How To Moodle
What is Moodle
Moodle is a widely spread Learning Management System (LMS). Such systems can automate multiple educational procedures. In our university we use Moodle for 2 major tasks: professor-to-student and professor-to-administration communication. In particular at least we use Moodle:
- as an entry point for a course for offline and online students;
- to publish a course structure, regulations, and materials;
- to schedule graded activities (quizzes, homeworks, exams, ...);
- to store a digital footprint of a student, mostly in a form of uploaded assignments and quizzes;
- for timely grading and grade publishing.
Moodle minimum
As soon as you get access to the course, you should:
- Upload or link a course syllabus, preferably in a form of an eduwiki page.
- Create Attendance element, and then create teaching sessions inside. Attendance check is mandatory for electives and labs.
- Create course sections, preferably with respect to syllabus topics.
- Create all graded activities with submission deadlines in advance.
- Setup grading. Moodle by default equally weights all assignments and uses default letter scale. To adjust this behavior please refer to Grades menu of the course. Useful tips are given in this video about grades setup and this video about mid-semester evaluation. NB University administration automatically imports final grades from Moodle, thus you should ensure that grades are correct in 2 days after a final exam.
Expected state
As Moodle is used as a default professor-to-student communication channel, we expect to see there:
- Course material: lecture notes, lecture recording, scientific acticles, presentations, links to repositories and chats, and other course artifacts.
- Grading feedback. Assignments and quizzes graded in Moodle should include justification of the grade. This can include explicit grading schemas, personal feedbacks to student uploads, feedback to their open question answers, etc.
Good to have
- Our university has a default Academic Misconduct Policy. If you want to override these rules, you can do this in Moodle.
- Dedicated grading policy section in a course header.
Further reading
Some motivation and useful tricks are given in this YouTube playlist.
Please don't hesitate to contact Miloslav and Rinat to get Moodle assitance.
Extended instructions for the Moodle learning portal
What is Moodle? How do I access it?
At our university, we use Moodle for 2 main tasks: professor-student communication professor-administration communication
More specifically, we use Moodle:
- as a starting point for a course for offline and online students;
- publications of the course structure, rules and materials;
- for planning assessed activities (quizzes, homework, exams, etc.);
- for storing a student's digital fingerprint, mainly in the form of uploaded assignments and quizzes;
- for timely assessment and publication of assessments.
Link to Innopolis University LMS Moodle.
Authorization in Moodle: Log in -> Log in using your Innopolis University account (authorization by your username and password)
An auxiliary article on working in Moodle is available at the link. If you have any questions, you can seek advice Miloslav.
How can I get a link to the course I teach?
The list of courses to be taught by the teacher is displayed in the course schedule table for the semester. Before the start of the semester, we add the teacher to his courses in advance, which are then displayed in his/her personal account in Moodle, in the Dashboard section.
What obligations do I have to the UI on the moodle? Course description? Grades?
The structure of the created course page, in which the course materials are located, adds materials to the teacher(s), assistant(s) /assistant(s) of the course.
As a rule, a Syllabus must be present at the course, which students can familiarize themselves with.. We ask you to send the finished syllabus by personal message to telegram: Miloslav. In the main course description, you can specify: goals, teacher contacts and links to repositories on the Telegram channel/chat on your subject.
Elements of materials on the course:
- Commitment to the UI
Accumulation of methodological materials - syllabus, course materials, accumulation of artifacts of students - homework done electronically. the format must be accessible from Moodle..
You can add blocks, for example, structuring your course strictly by week, and then add lecture notes, lecture notes, scientific articles, presentations, videos, assignments, texts, etc. to each week's block.
Most of the course elements can have restrictions: start time, end time. It is possible to set restrictions: until the "survey" is passed“ the "final test" will not open for passing.
It is possible to add elements of educational materials to the course in Moodle: lecture and practical material, tests, assignments, surveys, etc. are uploaded by the teacher / teacher's assistant.
Evaluative feedback is tasks and tests evaluated in Moodle must contain a justification for the assessment. This may include clear assessment schemes, personal feedback on student downloads, feedback on their answers to open questions, etc.
Grades are set in a separate section, but depend on the evaluation criteria for your subject. For example, you can configure in the format "A" "B" ”With ” "D”, and/or PASS/FAIL, set % according to the criteria from the syllabus.
Background information on the section: estimates and their settings: https://docs.moodle.org/310/en/Grades
If you have any questions about any settings, you can contact Miloslav for help and advice on working on the Moodle portal.
Any documents uploaded there? What do I have to do?
Once you have access to the course, you should:
- Download or link the course program, preferably in the form of an edu wiki page.
- Create an attendance element, and then create training sessions inside it.
- Attendance check is mandatory for electives and laboratory work - check about "Attendance” on Moodle on YouTube
- Create sections of the course, preferably according to the topics of the curriculum.
- Create all classified actions with submission deadlines in advance.
Am I obliged to communicate with students in Moodle, or can I send them study materials as it is convenient for me?
You can upload tasks to Moodle in advance and hide them from students, and open them when necessary. You can share a link to a chat/Telegram channel with students for assignments from Moodle.
How to make a formula for grading so that it matches my grading scheme that exists on the course?
By default, Moodle weighs all assignments equally and uses the default letter scale. To adjust this behavior, please refer to the course grades menu. Useful tips are given in this video about setting up grades and in this video about mid-semester assessment. The administration of NB University automatically imports final grades from Moodle, so you should make sure that the grades are correct within 2 days after the final exam.
The Moodle forum on the topic of ratings and their settings is available at the link: https://docs.moodle.org/310/en/Grades
If you have any questions about any settings, you can contact Miloslav. for help and advice on working on the Moodle portal.
How much time do I have to check my homework? Is there a mandatory deadline when grades should stand?
Each teacher has their own criteria and deadlines for checking homework and test results. The deadline should not exceed the date of the exam. If you are doing homework, you are required to tell students how much you are checking it. The recommended period is one week.
Who should I contact if I don't understand how to use some kind of Moodle functionality?
ome motivational and useful tips are given in this YouTube playlist: "IU Moodle setup": https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLneu1tELBieKgdGI6MXpgCQ-KwTnItYu-
Reference information for familiarization is available at the links:
Also, for more detailed advice on working with the Moodle functionality, you can contact Miloslav.