Tag Archives: improved UX

The rise of the “Weekly” Resource List

Moodle, Moodle Moments, , ,

Every module space in Moodle has an associated resource list (sometimes called a reading list). Lancaster University uses the Leganto system which is a platform that holds all of the University Library’s resources in its database including books, e-books, journal articles, websites databases and more! It is important that teaching staff use the Leganto resource list system rather than for example, a list of resources on a .pdf because then the library can track what students are expected to read. This informs the material the Library purchases and the subscriptions they need to maintain. Leganto also takes care of issues around copyright so you won’t be in breach of any regulations.

At the start of every module, you might notice that the resource list appears at the top but is “hidden from students” by default. This is to give teaching staff a chance to check and update the list before they make it visible to students for their upcoming studies.

To be able to edit or add to the resource list, you need to be added to the module in LUSI (the student registry system) in an appropriate role such as administrative staff or teaching staff otherwise the add button and the ability to manage sections won’t be visible to you.

Options in Leganto to add, manage sections, filter or search.
Editing options at the top of a reading list in Leganto.

Resource lists can become very large especially with modules that span several weeks or in some cases, the whole academic year. As a result, it is worth knowing about how to use the embedded resource list activity in Moodle which allows you to make weekly or topic based resource lists based off the larger module one.

Why have “weekly”/“bitesize” reading lists?

We all know that students aren’t going to read all of the recommended resources and of course, we don’t expect them too. Resources may be added to the list to expand students’ horizons if they take an interest in a particular sub-topic but aren’t essential to completing the module with a positive outcome. However, when resource lists get very large they become unwieldy for both staff and students. It can be difficult for students to determine what is “essential” reading and what is most relevant to them at that point in their studies even if the material is organised into sections.

Adding a weekly reading list or an equivalent for a series of lectures or activities is helpful and encourages students to get stuck into their reading. It more easily highlights the essential resources for that week or topic. If there is a particular set text for a module, you can also select specific chapters to accompany the content delivered to students that week.

We know, from the survey I so frequently mention, the Moodle Student User Experience Survey from November 2023, that students like weekly reading lists and want to see more of them! 14 of the students who responded to the survey specifically mentioned in that they wanted to see better organised reading lists to help them navigate to the relevant material. One student said:

“It is helpful to see content in chronological order grouped by week and including slides, worksheets, recordings and resources together. Apart from that it I don’t find long lists of information helpful, especially when it seems to be unorganised. Suggested readings should also be clear and systematic.”

As a result, we should, where possible, try to utilise smaller resource lists to support students in their learning.

How do I set up weekly reading lists?

Firstly, you must have a resource list associated with the module, usually found at the top of the module space in Moodle. If resources are added to this list, you can then pull them through into a weekly/bitesize reading list. Therefore, it is important to make sure you have set up a complete module resource list in Leganto first.

Once this has been done, turn on edit mode in Moodle.

Click “add an activity or resource” to add the weekly reading list where you need it to be. You can always move them after creating them if required.

The activity to choose is the “Resource List (Embedded item)”.

Resource list (embedded item) activity option in Moodle.
The resource list (embedded item) activity option in Moodle.

Once selected, many of the activity settings are the same as other activities in Moodle. However, this activity has a section called “Select citations from [name of module resource list]”. This list reflects your Resource list and you can tick the boxes for the resources you wish to add to the smaller list for your topic or week.

You also get the option to change how this type of resource list will be shown in Moodle to students under the “appearance” section of the settings menu. You get three options:

  1. On a separate page
  2. Inline on the course page (initially collapsed)
  3. Inline on the course page (automatically expanded)

My recommended setting for the appearance of the resource list is “on a separate page”. That way, it does not clog up the main page and you can more easily track engagement with the list in Moodle through the activity logs if this setting is selected.

Once finished, click “save and return to course” or “save and display”.

For more information on resource lists you can visit the LibGuide for staff. You can also contact your Faculty librarians for support in managing resources for your module.

A new year, a new look!

Moodle, Uncategorized, , ,

Over the past couple of months, in preparation for the new academic year, I have been supporting staff across the Lancaster Medical School (LMS) and the Division of Health and Research (DHR), to redesign their Moodle pages. The aim has been to create more attractive spaces, that are easier to navigate and more engaging for learners.

