Message from Nellie: One-on-One Mentorship for Moodle

Date: Sun, Jul 14 2013 08:30 AM 

One-on-One Mentorship for Moodle

Dear Moodlers,

The Moodle MOOC is not over. You will be getting updates about free live online classes and free online conferences. However, you will only be able to work on the free Moodle websites on Moodle for Teachers and Practice area on your own until the end of July 2013. After that date you can join the paid courses on how to Moodle for as little as $60 on IT4ALL and $50 on WizIQ for the Admin courses: http://www.wiziq.com/course/8035-moodle-for-teachers-m4t-a-administrator-course

I'd like to welcome the participants of the Moodle MOOC who joined the course on IT4ALL: http://www.integrating-technology.org/course/view.php?id=448

Those who join the course on IT4ALL will be able to learn and practice the Moodle features. They will also be able to get their own courses for free on IT4ALL and charge money for their courses if they wish. Participants will be able to go beyond the course for as long as they wish. The mentorship also includes consultation on how to set up and install Moodle on a website and start teaching online or in a blended format as independent teachers.

Please contact me at nelliedeutsch@gmail.com for further information.

Happy Moodling!

Nellie

For all new Moodle MOOC members just starting off:

For all new Moodle MOOC members just starting off:

Yesterday I commented on Martin Tobon's blog of Sunday, 14 July 2013, 11:44 AM. One of his preoccupations (that used to be mine) is the following: " There is a critic in the web to MOOC, this is that there is no order and that it tends to be chaotic, besides it says there seems not to be a guide to solve your questions. I have to say that I have noticed that Dr Deutsh has been prompt to answer or to invite people to continue but I have not noticed people grouping around a specific purpose. I mean, what to we need to create , in fact, a learning community?"

In order to help out other new users of the Moodle MOOC, I would like to share, and expand on my answers to Martin.

Yes Martin. As a member of the MOOC you are in an organic learning environment, still in the throws of creation. The "Big Bang" started at the beginning of June when attendees were allowed to choose their study environment based on their Moodle experience, Beginners M4B, Experienced Teachers M4ET or Managers M4M. The initial M4M section was split into groups who worked together to furnish weekly activities for the other sections to discuss and use. These activities included digital artefacts, engaging activities, literature studies on Teaching On-line, and scheduling and presenting a live on-line class. All of these materials are still available under the Week 1-4: Add your task entries. Basically the three sections M4B, M4ET and M4M all have the same content but with slightly different responsibilities and tasks.

You will find that, indeed, there is order in the apparent entropy of the expanding MOOC universe.
It may not be noticeable at first. This, I think, is due to the flipped-classroom nature of the materials offered.
Please see Dr. Nellie's video(s) in Week 4: Add your task forums under my entry Tom's Tortuous Think Tank. Class 1 - The Advent of WEB 3.0, of Thursday, 27 June 2013, 12:50 PM:
http://moodle4teachers.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=899 Are you all ready for a change of plans?

In the "flipped-class" scenario, investigation of the subject is done by students in advance, and (in the case of the MOOC) all questions and ambiguities are answered and explained, student2student, student2teacher and teacher2student afterwards (in the forums) when the student has a working knowledge of the subject and better understands it. In this way, each student may work at his/her own pace until they understand completely the subject at hand.

For those of you who are starting at a later date, I think it's very important that you follow the thread of the weekly classes as stated in the M4T Moodle Experience News http://moodle4teachers.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=29  Here Nellie tells you, week after week, what is expected of you as a student of the MOOC.
Follow these instructions precisely, post and answer in the forums and blogs, complete your tasks at your own pace, there is no immediate time-limit for the MOOC, and, most of all, enjoy yourselves.

Have fun!

Don't forget the News Forum under Updates & Support of the section you belong to, and the M4T: Blog under Site Blogs. Let your opinion be known by posting and answering in the Forums.

Remember that you have to blog about the weekly classes and post about your experiences of the MOOC in How are you doing?

Apart from the weekly class videos and tutorials, you may also be interested in additional material available on Nellie's Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/nelliemuller/videos

Hope you all enjoy the MOOC as much as I am still enjoying it and, like me, stay around after you've finished to help new in-coming participants.

