AdvancedMoodle

Date: August 3, 2009 Presenter: Sandie Swanger Room: L07
 * [|Advanced Moodle] - click on the title to view the actual Moodle Course **

[|Moodle 1.9 for teaching 7-14 year olds by Mary Cooch] - this is a link to the book on Amazon that was utilized in developing this course

=Adding Blocks= You can customize the right and left blocks which flank your course content. They can be moved around in any order. Some good ones to think about that aren't already a default option: HTML - a blank block that you create, this is where I put my VOKI video Loan Calculator - good if you are doing a budget project with students, otherwise, not necessary Messages - Moodle's IM service Online users - Let's you see who is online the same time you are in your course! Quiz results - If you are creating quizes, you can display top performers Remote RSS feeds - shows feeds of your choice, I chose CNN Entertainment News to display

=Adding a Resource= Let's take a look at some resources that are available in Moodle.


 * **Item** || **What it is** || **Do we need it?** ||
 * Insert a label || Adds a bit of white space || Helps to improve appearance of page ||
 * Compose a text page || Space to type directly in Moodle || Yes, but composing a web page is better ||
 * Compose a web page || As above, but with more options || Yes! ||
 * Link to a file or web site || Allows you to upload and link to your externally created files and/or web sites you want to share with students || Yes! ||
 * Display a directory || Allows you to show a whole folder of files || Yes, especially if you have a lot of hand outs on a given topic - keeps course page neater ||

Why should you create a file directly in Moodle instead of using Word? Help save the environment, cuts down on the number of clicks needed to open a file, not all computers have Word.

=Discussion Forums= Just what is the difference in all of those discussion forum activities anyway?


 * **Name** || **What it does** || **Why use it** ||
 * Single Simple Discussion || Only one question students can all answer || Best for focused discussions, students can't get distracted ||
 * Standard Forum*DEFAULT* || Everyone can start a new topic || More scope for older students ||
 * Q and A || Students must answer first before they can see any replies || Useful for avoiding copying ||
 * Each person posts 1 discussion || Sudents can post ONE new topic only || Handy if you need to restrict posting but still allow some freedom ||

Nice thing about forums - you can edit student responses, you can delete their response altogether if its inappropriate, you can reply to their response. testing forums

Having students collaborate on a project? Why not give them a **chat** room instead? You need to explore the options and the capabilities of your students to determine which would be the better option. The nice thing about the chat is that it can be happening in real time with others who aren't physically present in the same building. You as a teacher get a transcript of the dialogue. But using a Simple Single Discussion forum would also work in helping to keep everyone focused on the topic for discussion.

=Making a class Glossary= This is a great interactive tool for the class to use! This is similar to an online dictionary, but it is you and your students who get to create and all of the information to the glossary. You can add single words, phrases or images. Students can even comment on one another's entries. Very interactive tool and you can create multiple glossaries for different subject areas, topics, etc.

=Create a Database= Want students to upload files and be able to share those with others? A database is a great tool for sharing/dropping documents created outside of Moodle. = = =Giving your students a Choice by allowing them to Vote= A great way to let students cast their vote is to create a Choice activity. You also have options as to how and when to display the results so as not to influence the polling process.

If you click on Choice and View, you can still see who voted for what even if you keep things private, so you'll always know who to remind to complete their assignment! Choice can be used as a fast way to gather data for a class research project, offers a private way for students to give feedback about their progress, involves the class in deciding their learning path.
 * **Setting** || **What it is** || **Why use it** ||
 * Display Mode || Lets you have your buttons go across or down the screen || Use VERTICALLY if you have many options to avoid stretching the screen ||
 * Publish Results || Decide if and when you want students to see what others have voted for || Choose DO NOT PUBLISH if you want students to tell you their progress privately; if you are doing a class survey, for example, choose Always Show Results ||
 * Privacy of Results || Lets you choose whether or not to show names with the vote || Are the results more important than who voted for what? Some students might not want their names to be shown along with their choice ||
 * Allow choice to be updated || Lets students change their mind, but they can still only vote once || Useful, if you are using this to assess progress over a period of time ||
 * Show columns for unanswered || Sets up a column showing those who have yet to respond || A clear visual wya of knowing who hasn't done the task ||

=Online Text Assignment= Looking for a way to grade the students WITHOUT lugging home tons of notebooks or papers? This is a great solution - plus it keeps track of the grades for you! So this option saves paper, motivates kids because they are working online (OK, maybe not so much), you can work anywhere and have all your grades recorded for you!