Last year, while still working in ISS, I led the Moodle User Experience (UX) Project. We did a student survey as part of the project and we got 273 responses. 82% of respondents were undergraduates and 18% were postgraduate taught students. 139 students said that a good Moodle space was a well-organised one and in many of the free-text responses they mentioned the need for images and colour to make the spaces more visually appealing. Overall, students like Moodle but just find the way content is uploaded difficult to navigate. When asked if Moodle was easy or difficult to use, 83% of students found Moodle easy to use or had a neutral impression of it as “neither easy nor difficult”.  As part of the UX project, we also surveyed staff. Like the students, staff also want to see more attractive Moodle spaces with more colour and images. So enter…the ‘one section per page’ layout.

I have written about this layout before but, over the past few weeks, I have moved several LMS and DHR Moodle spaces to this new layout and want to share with you all the ‘new look’.

Some of the spaces that have undergone this transformation (or are currently undergoing it) include:

  • MBChB Hub
  • Year 4 Primary Care
  • Medicine Year 4
  • Medicine Year 5
  • 407: Mental Health: Theory, Research and Practice
  • DHR Autumn Academy
  • MBCHB101: Problem Based Learning Year 1
A snapshot of the MBChB Hub Space
The newly reorganised MBChB Hub space.
A snapshot of the Year 4 Primary Care Moodle space.
A snapshot of the newly reorganised Year 4 Primary Care Moodle space.

How do you set this up?

Before changing settings and choosing images, consider the organisation of material on your Moodle page. Try to have a clear welcome section at the top with introductory materials such as a handbook, learning objectives etc. This section should not be over-filled though and consideration needs to go into whether some of the material should be on the Moodle space, in a Moodle hub space or even in the Lancaster Student Portal instead. Then group materials into larger sections with sub-headings created using the ‘text and media area’ activity. Folders in Moodle, although a good way to group materials, can mean that students can’t quickly find what they are looking for so avoid using too many of them.

To get the ‘one section per page’ layout, you need to have the following settings under the ‘course format’ section of your Moodle page settings:

  1. Course format: topics
  2. Course layout: one section per page

Once you have chosen the above options, click ‘save and display’.

To add the summaries:

  1. Click the three dots menu next to the topic/section you wish to add a summary too.
  2. Type in your summary. For example, the summary could be some information on what students can find in the section or a ‘to-do’ list for the week.

To add images, choose high quality, landscape images for the best results. These could relate to the topic or subject material or just be high quality photos from around the Lancaster campus.

  1. Click the image icon.
  2. Choose a picture from your file explorer. You can add in information about the ‘Author’ and the licence.
  3. Click ‘upload file’.
  4. Untick ‘auto-size’ and the best size that I have found is 262wx143h (in pixels).
  5. The default option for the image alignment is ‘top’, I would recommend leaving this.
  6. Click ‘save image’.
  7. Once done, click on the image again and change to ‘left alignment’.
  8. Then click ‘save changes’.

A full-video explaining how to set up the above, can be found here:

How else can you improve a Moodle space?

Looking beyond the start of term, there are more things that we can do to improve Moodle spaces and the resources stored in Moodle.

Moodle isn’t OneDrive or Dropbox. It shouldn’t just be a list of Word documents, PowerPoints and PDFs! For a more engaging online learning experience, consider creating high quality videos for students to watch that include some interaction where possible. You can ask a Learning Technologist to support you in filming the material if it is something like a ‘Welcome video’ and the University also has Digital Media Engineers who are on hand to create very high-quality videos. Using the H5P activity (HTML5 package activity) in Moodle, it is possible to create an interactive video with quizzes, text boxes and other interactions popping up for students to engage with. H5P can also be used to create over 50 different content types. More information on H5P activities can be found in another post. These activities can support students to engage with your Moodle space more and can support effective revision/review.

It is a legal requirement that the resources posted on Moodle are digitally accessible. This is something that should always be on our minds when we create resources. For more information on how to improve the digital accessibility of your Moodle course, you can read this article on my ‘10 top tips’. One of these tips includes using Blackboard ALLY, the accessibility tool that is integrated into our Lancaster Moodle spaces, to check how accessible your resources are and use the guidance it gives to improve this if necessary. The score gauge provided by ALLY should always be green in colour.

