Moodle 2.0 Course Conversion Beginner's Guide

Moodle provides a consistent "user interface". What do I mean by that? Well, although generations younger than me are very familiar with computers, they tend to know how to use certain programs and applications (instant messaging and social networking are the favorites) but have no idea how to work with anything else. Moodle contains lots of different learning tools but, because they all have a consistent user interface, if you learn how to use one then it doesn't take much more effort and understanding to start using the others. I have up to this point never had to show a student how to use Moodle.

Being always available means Moodle can support students beyond the dismissal bell. If work needs to be carried on over the weekend, or during a holiday, or when pupils are on exam leave, then Moodle can provide that support. Students who are reticent about making a contribution in class are often more than happy to make an input online.

Because Moodle can mark tests as soon as the student takes them, they can gain immediate feedback on their work.

Moodle is open source, that is, it's basically free. But don't let the fact that it's free put you off. This is very much a positive. Moodle is supported by a close network of developers working hard to ensure that Moodle is secure, safe, and robust. For more information on how Moodle development takes place see http://docs.moodle.org/en/Development:Overview. We've already learnt how the 'M' in Moodle stands for modular. If you are comfortable with web development then there's always the opportunity to create your own Moodle modules. As you can tell, I'm a big fan of open source software. If you're of a technical persuasion then you can experiment with Moodle without ever having to worry about software licensing costs. Many teachers have downloaded their own free copy of Moodle to try out new teaching ideas (see http://docs.moodle.org/20/en/Windows_installation_using_XAMPP). Many schools have a second copy of Moodle for development purposes.

For more information on developing your own custom Moodle plugins check out "Moodle 1.9 Extension Development", Jonathan Moore and Michael Churchward, Packt Publishing.

In Part 1, we learn how to convert documents and handouts over to Moodle.

Our first task is to set up and configure a Moodle "course". This is where we're going to put our documents and handouts, and where we will be setting quizzes and so on. This we'll be covering in Chapter 2, Setting up your Courses.

In Chapter 3, Adding Documents and Handouts, we'll be learning how to import documents to Moodle and how to give students access to them. Not all students will be able to open our documents (as that will depend on the software they have installed on their computers), so we'll be looking at tips and tricks we can use to make sure our resources are accessible to everyone, regardless of the software they have installed.

Once we've handed out the work online we'll need to provide a way for our pupils to hand in their completed work. In the bonus chapter, Handing in Work through Moodle, we'll see how even very young pupils can quickly and easily upload their homework via Moodle. Doing so means we can even manage their grades online, too. The bonus chapter provides the groundwork for Chapter 6, Managing Student Work, will cover converting whole projects and assignments over to Moodle (see Part two).

Converting to Moodle means that we can easily include video and audio. In Chapter 4, Sound and Vision—Including Multimedia Content, we learn how to use sound and vision to make our teaching materials more appealing to students.

In Chapter 5, Moodle Makeover, we spend time reviewing and experimenting with what we have learned so far. We cover how we can finesse our courses.

In Chapter 6, Managing Student Work, we learn how to manage student work online, covering how to convert projects and assignments over to Moodle. If you want to continue a class discussion beyond the classroom then communicating through Moodle is the ideal solution. Communicating online is covered in Chapter 7, Communicating Online.

As you are getting to grips with converting your teaching to Moodle you'll probably find that there are other aspects of your course that you would like to convert. In Chapter 8, Enhancing your Teaching, we cover:

We close this book by spending a little time learning how you could convert your teaching all the way from face-to-face, through to blended learning (supporting face-to-face with e-learning) and finally to converting your teaching entirely to Moodle.

Martin Dougiamas worked as webmaster and administrator at the Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia. Frustration with the commercial learning management systems available at that time led, in 1999, to the creation of Moodle as part of his PhD, entitled "The use of Open Source software to support a social constructionist epistemology of teaching and learning within Internet-based communities of reflective inquiry".