You can edit students work, give them feedback but it still retains the students original completed assignment. So you can correct it, comment on it and give it a grade! Plus you can always update and change their grade if needed. Here are some other options for getting Moodle to keep track of grades for you :-)


 * **Type of Assignment** || **What it's for** || **Why use it** ||
 * Online text || Allows students to type straight into Moodle, and allows teachers to correct online || For short passages of plain text it's the quickest and simplest way to set and mark work ||
 * Upload a single file || Gives students the ability to upload a file created outside of Moodle || For tasks that aren't suited to the online text type ||
 * Advanced uploading of files || Students can send more than one item; teachers can return the corrected work for students to revise || If you like commenting on the students work but online text isn't for you, you can use this option to mark and return a Word-processed document; you can also use this if you are doing a project involving several pieces of work ||
 * Offline text || Studetns produce work offline, such as a class role play and it is marked in Moodle || This is just a space in the Moodle grade book for you to record their tasks done outside of Moodle ||

=HOT POTATOES= Cool activities AND Moodle GRADES IT FOR YOU! You will need to download it from[| http://hotpot.uvic.ca/#downloads]

Using this software you can create Cloze exercises, Matching games, Crossword puzzles, Multiple Choice questions, and Jumbled sentences. Stay away from the Masher, that is a program that you need to pay for. Hot Potatoes is pretty intuitive, easy to use.

With matching, you can use 3 formats: flash card (shows a pair, guess the match, click to see if you are right), standard (uses a drop down menu to select match), and drag/drop (drag right half to match on the left).

No matter what hot potato activity you use, you will need to save it as "Create a Web Page" and then add it to Moodle as "Add an activity - Hot Potatoes Quiz" Don't forget to select the grading option to record the students' progress. Adding it as a hot potatoes activity ensures our grade book is recording! Now, while Hot Potatoes are fun, some kids can be sneaky and figure out how to change their responses without being penalized by using their back browser! So, if you want really secure grading capabilities, try Moodle quizzes instead.

=QUIZZES= There are different types of quizzes that you can make directly in Moodle. The quiz section has 2 parts, one is storage, where it keeps all of the questionns you have created and one that displays the questions used in the current quiz.

Multiple Choice - True/False - Matching: These are the three easiest types to use in Moodle and once you have taken the time to create each question - they remain in Moodle for use year after year. Questions can be reordered easily.

Other quiz options:


 * **Question Type** || **What it is** || **What I think** ||
 * Calculated || Numbers questions with formulae || Perhaps suited more for older students ||
 * Description || Not a question - just space for text || You can use it as a passage on which you can base subsequent questions ||
 * Essay || Space for text and your question and student gets big space for long answer || You have to mark this one yourself! ||
 * Short Answer || The student types in a word or phrase as his/her answer to your question || You need to be careful, they have to match your response exactly ||
 * Numerical || For sums || Looks like short answer, but students type numbers instead of words ||
 * Random short answer matching || Matching but with answers from the short answer questions || Haven't found much use for it ||
 * Embedded answer or cloze || Moodle's version of gap-fill || Hot Potatoes J-Cloze is quicker to set up than this one ||

=GAMES= Lots of fun games, easy to make, easy to embed/link to! All customized to your curriculum! Great for independent practice! Alien Abduction - [] Dustbin Game - [] Bish Bash Bosh - [] Spellmaster - [] Fling the Teacher - []

=MULTIMEDIA and OTHER PC TOOLS= These are especially handy resources if students are working at home and do not have access to the MACBOOK programs. Audacity - record audio directly onto your computer and convert files to mp3 [] Background Music - open source music files [] Windows Movie Maker - similar to iMovie, free on windows based computers OpenOffice - no Word? no Power Point? Use this open source tool to view and create files that can be integrated with Word [] iSpringSolutions - convert those Power Points into interactive Flash files, no Power Point needed from viewing computer [] Get a YouTube video and embed it on Moodle - [] Convert the video directly from various portals option

What you need to know about file extensions and Moodle
 * File Extension || Sound/Video? || How useful in Moodle? ||
 * .flv || video || Flash video such as those from YouTube, plays well if you have multimedia filters enabled ||
 * .wmv || video || Files made from Windows Movie Maker ||
 * .avi || video || Large video file, Moodle will play but the file size is too big ||
 * .mpg || video || Tends to be quite small in size ||
 * .mov || video || Quicktime videos can be quite large, check out the size ||
 * .mp3 || sound || Best sound file format for Moodle - see Audacity above ||
 * .wav || sound || Windows sound file, Large files and won't play in Moodle player ||

=MORE WEB 2.0 TOOLS= Google Map - create a link on your moodle site for an area you are studying [] Voki - animate, moving and talking characters [] Go Animate - create and animate cartoon characters for the purpose of story telling [] Wordle - graphic representation of of the most frequently used words in a blog, free write or speech []