For support with learning design and Moodle, feel free to get in touch with me. More training sessions on how to create H5P activities, digital accessibility and more will be forthcoming in the next couple of months – keep an eye on your emails!

What’s changed with Moodle’s text editor? An introduction to Tiny MCE

Moodle,

Written by Ellen Wildman, Digital Learning Facilitator (ISS)

The text editor we use to create and add content (not just text!) into Moodle has undergone a change. The new editor is called TinyMCE and is now the default editor in Moodle. Additionally, we’ve added in some useful new plugins (or additional tools) to the editor to enhance your experience when using it.  

This is what the new editor, or TinyMCE, looks like: 

View of the TinyMCE text editor in Moodle with some sample text typed out and a sample picture.

Why the change? 

  • TinyMCE has been designed with accessibility in mind, to help ensure we keep our online material available to the largest number of learners as we can. 
  • The old editor, Atto, is shortly due to be retired by Moodle so we’re getting a head start on the future change. 

How will it affect me? 

  • The layout and menu options now more closely match the editing options that you’re probably familiar with – such as in applications like Microsoft Word – with options such as Edit, View and Insert running across the top of the editor. 
  • There are some additional features added to this new editor: 

Components for Learning (C4L)

Components for Learning (C4L) icon in Moodle

This option allows you to quickly drop in useful blocks into the content, such as reminder banners for assessment or quotations. This can be a great way to add visual interest to our pages and highlight key information for the learners. 

This is an example of what an inserted ‘component’ can look like on a page: 

Example of some text in the "hint" style supported by Components for Learning

You can also make the ‘component’ wider on the page using the double headed arrow icon when you are choosing which style to add.

Sketch

Sketch (pencil) icon in Moodle

As the name might tell you, this is a tool that can allow either yourself, or your students in a quiz environment for example, to draw annotations in an online sketchbook. This can be useful for content that might be hard to produce via a keyboard. 

This is an example of what an inserted ‘sketch’ can look like on a page:

An example sketch of a triangle and some mathematical equations

Through the View option in the editor, there are some useful new features, including: 

Show block: this will add a grey block around the text and display what style you are using. This is not displayed when you save, but rather acts as a useful guide when ‘clumping’ the content you’re creating. 

This is an example of the dotted grey line you will see when you have the view option enabled: 

An example of what a 'block' looks like when revealed in the Moodle text editor. A red box has been drawn around the 'Heading' block to highlight the example.

Who can I ask for help? 

If you need help with using the new editor, or anything else Moodle-related, contact the IT Help Centre or post a message in the Digital Education Network (DEN) on Microsoft Teams.

Written by Ellen Wildman, Digital Learning Facilitator (ISS)

Moodle 4.3 – What’s changed?

Moodle, ,

As many of you will already know, we updated Moodle to version 4.3 on Tuesday 23rd July 2024. We used to be on version 4.1. so there has been a variety of changes that have occurred with this new update.

Now we have all had a bit of time to get used to it, I thought I would run through just five of the changes that will make our lives as staff easier!

  1. You can now add activities anywhere in a section.

Before, we needed to go to the bottom of a section or topic and click the “add an activity or resource” button. Once the activity had been created, we then moved it where we wanted it to go. No more! Hover between two cards and the plus icon as shown below will appear. You can use this to add an activity or resources anywhere you want to.

A plus sign now appears between two activity cards. The plus sign is in a red circle in between the cards.
The new ‘add an activity or resource’ button
  1. Bulk actions are now available

In edit mode, there is now a “Bulk actions” button at the top on the right as shown below. This enables you to select as many activities as required and move, edit, duplicate or delete at once.

A screenshot of the top of a Moodle page with the bulk actions button highlighted with a red ring around it.
The ‘bulk actions’ option at the top of a Moodle page
  1. The text editor in Moodle has changed to TinyMCE

A future post will go into the details of the changes around this text editor but for now, click the three dots to get more options as shown below. Some of the key changes include being able to open the editor in full screen mode and add components for learning (C4L), which are text boxes of a variety of colours and styles.

TinyMCE text editor in Moodle. The three dots option is highlighted in blue.
The TinyMCE text editor in Moodle.
  1. You can duplicate more easily

It is now possible to duplicate a whole course section and not just the individual activities within it. You can also bulk duplicate activities as mentioned above. This makes it much easier to keep to a similar look and feel for each topic/section.

