Distance Ed - Moodle Support - FAQS and How To's for Faculty.

Dates for ONLINE courses
Basic WCC Online Instruction Best Practices
All instructors must use the WCC Online Course Template
Making a course Available/Unavailable to students
Comparing Rosters (Moodle vs Webadvisor)
Dropping Students
Steps for dropping a student
Last Day of Attendance (How to obtain a student's last day of attendance in Moodle)
Removing a student from a course
Adding a student to a course
Student initiated drops
Student Attendance
Verifying the entry date for Online courses
Verifying the entry date for Hybrid courses
Importing content from another course
How to back up a Moodle course
Students can not post to the Discussion boards
 WCC Standards Checklist for Online/Hybrid Classes
Distance Education Department Contact Information

Dates for ONLINE courses

Spring 2013
 Please make sure you adhere to these dates.

Start Dates:
16 WK & Spring I (Campus & SJAFB) = 7:00 a.m., January 7
Spring II (Campus & SJAFB) = 7:00 a.m., March 6

10% point:
16 WK = January 16
Spring I (Campus & SJAFB) = January 10
Spring II (Campus & SJAFB) = March 11

Midterms:
16 WK = February 28

Final Grades:
Spring I (Campus & SJAFB) = TBA
Must be keyed into Campus Cruiser by 9:00 a.m.
16 WK & Spring II = May 9
Must be keyed into Campus Cruiser by 9:00 a.m

For additional dates please refere to the WCC Student Handbook or Course Schedule

 

Basic WCC Online Instruction Best Practices

Instructor Communication Guidelines - Please inform students what they should expect for communication/e-mail repsonse timeframe. Responding within 24 - 48 hours is advised, M-F is recommended.

Post assignment grades in a timely manner, preferably within one week of due date.

 

All instructors must use the WCC Online Course Template

Topic 0 must include the following:

  1. A Welcome Message
  2. The "Enrollment Verification Quiz"
  3. An Ice Breaker assignment
  4. A “how to” on accessing Campus Cruiser
  5. A syllbus, adhering to the WCC syllabus template.
    In addition, remove any other items or content if they will not be used for the course.

 

Making a course Available/Unavailable to students

All courses are to set to Unavailable, on the first day of class Online and Hybrid courses will be made available. For Supplemental courses nstructors must make them available when they are ready for students to view them.

Instructions to follow:

  1. Log in to Moodle and navigate to your course
  2. From your Administration block, click on Settings
  3. Under the Availability section, click on the pull-down menu and select "This course is available to students"
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click 'Save changes'

 

Comparing Rosters (Moodle vs Webadvisor)

Instructors should compare their Moodle rosters to their official Webadvisor roster on a daily basis to ensure the correct students are in their course(s). Instructors should adjust their Moodle roster accordingly. (see dropping and adding students sections below). It is very important to regularly compare your Moodle roster to your “official” roster in WCC-Webadvisor. If a student is on your WCC-Webadvisor roster they are enrolled in your course. If they are not listed on your WCC-Webadvisor roster then they are NOT enrolled in your course.

Note: if a student is NOT on your official 10% roster they can be removed from Moodle without any further documentation.

To view your Official WebAdvisor Roster:

To view your roster in Moodle:
  1. Log in to Campus Cruiser
  2. Click WCC-Webadvisor
  3. Class Roster
  4. Select the term, class etc..This is the official and most current roster.
  1. Go into your Moodle Course.
  2. Click on the Assign Roles link in the Administration menu on the left.
  3. Click on Student in the list of roles.
  4. Alternatively you can click Grades to view a list of your students.

 

Dropping Students

It is very important these steps are followed when dropping or adding a student in a Moodle course.

Steps for dropping a student:

  1. Obtain the students LDA (last day of attendance)
  2. Officially drop (Datatel) the student out of your course, if the student has not already dropped
  3. Add the student to the dropped students list (Refer to the "Dropping or Adding a Student" page in your Moole course located at the bottome of Topic 0)
  4. Remove the student from the course
    Note: for Supplemental courses within Moodle, only steps 2 and 4 need to be completed.