Dougiamas' educational background has an important influence on Moodle. Martin was brought up in the deserts of Western Australia. The primary school he attended was the School of the Air, a correspondence school whose classes were conducted via ham (shortwave) radio from a school based a thousand kilometers away. Martin's class only met up once a year (for the school carnival) and his teaching materials were dropped off and homework collected by a four-seat Cessna aircraft that called in at the Dougiamas home every fortnight. If you're interested to learn more then watch the interview with Martin conducted by Michael Feldstein at http://mfeldstein.com/interview-with-martin-dougiamas/.

What marks Moodle as very different to other VLEs is the approach to learning Moodle supports. The system has been designed (as the PhD title reveals) to support "a social constructionist epistemology". In other words, students learn together by sharing their knowledge. That's why you'll find in Moodle tools to:

Although you'll find lots of literature encouraging you to use Moodle in a particular way (that is, to support the social constructionist pedagogy), you're in no way prevented from using Moodle to support other learning styles. Moodle is wonderful for distance learners (for example, the Open University in the UK are now using Moodle to support its 250,000 distance learners), and it may be structured with a particular pedagogy in mind, but there are fantastic features and tools built into Moodle to support all styles of teaching, as we shall see in this guide. For more information on how Moodle supports different learning styles check out "Moodle Teaching Techniques (Creative Ways to Use Moodle for Constructing Online Learning Solutions", William Rice, Packt Publishing.

Since 1999 Moodle use has exploded (see http://moodle.org/stats/ for the figures). So by converting your courses to Moodle you are in very good company. To join the ever-growing worldwide community of "Moodlers"—to discuss your work, to get help, and to learn more about best practice—visit http://moodle.org. My background is in maths and science and you'll most often find me in the Mathematics Tools forum.

Moodle.org is, in fact (and perhaps not surprisingly), a Moodle. What this means is that if you aren't familiar with Moodle then Moodle.org can be a little daunting. If you are new to Moodle then I would recommend visiting Moodle.org when you have gained a little more experience with the system.

Moodle is an acronym but what does it stand for? When thinking about your Moodle doing what you need it to do to support your teaching, why is the 'M' in Moodle so important?

I'm assuming that your Moodle admin has already given you your username and password. Maybe it is simply the same username and password you use to access other services at your establishment. Depending on your network, you might be logged into Moodle automatically. Let's assume you need to log in.

You've just logged on to Moodle. If this is the first time you've logged on you may be asked to change your password:

Simply follow the onscreen instructions (we'll be looking at changing our passwords later on in this chapter).

Each user has a profile that you can use to tell everyone about yourself. In the next section we'll learn how to modify your profile.

Now you are logged in, see whether you can find your name on the page. Again it depends on the theme your admin has configured, but good places to look are the bottom-middle of the page or the top right-hand side. Your name is a link. Click on it and your public profile page is displayed:

Now let's learn how to edit our profiles.

Converting our courses to Moodle means we're going to have a "Moodle presence" and that's our Moodle profile. We've just modified our profile page to let our fellow Moodlers learn a little bit more about us using the Description setting.

Has your Moodle admin allowed you to upload a picture of yourself? Return to your Edit profile page and look for the User picture box:

Press the Browse button to look for a suitable image on your computer. Don't worry about the size (preferably 100x100 pixels), if the picture is too big, it's cropped.

Assuming your Moodle admin allows you to, if ever you need to change your password then simply return to your profile page (remember, wherever you see your name simply click on it and your profile page is displayed). On your profile page you'll see the Change password link (in the Settings block):

Click on the link to display the Change password page. To change your password simply follow the onscreen instructions.

You've logged on. How do you log off? Not as silly a question as you might think. You don't want to wander out of the classroom and give the opportunity for the little horrors to be able to pretend to be you. Logging out of Moodle is easy. Simply click on the link that says Logout. You'll usually find this either in the top right-hand corner of the page:

or in the bottom-center:

In the normal scheme of things the person who makes you a teacher in a Moodle course is the person who created the course, usually your head of department or Moodle admin. It may be that you've been given the task of creating courses. That's the role of the Moodle "course creator". They can create courses and assign roles. Interestingly, they can't delete courses. They don't have that capability. The concept of roles is intimately tied up with the concept of capabilities. Let's look at capabilities in the next section.

