Tag Archives: Moodle

Moodle My Feedback – New to Moodle for 24/25

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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.

Upcoming Training: Exams Moodle

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Here at Lancaster, we use Moodle as our virtual learning environment (VLE) and have several customised instances of Moodle where we can host different types of material. One of those is ‘Exams Moodle’ and…it does “exactly what it says on the tin”… hosts exams.

Soon, exam season will be upon us and the exam timetable has gone live today!

For those of you looking at setting up exams for the upcoming season we have some hybrid training available to help you get started.

The training covers:

  1. How exams spaces are created
  2. How staff and students are enrolled
  3. How ILSP adjustments are added
  4. How exam access is restricted to appropriate times and individuals
  5. How grading and feedback works

The sessions are suitable for professional services staff members and anyone else responsible for configuring online exams at Lancaster.

There are two sessions available (both exactly the same!) and you can sign up via the Libcal links below:

  1. Tuesday 5th March, Management School LT10, 2-3pm (hybrid)
  2. Thursday 14th March, Engineering Building Entrance, 10-11am (hybrid)

We hope to see you there but if you have any questions in the meantime, please get in touch with one of the Digital Learning Team. There’s also written guidance available on Embrace Digital – Guidance for setting up open book exams in Moodle.

Digital Training Courses Available!

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The Digital Learning Team have a whole host of training courses available this term. These are mainly aimed at academic and professional services staff to help you make the most of our suite of digital learning tools and services. 

Below you can find the dates and sign up links to the training sessions we are offering in January.

Tuesday 16th January 2024

[Hybrid] Moodle Part 1 – Introduction for Staff – Events – Lancaster University (libcal.com)

A 30-minute introductory session looking at Moodle, which is Lancaster University’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). This session covers what Moodle is, what it does, and how staff can access and interact with it. This session is a hybrid one and staff are welcome to join online or in-person in Library Training Room 1

Friday 19th January 2024

[Hybrid] Moodle Part 2 – Features for Course Administrators – Events – Lancaster University (libcal.com)

This 60-minute session looks at the management of Moodle spaces and will detail Moodle’s links with LUSI, the student records system, as well as how to manage materials and participants (staff and students). This session is a hybrid one and staff are welcome to join online or in-person in Library Training Room 1

Monday 22nd January 2024

[In Person] Panopto Part 1 – Introduction to Lecture Capture – Events – Lancaster University (libcal.com)

Panopto is our Lecture Capture system and is primarily used to record in-person lectures in rooms on campus, but can also be used for recording lecture materials from your home or office. Lancaster operates an “opt-in” lecture capture system – nobody is recorded by default but you have the opportunity to opt-in to recordings should you wish to. Nowadays, the majority of modules are recorded and published to Moodle to aid students in their learning, revision and access to learning.

This session will give an overview of the Panopto system, and explain how it’s set up in rooms on campus and how you can be recorded automatically, make basic edits to your recordings and publish them to students.

This is an in-person session and will take place in LUMS Lecture Theatre 19

Wednesday 31st January 2024

[In Person] Moodle Part 3 – Moodle Feature Showcase – Events – Lancaster University (libcal.com)

This 60 minute session will cover some of the activities and features in Moodle that lecturers can use to increase student engagement and the learning experience as a whole. Activities that we will cover include Moodle Board, Collaboration Map, Student Quiz and more!

This is an in-person session and will take place in Library Training Room 1

 

More training sessions will be taking place during the Lent term. You can find a whole list of the events we are running via Libcal.

DLT Sharing Practice Event #4

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Come and join the Digital Learning Team and colleagues for our 4th Sharing Practice Event!

The theme for this event is “Collaboration”. We will hear from colleagues on how to facilitate effective groupwork and collaboration amongst students.

The event will be held on Wednesday 13th December 2023 from 2-5pm in Management School LT16 (The Robinson Lecture Theatre). You can drop in and out of the event and attend the sessions you are interested in. Refreshments and cake will be provided!

The current outline of the event is as follows:

2:00 – 2:10 – Intro from the Digital Learning team, Liz Walkden

2:10 – 2:40 – Using learning sets with students and the role of digital learning, Sandra Varey.

2:45 – 3:15 – Collaboration at a distance: asynchronous and synchronous approaches to working with research students at a distance, Steve Wright

3:15 – 3:30 – Break + Refreshments.