Last Day of Attendance (How to obtain a student's last day of attendance in Moodle):

  1. Click "Reports" in the "Administration" block.
  2. Select your student by clicking the "All participants" drop down box
  3. Change the current date to "All days"
  4. Click "Get these logs"
  5. The date at the top of the list indicates the student's "last day of attendance"

Removing a student from a course:

  1. Click "Assign roles" in the Administration block
  2. Click "Student"
  3. Find the student you wish to remove
  4. Select the student in the left hand column by clicking on their name
  5. Click the "Remove" button
    Notes:
    If a student is accidentally removed all of their information will be retained once they are added back into the course.
    If a student is NOT on your official 10% roster they can be removed from Moodle without any further documentation.

Adding a student to a course:

  1. Click "Assign roles" in the Administration block
  2. Click "Student"
  3. Type the students name in the search box
  4. Select the student by clicking on their name
  5. Click the "Add" button
    Note: students must be officially enrolled in a course before you add them

 

Student initiated drops

If a student wishes to drop a course, it is their responsibility to contact the instructor to discuss the issue. The instructor should determine the reasons the student desires to drop and offer any resources available to assist the student in completing the course. If the conclusion is that the student should drop, the instructor should complete the appropriate form, including the last date of class attendance, or complete the drop process using Datatel. If the instructor is not available in person or by email or phone, the student should contact the department chair or departmental secretary to communicate this information to the instructor.

If the instructor needs to terminate the student due to excessive absences, he/she should make efforts to contact the student to discuss the circumstances. The instructor should then initiate the termination process through Datatel.

Part-time faculty members who do not have Datatel access should work with the department chair or departmental secretary to have drops/terminations processed through Datatel.

The ultimate responsibility for dropping students and terminating students falls to the assigned instructor for the course.

 

Student Attendance

Students must log in and complete their enrollment verification quiz, Icebreaker or first activity by the 10% point.

Lack of participation (student has not logged on within two weeks) and failure to make academic progress (student is not completing assignments) results in a student termination. This must be completed at the end of two weeks of inactivity! Do not wait until the end of the term. Please be prompt with terminations.

 

Verifying the entry date for Online courses

Students MUST complete either the "Enrollment Verification Quiz" or "IceBreaker Assignment" or other activity quiz prior to the 10% if they wish to stay in the course. If they do not complete one or the other, they MUST be immediately dropped as never attended and removed from the Moodle course even if they logged into the course.

Option 1 (Start here): Print the "Enrollment Verification Quiz" results.

Directions: http://www.waynecc.edu/distance-ed/uploads/Moodle-How-To-Print-Enrollment-Verification.pdf

Use the attempt date as the student’s entry date. Circle each attempt used and place an “E” under this date to show the student’s date of entry into the course on the 10% form.

If a student did not complete the "Enrollment Verification Quiz" go to option 2.

Option 2: Print the "IceBreaker Assignment" discussion posts.

Directions: http://www.waynecc.edu/distance-ed/uploads/Moodle-How-To-Print-IceBreaker-Assignment.pdf

Use their initial post as their entry date. Circle one post date for each student who did not complete the Enrollment Verification Quiz. Place an “E” under this date on the 10% form to show the student’s date of entry into the course on the 10% form.

If a student did not complete the "Enrollment Verification Quiz" or "IceBreaker Assignment" go to option 3.

Option 3: Look for any other activity the student may have completed (Ex: Module 1 Quiz, Module 1 Discussion etc..). Print and circle the submission/post date. Use this as their entry date on the 10% form.

Please note if a student did NOT complete either the "Enrollment Verification Quiz" or "IceBreaker Assignment" or another activity prior to the 10% they must be immediately dropped as a never attend and removed from the Moodle course.

For more information on dropping students please refer to the WCC Distance Ed Faculty Support page.

http://www.waynecc.edu/distance-ed/moodle-support/

Bottom line: the entry dates put on the 10% roster must match the date the student either completed the "Enrollment Verification Quiz" (Preferred) or "IceBreaker Assignment" or another activity. Attach the printed documentation to the 10% roster.

Special Note: If a student was given special permission to stay even though they did not do anything prior to the 10%, documentation should be turned in with the 10% roster indicating why their initial entry date was after the 10%. Example: an email from a Division Chair or Vice President.


Verifying the entry date for Hybrid courses

Students MUST either physically enter the class or complete the "Enrollment Verification Quiz" or "IceBreaker Assignment" or other activity quiz prior to the 10% if they wish to stay in the course. If they do not complete one or the other, they MUST be dropped as never attended even if they logged into the Moodle course.