The three dots menu on a section has been selected to show a menu with various options including 'duplicate'.
Duplicating a section from the three dots menu
  1. Quizzes & the Question Bank

There have been quite a few changes to the quiz activity and to the question bank. Staff are now given more flexibility to customise the columns shown to them in the question bank and filtering/searching for questions is easier. The quiz editing page is wider to improve usability and students can now hide the timer in a timed quiz.

Our developers in ISS, have also reintroduced the ‘back to top’ button which I know many of us are very grateful for! They have also created the brand new ‘My Feedback Plugin’ which you can find more information on in another post.

A full list of the changes and developments in Moodle version 4.2. and 4.3 are available from the links below:

Moodle 4.2 changes

Moodle 4.3 changes

Moodle My Feedback – New to Moodle for 24/25

Moodle, , ,

Written by Phil Tubman – eLearning Development Officer, Digital Learning Team (ISS)

Each year in the Digital Learning Team, we try to improve the Moodle experience for students and staff. During this academic year we have held focus groups with students and listened to their concerns, which overwhelmingly speak of their difficulties finding thingson the Moodle course page: 

“Chaotic sometimes, not always grouped together similar documents. Hard to find.” 

“Every Moodle page has a different structure, making it difficult to learn how to navigate.” 

Feedback given through Moodle is arguably the most important aspect of teaching and learning, so we have developed a new feature which collects all the students’ feedback (single course or all courses) onto one page, accessible from the Moodle course page – we are unsurprisingly calling this feature, “My Feedback”. 

A module space in Moodle with the 'Feedback' tab on the secondary navigation menu highlighted with a pink box.
Figure 1: My Feedback link as viewed by a student on Moodle

When a student clicks this link, they are taken to their My Feedback page which displays all their feedback from that course on one page, which has the following features: 

  • All feedback, grades in Moodle, submission dates and due dates on one page 
  • An area to make self-reflective notes (these are only visible to the student themselves) 
  • A button to download all their combined feedback files for the course (the annotated file, feedback comments, feedback criteria, rubric) 
  • note this does not include files that have been uploaded for feedback 
A Moodle space with the self-reflective notes feature and export assignment feedback files feature highlighted with a pink box.
Figure 2 My Feedback page with download all, and self-reflective notes feature

To view all the feedback from all the courses, the student just clicks on their profile link at the top right of Moodle, and choose ‘Feedback’ from there: 

Profile drop-down menu with 'Feedback' option highlighted with a pink box.
Figure 3 Use the profile button to access all feedback across Moodle

Now all their feedback across Moodle is listed on one page: 

My Feedback page showing all modules across all years.
Figure 4 My Feedback page for all Moodle courses

We feel that this feature will be greatly beneficial to students during their academic tutor meetings, 1-1’s, or meetings with Learning Developers. 

If you have teaching staff, course convenor, or administrative staff role on a Moodle course, you can also view as student’s My Feedback page (minus their self-reflective notes, of course), by choosing ‘My Feedback’ (under the ‘more’ option on the course front page), and selecting the student you wish to view: 

The staff page for My Feedback with a drop-down menu in the centre.
Figure 5 Select a student to view their ‘My Feedback’ page as staff

For a preview of My Feedback, you can watch the video below:

Please comment below if you have any suggestions or thought about this new feature or pass your comments on to Phil via email.

Making your lecture videos interactive with Panopto

Pedagogy, , ,

From the Digital Learning Team’s recent surveys and focus groups, we know that students really appreciate when lectures are recorded.

Lecture recordings are useful to support revision and to support students when reviewing difficult concepts. At Lancaster, there are a number of Panopto features that are used consistently such as captioning. It is also common for lecturers to review the viewing statistics which can help identify which parts of a lecture students are watching the most.

However, many people are unaware of the ability to add formative quizzes and also short video clips to recordings. This post, will walk you through how to do this to support student engagement and revision.

Adding a quiz

There are four types of question that can be added to a Panopto video:

  1. True/False
  2. Multiple Choice
  3. Multiple Select
  4. Fill in the Blank

To add a quiz to your chosen video, click the edit button (see below) on the banner across the top of the screen.

Edit button on Panopto

Choose the part on the video editing timeline that you would like to add a quiz to. The red verticle line is where the quiz will be added.

Video editing timeline with vertical red coloured bar.