Moodle is very strict on the principle of "demarcation of responsibility", different roles have different capabilities:

What your role is depends where you are. For example, I am a teacher in the daytime but in the evening I am a student at evening classes. My role depends on the "context" (teacher in one place and a student in another). It's the same with Moodle, make sure you don't confuse your job title with your role in a particular context. I log in to Moodle as a user, not as a teacher. Let's look at contexts in the next section.

What different contexts are there in Moodle? Here are the basic scenarios:

Your Moodle administrator or manager (from now on I'll just use the term admin to mean either role) can give you a specific role in a specific context. Just because you are a course creator in one context doesn't mean to say that you are a course creator in another.

I've just clicked on a category to view the courses in it. I see that there is a button marked Add a new course. What's my role in this context?

Well, you can see that there are many different ways of running a Moodle site, so we've had to make some assumptions in writing this book. This book is pitched at the educator who wants (or needs) to convert their courses over to Moodle. Because you have that role I'm assuming that if there's any administrative task that needs to be carried out then your Moodle admin will carry it out on your behalf; I'm assuming that Moodle administration isn't your job. That's why at the end of some chapters you'll find a special section called Ask the Admin.

It isn't just roles and capabilities that can change depending on your Moodle site. It's the look and feel of the site that can differ as well. Let's spend a little time taking a look at Moodle's user interface.

You can theme Moodle, that means you can apply your own custom colors and page designs (almost like a new skin). You can specify your own banner across the top of the page and your own footer at the bottom. You can rearrange items on the page. But you can't change the behavior of a Moodle site. A Moodle will behave like a Moodle, and you'll get to recognize a Moodle site when you see one.

The Moodle theme you'll see in the pictures in this book (the theme of my Moodle) is called "standard". Your admin may well be using a different theme. Don't let that put you off. Remember that the theme just changes the way Moodle looks and not the way it behaves.

All Moodle pages, regardless of theme, contain certain "standard" elements. In the next section we learn all about them.

What are the parts that make up a Moodle page? Let's start at the top of the page and work our way down.

Breadcrumb trail

At the top of the page you'll find a trail of links telling you where you are in the Moodle site:

It's called a breadcrumb trail (also referred to as the "navigation bar") and it's a convenient way of getting back to a known point. For example, if I click on View Profile in the breadcrumb trail then I am taken to my Profile page. If I click on Home in the breadcrumb trail then I am taken back to the site front page.

Blocks

Let's take a look around a Moodle course front page:

On the left and right of the page you can see blocks, such as the Calendar block on the top-right. There are a number of standard blocks you can include on your course front page. There are also custom blocks that your admin can install. A block you'll commonly find used in Moodle is the HTML block. This type of block allows us to include our own web-based content on the left and/or the right of the page. The Welcome and Useful Links blocks in the previous screenshot are HTML blocks.

In the middle is the main course area and this is where you'll find the main resources and activities (blocks are usually for supplementary information or support).

If you are using a notebook or a laptop with a small screen then you might find the course page a bit cramped. Each block has a hide icon:

For example, clicking on the hide Navigation block icon collapses the block:

Next to each hide icon is the move this to the dock icon:

The dock bar is ideal for notebooks or laptops with a smaller screen size as it moves side blocks out of the way without hiding them completely:

Hold the mouse over the name of a block listed in the dock bar and the block is displayed (and the undock this item and delete icons are also displayed):

Footer

At the bottom of the page is the footer:

At the bottom of the footer you will find a button. In the previous screenshot you will see that the button is marked Home, and pressing it will take you back to the site front page. You will also see a note telling me who I am logged in as, and in brackets after the name is the Logout link, which we met earlier in this chapter.

Icons

The icons you see on your Moodle pages may well be different from the icons we refer to in this book (although I doubt they will be radically different). If you are not sure what an icon is for (if it isn't obvious from its context) then hovering the mouse pointer over it will reveal some short descriptive text (called a tooltip):