Tom

Roles in Moodle Admin.

Roles in Moodle Admin.

Moodle comes with a number of predefined roles. These standard roles are suitable for some educational setups, but most institutions require modifications to the roles' system in order to tailor Moodle to their specific needs.

Each role has permissions for a number of actions that can be carried out in Moodle. For example, an administrator and a course creator are able to create new courses, whereas all other roles are denied this right. Likewise, a teacher is allowed to moderate forums, whereas students are only allowed to contribute to them.

The description of each standard role and the short names (that are used internally and in operations such as user batch upload) given by Moodle are listed in the table that follows:

Role	Description	Short Name
Administrator	Administrators have full access to the entire site and to all courses. Site administrator - can "do everything" on the site Manager - a lesser administrator role	admin
Course Creator	Course creators can create new courses and also teach in them.	coursecreator
Teacher	Teachers can do anything within a course, including changing activities and grading students - can manage and add content to courses.	editingteacher
Non-editing Teacher	Non-editing teachers can teach in courses and grade students, but not alter any activities.	teacher
Student	Students are able to perform allocated tasks which include resources and activities, among others - can access and participate in courses.	student
Guest	Guests have minimal privileges and usually cannot enter text anywhere - can view courses but not participate.	guest
Authenticated User	Additional role given once logged in. It is an exception role and is mostly used by Moodle internally. Authenticated user on the front page role - a logged in user role for the front page only.	user

Here are some of the things Administrators have to know:

The Course Creator has to be able make informed decisions about course design, strategic planning and providing support in your organization.

Course set up and layout modification: Course settings, orientation, course page layout.

Learning resources: Adding resources , Upload, manage and signpost for your participants.

File management: Re-use and archive activities and courses.

Monitor participant activity logs within a course.

Learning activities: Assessment, collaboration and communication using a range of Moodle tools.

Activity modules - Forum, Choice, Chat, Glossary, Quiz, Wiki, Assignment

Create popular question types

Explore the more complex Database, Lesson and Workshop modules.

Workshop

        - Create peer and self-assessed assignment activities

        -  Manage the various set up and deployment phases

        -  Allocate submissions for peer assessment

        -  Provide tutor feedback and marks

        -  Support student peer assessments

Lesson

        -  Create multi-page activities with linear and/or branched progression through content

        -  Manage user progression through content based on responses to a wide  range of content

        - Extend the computer marked assessment options in your courses

Database

        -  Create and manage form based activities

        -  Identify suitable field types to meet your needs

        -  Manage templates for adding entries plus list and single views of existing entries

        -  Configure requirements and approval of learner contributions

        -  Create templates for rapid future development

Course Managers explore key concepts that enable them to better manage access to their courses, 

organize and monitor users within them and improve the experience for facilitators and learners by automating the availability of content and activities.

Manage access to courses using a range of enrolment options

Adapt and review user permissions within a course

Control collaboration, awareness and segmentation of users within a course

Manage access to activities and course section using specified conditions

Enable facilitators and learners to track progress in a course.

Native Moodle enrolment types including self-enrolment, cohorts, meta links

Manage users with Groups

Controll access to activities using Groupings

Conditional access for course activities, resources and sections

Completion tracking - programmed and learner initiated 

Moodle Administrator is required to configure (or re-configure) and administer a Moodle site.

Moodle works well with its default settings but day-to-day administrators and strategic planners must be able to make informed choices about Moodle setup for their organization.

Create and manage user accounts using manual and email authentication

Identify and manage site layout options

Assign and adapt permissions using the roles system

Configure global privacy and access settings

Identify and manage defaults for course related functionality

Customize the interface terminology

Configure in-built appearance options to modify the site experience

Create user accounts (individual/bulk)

Options to organize the site

Manage course enrolments

The roles system

Identify and manage security/privacy settings

Configure user-related data

Make life easier - Using default values, replicating courses

Adapt Language packs

Manage appearance related settings

Integration with external systems, the various external authentication or enrolment options, networking between Moodle sites, server and infrastructure configuration or web design for customizing Moodle themes.