Then you can either click the quizzes option on the left-hand menu as shown below:

Menu with the 'Quizzes' option highlighted in green.

OR

You can click the plus button above the video editing timeline which gives you a pop -up list of options as shown below:

Pop-up menu with the "add a quiz" option highlighted.

This will then give you the option to add a quiz at the point that you have chosen in the video and the quiz editing screen will appear (see below). You can add as many questions as you like and change the type of question from the drop-down menu on the right-hand side.

Quiz editing screen in Panopto

It is possible to have multiple short quizzes in one video and the video will pause to allow the students to complete the quiz. The screenshot below shows the quiz screen that students would see and the number of questions in the quiz appears in the right hand corner. Students get to review answers at the end of the quiz and can see their total score.

The interactive quiz that appears for students as they play through a Panopto video.

You can also view the quiz results of your students from the settings menu. This will give you an insight into which topics your group feel confident with and which topics they might need support with.

A great way to help your students review complex material!

Adding a YouTube video clip

This can be done by selecting plus button and then the option from the drop-down menu below the ‘Add a quiz’ option.

Pop up menu with "Add a Youtube video" highlighted

This editing screen will then appear:

YouTube video editing screen on Panopto

From here you can add the link (URL) to the YouTube video you would like to include, adjust the time when you want the video to start playing and you can also decide whether you want the whole clip to play or just part of it using the “start” and “end” options.

If you keep “Show YouTube controls” ticked by default, this will allow users to view the subtitles for the video if required due to preference or accessibility needs.

For more information on Panopto,  you can visit the ASK page.

If you need further support on making Panopto videos interactive, get in touch with a member of the Digital Learning Team.

 

 

Moodle Users – We Need You!

Moodle, ,
User experience is a bit of a theme in this blog and DLT would like to invite Lancaster University staff who use Moodle to complete a short survey on their experience (link to survey below!). It will not take more than 5-10 minutes of your time. We are advertising in lots of spaces to get as many responses as possible! A student survey is on the horizon but this one is just for staff at the moment.
All respondents will remain anonymous. Opinions expressed in this survey will be used to inform future decision making around Moodle developments and training at Lancaster University. The survey is open until 3rd November 2023. Some questions are optional and do not require a response. If you wish to withdraw from the survey after you have completed it, please get in touch with me, Liz Walkden. There is an invitation at the end to be involved in future focus groups if you are interested.

What do students want? An insight from the ALT Conference 2023

Pedagogy, , ,

From 5th September to 7th September, Tim Ellis and I (Liz Walkden) attended the Association of Learning Technologists (ALT) Conference. ‘Student Voices: Shaping the Post-Pandemic Campus’ was day two’s keynote session. The purpose of the session was to emphasise the importance of the student voice and to encourage collaboration between policy makers, educators, and learners. It gave us first-hand insights into the experiences of learners following the pandemic. The students studied at three different universities so their opinions and views may not reflect the views of all students or those studying at Lancaster. We heard from a second-year student, a third-year student and a recent graduate. They gave candid accounts into the difficulties that students faced during their time at university. I wanted to share with you three takeaways that I had from listening to the panel’s experiences which readers may find ‘food for thought’.

One of the things that most stood out was the students’ discussions around ‘digital shock’. The panel acknowledged that the technological understanding and knowledge required at university is much more advanced than what was required of them only a couple of months before when they were finishing their A-levels. One member of the panel wanted lecturers to know that most of their previous learning had been done on pen and paper and that they only received their first laptop when they went to University.  To this student, typing was hard and so they used a notebook instead of a laptop in lectures. The student felt this was isolating because everyone else was using an electronic device. The student also then said that engaging with the learning materials and the assignments was also very difficult and that there was an assumption that students would be able to use technology easily.

