A Faculty Guide to Moodle

How to Log in to Moodle

1. Go to http://moodle.kenyon.edu/

2. Firefox is the recommended browser for Moodle

3. Your username and password are the same as your network username and password.

4. Click on the Login button to the right.

5. You are now logged in! You should see a list of your courses in the "My courses" box on the right and also in the top middle of the page.

Your Profile

Your profile is your identity on Moodle. All Kenyon Moodle users can see it. Your profile also contains email and phone information. If you do not use your Kenyon email, please change the email address to one you will check.

To edit your profile

To view your profile, click on your name next to the “Logout” link at the top of the screen, or anywhere else that your name appears as a link. Then, click the “Edit profile” tab.

From moodle.org:

· Email format: You can choose to have emails sent from Moodle in Plain text format or Pretty HTML format. HTML format will include images and the Moodle colour scheme in emails, but will be slightly larger in size.

· Forum auto-subscribe: If you select yes for this it will mean that when you post a message to a forum, you will be subscribed to that forum and receive email copies of all messages for that forum. You may unsubscribe from forums if you wish as well.

· Email digest type: You may choose to receive all emails from Moodle in one daily message. There is also the option to receive either the complete message or just the Subjects from forums you subscribe to.

· Forum tracking: This is a useful option to enable. If it is enabled on your Moodle site it will highlight unread forum messages so you can easily see what is new.

You can also change your user icon by browsing for a picture next to the “New Picture” field. Please keep the picture small, about 100x100 pixels, and 500kb or less in size. Please use either GIF or JPG format. Again, remember that this profile is accessible to all members of the Kenyon College community. The same caution is applicable to your description.

Editing and Switching Roles

• There are two buttons in the top right corner of the page: Switch Role To: and Turn editing on. Switch Role To allows you to switch temporarily to another role so that you can see what the course would look like to someone with that role.
• Turn Editing On allows you to make changes to the site.
• You must have editing on in order to create or update your site. When editing is turned on, you will notice that two pull down boxes appear in each week. These allow you to compose web pages or add/upload items.

Placement and Layout

• When editing is turned on, you can change the placement and layout of your course page. Under the Blocks box, use the pull down Add box and choose Administration. You will see box appear with several links. Add Calendar and People from the pull down menu in the Blocks box.
• In each box you will see four icons: an eye, and X, and two arrows. The eye will hide a particular box so that you can see it, but it is hidden in the student view. The X will delete a box. The arrows will move a box and its contents up and down and side to side.
• Use the left arrow key to move the Administration box to the left side of the page. Use the up arrow key to move the People box above the calendar box.

Settings

• In the Administration box, you will find a link called Settings. This feature will allow you to change the format, set a password, and make changes to the dates of enrollment. The Category, Full name, Short name, and Course ID number should already be entered by the Banner system.
• You can change the format of your page from Topics format to Weekly format. Under the Topics format, you individually write the heading for each week. Under Weekly format, dates appear as the heading for each week. You can change the start date under Course Start Date.
• By default, any student who clicks on your course will be automatically enrolled in that course. To avoid students adding themselves to your course, you will want to set an Enrollment Key. Students not registered in a class (according to Banner) will not be able to enter your course site, unless they have the enrollment key. This is very important for copyright and academic privacy issues.

Question Marks

Clicking on a question mark will bring up a box with an explanation of the field.

Forums

You may choose to use the News forum for online class discussions. To create a forum: in the pull down Add an activity box, choose Forum. Type the name of the forum and choose the standard forum.

Type your question, comment, or direction in the large box. If someone is subscribed to a forum (either by choice or force) they will receive an e-mail of every post to the forum.

Uploading your syllabus

Make sure editing is turned on. Under the pull-down box Add a resource, choose Link to a file or website. In the name box, type: syllabus. Location: click on Choose or upload a file… Click on the Upload a file button located on the right.

Browse and find your syllabus on your H drive or wherever it is saved and click Upload this file. You can choose to have the file open in the same window or in a new window. Click the Save changes button at the bottom of the page.

Compose a web page.

Under the pull-down box Add a resource choose Compose a web page. In the name box, type: Term Paper. In the full text box, you can now type directions for the assignment.

It is possible to change the font size and color and also to upload images or insert a web link by using the buttons at the top of the box.

Add More Weeks/Topics

It is possible to add any number of weeks/topics to your course page. Under the Administration box, chose Settings. About half way down the page, you will see Number of Weeks/topics.

Change this number to your preferred number of weeks/topics and click the save changes button at the bottom of the page.

Helpful Links

Atomic Learning: http://www.atomiclearning.com/moodle_intro

http://www.atomiclearning.com/moodle_interm

Moodle Helpdocs: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Main_Page

Moodle Demo Course: http://moodle.org/login/index.php