Moodle Help

To write an announcement, do the following:

Be aware that all students are automatically subscribed to the announcements (formerly news forum) in your course, so it is an easy way to communicate with your whole class. Students will receive announcements posts as an email, and will also be able to view them within Moodle.  Students are unable to post or reply to announcements posts.  If you would like for them to be able to do so, create a separate Forum under Add an activity. With this knowledge in mind, do the following: 

1. Click announcements on your course homepage. 

2. Click add a new topic. Fill out the information on the page and select post to forum. Note: There is a 30 minute delay before the post will be sent out.  Click advanced and select send forum post notifications with no time-editing delay if you prefer that the post be shared immediately.

To create a forum, do the following:

Note that the forum activity enables asynchronous threaded discussion between students and faculty. In a forum, participants can post comments and share content (files, videos, links, etc). Forums can be graded using whole forum grading, making it easy to award points/credit for student participation. Before creating the forum, consider these online discussion strategies in our Tips for Teaching Online, and then do the following:

1. In the top right corner of your course, click turn editing on.
2. From the drop-down option, add an activity or resource, click on forum.
3. On the adding a new forum page, add a forum name (required).
4. Choose a forum type. Most will use "Standard forum for general use." Description of Forum types.
5. You can add a description, additional files, minimum word count, and dates the forum is available. Use Groups if you wish students to have discussions in smaller groups.
6. Forums can be graded by changing the settings under whole forum grading from none to scale/point.
7. Select all of the options for your forum, and then click save and display.  
8. To monitor individual student participation in forums, go to your list of participants in the course, and click on a student's name. Under reports, you can click complete report to view student participation. For courses with very active forum discussion, this may prove easier than going through each forum to track individual engagement.

To utilize Quickmail, do the following: 

Note that with Quickmail you can send messages to one or many students. You should remember that students are unable to send messages through Quickmail.  To send a message, do the following:

1. In the top right corner of your course, click turn editing on.

2. Under add a block (bottom left), select Quickmail.

3. Choose individuals or groups to receive your message.

To utilize Moodle Chat, do the following: 

Understand that Moodle Chat allows for text-based synchronous chats with others in the course. (Contrast this with Moodle Forums, which offer text-based asynchronous chats with others in the course.) Potential uses include hosting scheduled office hours or meeting real-time with your class when not everyone has broadband internet access to support video conferencing. To utilize this feature, do the following:

1. In the top right corner of your course, click turn editing on.
2. Click add an activity or resource and choose chat.
3. From this page, you can change the name of the chat room. Access can be limited to certain dates/times, and whether you want students to be able to view past chat sessions. Description of Chat settings and options.
4. After you have edited the chat activity, click save and display.

To access and utilize messages, do the following:

Note that teachers, students, and other users can use Messages to send and receive private messages within Moodle. Teachers have the ability to send group messages to multiple participants in their courses. You can access Messages by doing the following:

1. In the top right corner of your course, click the word bubble icon to view your Message drawer and send Messages.
2. As a teacher, you can send Messages to individual or multiple users from within your list of participants. Select the checkbox next to the name(s) of user(s). Using the with selected users dropdown, select send a message.

To utilize Zoom, do the following: 

Note that you can have remote class discussion with web conferencing software. However, you should think very carefully about potential student equity issues (e.g. lack of access to connectivity or hardware) and the logistics of different time zones. When possible sessions should be recorded and made available. You can upload to Kaltura and add captions. After considering this, you can access the following resources: 

1. Zoom - create your own username (your sessions have a 40-minute limit). If you need more time contact helpdesk@earlham.edu for an Earlham Zoom license. 
2. Quick Start Guide for Teaching (Earlham)
3. Zoom Teaching Manual (Claremont McKenna)
4. Earlham Zoom Resources

To add a profile picture to Moodle, do the following:

Note that user pictures are periodically uploaded from Banner. If you have loaded a different picture into Moodle it won't be overwritten, but if you have deleted your picture from Moodle, your Banner ID picture will be re-uploaded in the next sync. After considering this, do the following:

1. Log into Moodle and click your name in the top right screen. Go to profile, edit profile, and then scroll to the user picture area.
2. Drag your desired image to the new picture box. Note that your file should be .jpg or .png and that it will be automatically resized to a 100X100 pixel square. 

To change your preferred name, do the following: 

In order to change your preferred name in Moodle, follow these instructions to change your preferred name in The Heart/Banner Self-Service. These changes will automatically update Moodle. Note there may be a slight delay, as Moodle only updates Banner information every few hours.

To add your personal pronouns, do the following: 

1. Log into Moodle then click your name in the top right of the screen.

2. Choose  profile → edit profile (from the gear icon).  

3. Click the edit button in the user details area.

4. Scroll down to the personal pronouns section of the edit profile page.

5. You may enter your pronouns in the box.

6. Click update profile to save your changes.

7. If you wish to change your personal pronouns in The Heart/Banner, click these instructions.