In addition to the lack of ‘know-how’ when it came to the technology required, students also felt isolated by the access that they had to technology. The student who had recently graduated was frustrated by the fact that she wasn’t told about the possibility of borrowing a laptop earlier and she had been struggling to work on a slow and unreliable device. Another student was frustrated that the Chromebook they had been able to afford to buy did not actually have the right processing power for the technology that they were required to use on their course. One student said, “you feel silly when you don’t have the right technology”. We want students to be digitally literate and able to use technology in their future career with confidence but how do we encourage this and help students to navigate this digital world? The students had some suggestions:

  1. Make the technological requirements of a course clear very early on. Students will be buying new devices before they join the University and should be forewarned if the software they need to use has certain device specifications or needs a certain level of technical ‘know-how’. This would help prepare students and prevent a sense of digital isolation.
  2. Signpost where students can get help. Students struggled to find the information on central websites or portals and often felt lost. The panel suggested that lecturers put up a slide at the start of a lecture while waiting for everyone to sit down which could highlight help, important opportunities, or give answers to frequently asked questions.
  3. Don’t assume that all young people are confident in their use of technology.

The second thing that students were keen for us to understand was how difficult and intimidating they find it to ask questions and get support not only from their lecturers but also from each other. They felt there was an expectation that they would be able to contact other students, work together and speak to the lecturers easily. Some students did manage to set up WhatsApp and/or Snapchat groups. However, they knew that not all the students in their cohort were in these groups and that they didn’t know all their fellow students. A variety of suggestions were made that could help students to collaborate and feel supported at university:

Continue reading What do students want? An insight from the ALT Conference 2023 →

10 ‘Top Tips’ On Improving Accessibility

Pedagogy, ,

Yesterday, the Inclusive Learning Network at Lancaster University met via Teams, led by Dr Ann-Marie Houghton, Dean for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). The Inclusive Learning network is an open network that meets regularly to hear from colleagues across the University. The network includes representatives from a range of areas including Learning Developers, the Global Experience Team, Careers, Counselling and wellbeing, LGBTQIA+ Allies, the Disability Service and many more! It provides an opportunity to share good practice to improve the experience for staff and students at Lancaster. It has a broad remit and the group is passionate about making the University a place that is open and inclusive. Stephen Owens and I (Liz Walkden) were delighted to be invited to speak alongside other speakers including Amanda Pharaoh, who spoke about the Student Money Advice Service, and Heath Boffey, who shared updates on Digital Accessibility.

Stephen and I spoke about the work of the DLT team and particularly about the Moodle upgrade and how the changes had improved accessibility. At the end of the session, Dr Ann-Marie Houghton asked Stephen and I what are top tips were that could help staff improve the accessibility of their courses for students. So, I thought I would write this blog post to spread the word a bit more and share out 10 ‘Top Tips’ for improving accessibility.

  1. Use accessibility checkers

Microsoft programs, Adobe and many others have accessibility checkers. Next time you open a Word document, check the bottom of the screen and you will see an accessibility rating alongside the word count, language and page number. You can get to the checker on a Word document by clicking the ‘Review’ tab at the top and you will find the ‘Check Accessibility’ option on the banner.

The banner and tabs at the top of Microsoft Word. With the 'Review' tab open and 'check accessibility' highlighted with a red square around it.

 

 

Mamuna Hussain recommends opening the Accessibility Checker before you begin typing and that way you can review accessibility as you go along. This will save you time as you won’t have to address all the issues at the end.

  1. Explain acronyms, jargon and key words

I am often guilty of assuming people understand the acronyms I use, VLE, VR, AR…the list goes on! For the first few hours I started working at the University, I was convinced LUSI (‘Lucy’) was a person who knew loads but only seemed to share the information at night? I was very confused about our Lancaster University Student Records System (LUSI)! To make sure everyone can fully understand the information we convey we should aim to use simple, easy to understand language where appropriate and explain what we mean. For example, I can still use the acronyms VLE, VR and AR but it is good practice to say at the start that they stand for Virtual Learning Environment, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.

  1. Use ALLY to monitor and improve the accessibility of your resources.

Blackboard ALLY is an accessibility tool that integrates with Moodle. It provides you with guidance on how to improve the accessibility of your resources as well as giving your resources a rating using a coloured dial.

Writing which reads 'Week 2 - Lecture Slides' with an ALLY score provided on a green dial next to the writing.

If your resources on Moodle have a low rating, you can click on the dial and this will review your document. Issues that need to be addressed will be outlined with a thick red bar and guidance on what the issues are is also provided.

A PowerPoint slide with an image that is outlined in red by the Blackboard Ally tool. The Ally score and guidance is on the right hand side of the image.

