Low-Overhead Uses of Moodle - MUG Mailing #3

Topics:

• Low-Overhead Uses of Moodle
  • News Forums
  • Linking to a file
• Event duplication in the backup/restore process
• Scheduler

Low-Overhead Uses of Moodle
Here are two easy and effective ways to use Moodle.

News forums

• Posts to the news forums automatically send email copies to your students
• If students add the class, you can send them to the news forum to catch up on the announcements you have already made
• Automatically generated - all you have to do is click on "News Forum" at the top of your course page, then "add a new topic" and you're on your way

Linking to a file

• An easy, paperless way to distribute materials to your students - Word documents, pdfs, or images
• No risk of students loosing the paper
• Students have the option of printing it if they prefer reading printed material, but they can always get it again if they can't find their printed copy
•  No need to worry about printing something right before class and whether or not the printer is in use - just link to it on Moodle and then direct your students to it
• To link to a file, just do the following:
  • Go to the course page in Moodle
  • Turn editing on
  • Add a resource -> Link to a file or website
  • Enter a name
  • Click "Choose or upload a file" 
  • Click "Upload a file"
  • Click "Browse..." and find the desired file
  • Select it and click "Open"
  • Click "Upload this file"
  • Find the uploaded file in the list and click "Choose" on the far right.
  • Click "Save and return to course"

Duplicated course events from a backup/restore or import process
If you used backup/restore or import to copy information from an old course, you might notice in either your Moodle calendar or your Zimbra calendar that you now have two class times scheduled for each day.  There's no way to avoid this problem, but details on how to fix it are available at <https://apps.carleton.edu/campus/at/faq/?faq_id=554108>

Scheduler
Scheduler is an activity in Moodle that allows you to schedule one-on-one appointments with all your students. You specify the periods during which you (or TAs) are available to see the students and the length of each appointment. The students then book themselves into one of the available time slots.

• You can have students sign up for time slots outside of class instead of passing a sign-up sheet around
• Can be used for advising meetings as well - have an AT set up a course for you and your advisees

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