&H Students Experience the VLE?

This UCL ChangeMakers student-led research project was presented at the 2022 RAISE Conference. The recording below is of a slightly abbreviated version, presented as part of the Moodle support and orientation workshop for A&H Module Leads and Teaching Admin, held on 13th September 2022.

How students experience the VLE (presentation slides).

Recording of the presentation, featuring Jesper Hansen (Arena for A&H), Nadia Golotchoglou (SSEES) and Marta Ramió Comalat (English).

2. Moodle Rollover, Preparing for the Start of Term: Recommendations Arising from this Research

The rollover process creates annualised instances of taught modules. In most A&H departments, the rollover process has been centrally organised, but in some, this is the responsibility of module leads. If you have been tasked with rolling over your module and need further guidance on it, it can be found here: Link to Moodle Rollover Guide 2022/23  If you are unsure as to whether you need to rollover your module yourself, please check with your departmental administrators.

Recommendations arising from our research: a list in the briefest possible form. To hear me talk through this list in depth, please listen below:

    • Moodle Recommendations:

      • Everything on a module page should be intentional, and of use to the current student cohort. Leave anything that is not relevant to the current cohort that you may wish to bring in in the future in last year’s instance of the module.

     

      • Use consistent naming conventions for all documents. Avoid default strings of numbers.

     

      • If organising Moodle by week, include calendar dates in titles along with Week 1, Reading Week, etc.

     

      • Ensure assessment details and inboxes are clearly signposted, and are not hidden in weekly content.

     

      • Use Conditional Release (“Restrict Access” feature) to release content by week, or to cascade activities. State that this is in place. Link to Conditional Release How-To.

     

      • Make the module handbook clearly available in Moodle, and ensure it is up to date.

  • Resource and Library Recommendations

      • Use Reading List to ensure students access the correct versions of resources, and to keep the Library informed of current module requirements and use statistics. UCL Reading List Home and Guidance.

     

      • Use links to university databases, rather than downloading papers and uploading the PDFs.

     

      • Work with a Subject Librarian to check the accessibility of essential PDFs and documents in your course, and ensure the most appropriate versions are used. Who is my Subject Librarian?

     

      • Mark reading and resources as Core/Essential and Optional/Further as appropriate. Use the UCL Guide to Reading List Best Practice to ensure you and your students are getting the most out of the platform.
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Continuous Module Dialogue

DigiEd are running a central Mentimeter for Continuous Module Dialogue session on 11th October, 10-11am. Details and enrolment link:

In this practical workshop you will learn the basics of setting up interactive activities and using the templates on Mentimeter. You will also find out how to embed Mentimeter on a website or a Moodle course and manage student interaction.

Read more and enrol on this course

Further to this central session, I will be hosting an A&H-centred Zoom for module leads and teaching admin discussing our Faculty approach to CMD on Wednesday 28th October 2022 at 2pm. This session will include a Mentimeter demo, room to discuss any queries or concerns, and an update on my, and my colleagues’, continuing Faculty experience research for Term One.

Details of this Faculty session are in the email sent from the Dean’s office on Monday 13th September (8.43am), and reminders, including the Zoom link, will be sent to all A&H staff in due course.