MOODLE TRICKS AND TIPS: GOING BEYOND THE OBVIOUS

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MOODLE TRICKS AND TIPS GOING BEYOND THE OBVIOUS
Moodle is a Course Management System (CMS), also
known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a
Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is a Free
web application that educators can use to create
effective online learning sites.
Tony Mobbs International School Prague CEESA
2009 tmobbs_at_isp.cz
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Going Beyond!
Moodle is a brilliant tool to use for
communication with students and faculty but you
can expand the use by using some of the more
unusual features. I work a lot with HTML coding
without knowing much but this does allow you to
be a lot more imaginative and to save time whilst
improving the use of Moodle. Just experiment and
try things in Moodle, you are only limited by
your own imagination! You will also find many
instructional videos on Youtube
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GLOSSARIES
This module allows a dictionary or list of
definitions to be maintained. Glossaries can be
set to create automatic links within course
documents to glossary terms. Glossaries can be
course-wide or specific to a topic or week. You
can create glossaries where students can enter
terms, and definitions can be graded, and
commented upon. You can also set it so that all
submissions to a glossary need the teacher's
approval to be posted. You can also edit, allow
students to edit, upload files of any kind, add
diagrams.
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Examples of Using Podcasts with Glossaries
Set up a glossary, give instructions, add a
rubric, and make each student a concept
(subject) Upload the podcast as a file When the
student is opened the podcast can be downloaded
and reviewed through iTunes The comments can then
be entered in a text box and everyone can view
them Our Middle School music teachers get
students to peer review compositions based on a
rubric, which can also be posted IB English and
Language orals can be peer reviewed on the same
way. Teachers can build portfolios of work of any
genre in this way, presentations, videos,
podcasts, discussions.but only one file can
be stored at a time per concept Students can self
assess against a rubric and save examples of best
practice I am developing a way of storing
exemplar work samples for students to view
against a rubric
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Peer Editing and Review Using Discussion Forums
The forum module is for online discussions. When
you add a new forum, you will be presented with a
choice of different types - a simple single-topic
discussion, a free-for-all general forum, or a
one-discussion-thread-per-user. This is an
alternative to upload and peer review work. When
you comment you can add documents such as
rubrics. The student can also add self-edited or
peer edited documents You can also set up groups
to collaborate on a shared document. This can
also be done through WIKIs
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Some Neat Tricks With Moodle!

• You can use HTML code to be able to post
  difficult documents into Moodle and allow
  editing, such as
• YouTube videos
• Webpages
• Word Documents
• Tables

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Embedding Video and Sound
You can either upload a video "whole" as a file
and then choose to display it. Remember you only
have 16MB limit. Moodle will automatically play
it when selected. You should upload this a a
Quicktime (.mov) file. Upload sound clips in the
same way. An alternative is to to link
externally to a streaming video, such as from
United Streaming, or directly to a YouTube video.
This has the advantage of using less memory,
which is important when you want to back up or
restore the course.
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Step By Step!
Linking to YouTube videos. To download and save a
video in Moodle takes up a lot of memory. You can
put in an external link to your required video
and play it in Moodle. Remember to check your
link in case it changes, could be embarrassing!
Find your video in YouTube. Highlight and
select the HTML coding in the EMBED window. Go
to your Moodle page. Choose compose webpage from
the add a resource menu. Give a title and
description. On the right side of the compose a
web page window click on the HTML toggle
button. This should give you a
tag.
Paste in your copied code from YouTube after
this. Set your window and save changes. Your
video will show up in a new window.
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Using HTML to post resources as webpages within
Moodle
It takes a lot of memory to save Word documents
in Moodle It also means that these have to be
downloaded every time These can be converted to
web pages and the HTML code copied. If you have
a Word document with tables, etc and want to post
this straight into Moodle then it is easy to
do. 1/ Save your Word document as a webpage,
from the file menu. 2/ View the HTML source from
the View menu. 3/ Select all and copy this HTML
text. 4/ On Stroodle choose Compose a Webpage and
turn on the HTML toggle. These are the on the
right of the menu. 5/ After
paste you HTML
copied code, save and it will appear as you
want. 6/ Toggle the and you can see what you
will get!
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Word Processing Documents

• It takes a lot of memory to save Word documents
  in Moodle
• It also means that these have to be downloaded
  every time you want to work with them.
• These can be converted to web pages and the HTML
  code copied.
• Open your page in Word.
• Choose File - Save as web page and the web page
  view will open.
• Choose View - HTML source - Edit - Select all
  - Copy
• Open up a new web page from the resource box in
  Moodle.
• Write a title
• Click on the toggle.
• Paste in your copied code.
• Set your window and save changes.
• Your document should appear in a new window.
• You can then edit the document.

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Word Processing Tables
Converting Word pages with tables I find that I
have many pages that I have created in Word
containing tables that I would like to post
directly in Moodle. By converting to a web page
format it is very easy to do this. Open your
page in Word. Choose File - Save as web page and
the web page view will open. Choose View - HTML
source - Edit - Select all - Copy You should
be able to edit the table by using the toggle
button
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Copying Sections From Web Pages

• I use this if there are web-links that I want to
  post, or sections from web pages I would like to
  post.
• Locate your page with the web-links on them.
• Open up a webpage from the resources box in
  Moodle
• Copy the section from your web page including the
  live links
• Paste this directly into the into the web page
  box and save
• Your links should be live, click them to check!
• Cite your source.

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Posting Web Pages

• This again uses the idea of copying and posting
  your document in HTML code.
• Posting documents e.g. an Atlas Unit plan or a
  rubric online
• Have a webpage on the screen.
• Choose View - Page Source - Select All - Copy
• Choose compose webpage from the add a resource
  menu.
• Give a title and description.
• On the right side of the compose a web page
  window click on the HTML toggle button,
• Then paste in your code.
• Set your window and save changes.
• Your Unit Plan should appear in a new window.
• To Edit your document in Moodle. Click off the
  toggle button and you should be able to edit your
  text and tidy it up. You must do this through the
  window in which you set up the webpage

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Posting Bookmarks

• A quick way of posting bookmarks
• Choose Organize bookmarks
• File - Export - give the file a title
• Locate this file
• Open the file in your browser
• Select and copy the section of bookmarks you want
• Paste these into a webpage created on Moodle
• The links should be live

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Many Thanks!
Give me your email address and I will send
through the Presentation as Power-Point and
PDF. Please contact me with any questions and
suggestions. tmobbs_at_isp.cz