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TOW: Using Moodle Scheduler to set up student appointments
If your class uses Moodle regularly, the Scheduler plugin is very useful for setting up appointments with students in your class, either individually or in groups. (Outside of Moodle, a handy way to schedule appointments is with the WASS scheduler.) Start by turning on editing in Moodle, and then click on ‘Add an activity or resource.’ In the box under Activities, choose Scheduler and click ‘Add.’ A new page will appear called ‘Adding a new Scheduler’ where you enter in a name (required). This page contains numerous options for setting up the appointments, including limiting how many times a student can make an appointment, whether there will be a grade…
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TOW: Two important default settings for Moodle Gradebook
As we approach the start of the semester, now is the time to set up your gradebook in Moodle. The Moodle Gradebook has many different options for setting up a gradebook, including the use of weighted categories or total points. You can use a Moodle assignment to collect and grade assignments within Moodle, or you can just create a gradebook item and enter in the grades by hand. It allows students to track their progress throughout the semester, and faculty can give personalized feedback to each student on assignments and scores. We want to highlight here two default settings for the Gradebook that are set when the courses are created.…
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Viewing the Gradebook
There are numerous views and screens available of the Moodle gradebook, but only a few are commonly used. When you first access the Gradebook by clicking on “Grades” under the Navigation box, the Grader Report view is shown as the default. This view shows all the grades for all the students in the course, with scrollbars along the right side and bottom for classes with a large number of students and/or assignments. To sort the students by a grade column, click on the arrow symbol next to the column name. This will allow you to toggle between ascending and descending views of the grade column. To modify grades within this…
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Grade columns not showing in Gradebook
When working with categories in the Moodle Gradebook, you may find that not all the grade item columns and category totals are showing in the grader report. This is due to the different views for the columns, and can be easily fixed. The top row of the grader report shows the course name, and the row underneath shows the different assignments, such as quizzes or tutorials. Note that if a grade column has not be assigned to a category, it will only show within the general course ‘uncategorized’ category. Next to the course name and each category is a small box. Clicking within this box changes the view between three…
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Editing a course
To add or alter the contents of a course, including adding activities or resources, a teacher must turn editing on. To do this, use the “Turn editing on” button located either at the top right of any course page when you’re logged in, or within the Administration block on the left, directly beneath Course Administration (as shown in the image on the left). This same button is also used to turn editing off when you are finished editing the course. After editing is turned on, additional buttons will be noted in the course sections as shown in the screenshot below. The double-arrow icon in the upper left can be used…