  1. Add alternative (ALT) text to the images.

This is one of the easiest and quickest ways to improve accessibility (and your ALLY score) on Moodle. When you include an image in a document, write a brief description of the information the picture conveys. For example, the image above has the ALT text “a PowerPoint slide with an image that is outlined in red by the Blackboard Ally tool. The Ally score and guidance is on the right hand side of the image.” If the image is purely for decoration and does not convey anything meaningful you can mark these images as ‘decorative’, and they will be ignored by software such as screen readers. Accessibility checkers will prompt you to include ALT text where appropriate.

  1. Choose appropriate colours

Poor colour contrast between text and background colours can make resources difficult to read for everyone! Have you ever tried to read white text on a light blue background or yellow text on a white background? Readers should find the information you present easy to see. If you are unsure of what colours are best to choose when it comes to having the right colour contrast, Lancaster University AppsAnywhere gives staff access to the Colour Contrast Analyser (CCA) which is easy to use and shows you whether your colour contrast meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and even shows you whether it meets the AA or AAA criteria (resources should meet AA standard).

Continue reading 10 ‘Top Tips’ On Improving Accessibility →

User Experience: What do students like to see in a Moodle space?

Moodle,

The Digital Teaching and Learning Team are currently in the process of engaging students and staff in a range of discovery activities to find out about their experience of using Moodle. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been conducting focus groups with students to find out more about their interactions with our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). As a new member of staff, I really enjoyed having my first proper interactions with students over a slice of pizza! They had some wonderful things to say about staff and the campus; for example, every student saw the library as a wonderful calm space which they were eager to utilise for independent study (a testament to all staff who work in and with the library!).

The inside of the University library showing an indoor tree and students studying.
Lancaster University Library

Most students are accessing Moodle everyday during term time and engaging with the resources designed and recommended by their tutors. Students recognise the importance of Moodle in their learning seeing it as “a platform for getting all the information we need to study”.

The students were asked several questions around their interaction with Moodle which included questions on where to find support, notification frequency, accessibility and preferences of layout and activities.

I thought I would share with readers the top 3 things that students like to see in a Moodle space as we come into the summer months and staff will be thinking about how to layout their courses for the coming year:

  1. Collapsible topics

Students found collapsible topics to be one of the features that could improve Moodle user experience the most. One student said “it really helps if you have got modules divided by week or in sections”. Scrolling through a lengthy Moodle course page is difficult via a mobile or tablet and students struggled to find the content they required even on a desktop/laptop when spaces weren’t organised into clear sections, topics or weeks. A special shout out from students to the ‘Politics of Ireland’ (a brand new module with Dr Brian Garvey), ‘Europe and the World, 1450-1650’ (with Dr Alexander Wragge-Morley) and ‘Content-Based Approaches to Language Education modules’ – students love your course layout and design! Dr Diane Potts who has put together the course on Content-Based Approaches to Language Education modules would like to thank Paul Harness and Phil Tubman for their help in incorporating video into pedagogic practice as video is essential to the module’s design.

If you are interested in rethinking your course design, Embrace Digital has some information on Moodle course design with handy instructions and useful tips! The upcoming Moodle 4 upgrade offers some alternative options when it comes to course layout and if you need any advice or assistance you can also contact a Digital Learning Facilitator for a chat.

  1. A range of activities

Students really appreciate interactive activities in their in-person and online learning. Teaching tools such as Slido, Mentimeter and Kahoot were highlighted as enjoyable in-person tools that lecturers utilised to engage students. In Moodle, students told us they liked the use of video, quizzes and Leganto. One student also highlighted that they enjoyed activities which gave them a choice, providing the student with more ownership over their learning. It could be a choice of which reading or writing assignment to do that week for example. The ‘choice’ activity is a possibility when trying to set something like that up.

I would also like to highlight the H5P activity, a great way of including interactive content in your courses. If you would like to hear more about H5P activities, there is a session in our upcoming DLT event.

  1. Active forums

Students were keen to have direct contact with their lecturers whether in person, during office hours, or online. Students are confident in using forums to contact staff and some courses even have a new forum for every week to group questions and answers together. Students like forums as a quick method of getting questions across and the fact that answers can be shared with all students. It is worth noting that the ‘staff alerts’ role may need to be given to staff so that they can receive notifications via email when a new post appears in the announcements forum or any forum with ‘forced subscription’ enabled.

Over the next few weeks, we hope to begin sessions with staff to look at their experience of using Moodle in more detail.