3:30 – 4:00 – Accessibility considerations for collaborative and group work, Alison Sharman

4:05 – 4:35 – Using peer evaluation to assess group dynamics on the MBA course, Phil Devine & Stephen Owens

4:40 – 5:00 – Collaboration suite tour, Stephen Owens

You can read more about what each session is about and sign up here.

We look forward to seeing you all!

Moodle Users – We Need You!

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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.

Training Sessions Available!

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In addition to my last post about training sessions in September, we are now offering more sessions on Panopto Lecture Capture, Moodle quizzes and assessment.

The dates, times, topics and sign-up links for our upcoming training sessions can be found below. Some of the events can be attended online or in-person as indicated.

  1. Introduction to Moodle for Staff (hybrid), Tuesday 19th September at 2pm, https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4076794
  2. Introduction to Panopto Lecture Capture (hybrid), Thursday 21st September at 2pm, https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4076796
  3. Moodle for Course Administrators (hybrid), Thursday 28th September at 2pm, https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4076797
  4. Assignments Part 1 – Moodle Assignments (in-person), Tuesday 24th October at 2pm, https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4076798
  5. Quizzes Part 1 – Questions and Question Bank (in-person), Thursday 2nd November at 2pm, https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4076800
  6. Assignments Part 2 – Peer Moderation and Assessment (in-person), Friday 3rd November at 10am, https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4076799
  7. Quizzes Part 2 – Quizzes and Quiz Management (in-person), Monday 6th November at 10am, https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4076801
  8. Quizzes Part 3 – Quiz Grading and Reports (in-person), Thursday 9th November at 2pm, https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4076802

Book a space as soon as you can to avoid disappointment. Please spread the word on these events to other departments and colleagues!

10 ‘Top Tips’ On Improving Accessibility

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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 →

Making your Moodle space more interactive with H5P

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At our last DLT event in July, we showcased several plug-ins and activities for Moodle. One of which was the H5P activity. So, for those who missed the session, and want to look at revamping their Moodle spaces for the new academic year, this one is for you!

What is H5P content?

H5P is an abbreviation for HTML5 Package. It is free open-source content that enables educators to create engaging content that can be integrated into Virtual Learning Environments such as Moodle. There are over 50 types of activities to choose from! This includes flashcards, Cornell Notes, interactive videos and books, diagram hotspots, charts and, when we are feeling Christmassy, advent calendars. On the H5P.org website you can find some examples of H5P activities such as an interactive video on smoothie making to show you what is possible. The DLT team have also set up a Moodle H5P demo site which Lancaster University staff can view. Students can access H5P activities easily and quickly through Moodle and you can keep an eye on engagement through activity completion and the reports.

How does it improve engagement?

These activities can also be used as part of a strategy to improve the online experience for distance learners. The H5P plug-in is part of the ‘gamification’ set that is available in Moodle.  It aims to enhance engagement and motivation by creating similar experiences to those when playing online games. For example, H5P activities such as the memory game, virtual tours, interactive timelines and even crosswords and quizzes make learning more enjoyable for students.

By using H5P activities, course content can be broken down into manageable pieces and learners can complete the activities at their own pace. This is important to ensure that learners don’t feel overwhelmed and feel a sense of achievement as they work their way through their course content.

These types of activities are also particularly good in higher education as retrieval practice (the practice of remembering) and feeds into teaching learners how to learn and what works for them. They can also be used in the lead up to exams to help students with their revision. For more information on retrieval practice, Tom Sherrington’s ‘Kitchen Pedagogy 2:2’ video is a great introduction and you can find lots of information on his website.

How do I start creating some material?

H5P activities are created and stored in the content bank area of Moodle. It acts as a repository and allows individual H5P activities to be reused multiple times. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel and can use resources that you already have. For example, you could use a YouTube video and make this interactive or use some presentations that you already have and turn these into an interactive book.

Continue reading Making your Moodle space more interactive with H5P →

Need some help or advice on Moodle? Drop-In Sessions Available!

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Following the Moodle 4 upgrade on 24th July, the team are holding regular drop-in sessions throughout August and September. We will be available should you have any questions or concerns. We can also discuss any ideas that you have for developing your Moodle spaces.

The sessions will be held online via Microsoft Teams and you will be sent a link after you register for a place. You can view the available dates and book your place on a session via the Events page on the Staff Portal.

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.