The entry date should be whichever the student did FIRST (physically enter the class or complete something in Moodle).

Option 1: Use the first day a student physically entered the class.

Option 2: Print the "Enrollment Verification Quiz" results.

Directions: http://www.waynecc.edu/distance-ed/uploads/Moodle-How-To-Print-Enrollment-Verification.pdf

Use the attempt date as the student’s entry date. Circle each attempt used and place an “E” under this date to show the student’s date of entry into the course on the 10% form.

Option 3: Print the "IceBreaker Assignment" submissions.

Directions: http://www.waynecc.edu/distance-ed/uploads/Moodle-How-To-Print-IceBreaker-Assignment.pdf

Use their initial post as their entry date. Circle one post date for each student who did not complete the Enrollment Verification Quiz. Place an “E” under this date on the 10% form to show the student’s date of entry into the course on the 10% form.

Option 4: Look for any other activity the student may have completed (Ex: Module 1 Quiz, Module 1 Discussion etc..). Print and circle the submission/post date. Use this as their entry date on the 10% form.

Please note if a student did NOT physically enter the classroom or complete either the "Enrollment Verification Quiz" or "IceBreaker Assignment" or other activity prior to the 10% they must be immediately dropped as a never attend and removed from the Moodle course.

For more information on dropping students please refer to the WCC Distance Ed Faculty Support page.

http://www.waynecc.edu/distance-ed/moodle-support/

Bottom line: the entry dates put on the 10% roster must be the date the student either physically entered the class or match the date they completed the "Enrollment Verification Quiz" (Preferred) or "IceBreaker Assignment" or another activity (Use whichever occurred first).

Course Hours Distribution: The number of hours the Hybrid class meets face to face must be written on the top of the 10% roster along with the number of hours the student is required to work online. For example, for a 3 credit hour lecture course, the face to face portion may meet 2 hours per week (2x16 = 32 hrs) or 32 hours for the semester and 1 hour (1x16 =16hrs) or 16 hours per semester online. You would write 32 hours face to face 16 hours online at the top in the middle of the page of the 10% roster.

Special Note: If a student was given special permission to stay even though they did not do anything prior to the 10%, documentation should be turned in with the 10% roster indicating why their initial entry date was after the 10%. Example: an email from a Division Chair or Vice President.

If you have Moodle questions or experience difficulties accessing the data in Moodle please contact the Distance Education office for further assistance.

 

Importing content from another course

Each semester you will be given a new shell for each one of your courses (created from the "WCC Master Template"). Once the templates are setup you should:

  1. Make sure all of your Summer courses show up when you login to Moodle.
  2. Make sure they are named with the correct section numbers.
  3. Import content from your previous course, if you have not already done so.

If a course is missing or it isn't named correctly please let Randall Shearon shearon@waynecc.edu 919-739-7029 know ASAP.

Note: if you had "categories" set up in your gradebook they will not be moved over into the new course. All of the "items" remain but the "categories" are removed. Once you complete your import you will need to re-add your categories.

Please view the gradebook tutorial below for additional assistance.

http://www.oit.umass.edu/support/moodle/arrange-customize-grade-book-moodle

The Enrollment Verification Quiz MUST remain in all Online and Hybrid courses.

Please watch the following video and/or click here for directions.

http://wayneccfaculty.com/est/moodle/tutorials/importing/importing.html

To see your semester (ex Fall 2012) courses scroll to the bottom of your main Moodle page. The semester category will not show on the left because the courses are set to "unavailable."

There may be special circumstances that will require additional assistance. If any of these pertain to you please let Randall Shearon shearon@waynecc.edu 919-739-7029 know:

  • You did not teach the previous course and can't access it.
  • You need additional instructors added to a course (ex Nursing dept)
  • You wish to combine course sections.
  • A full time instructor develops a course for an adjunct to use

 

How to back up a Moodle course?

Here is a link to a video demonstrating how to backup a Moodle course. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xDE__DKOFs

Don't forget we need your help cleaning up the Moodle server so we can be more efficinet with server space. Do you have any sandbox or duplicate courses (with no students data) you no longer need? If so please email me the course name and I will delete it. Note: we can not delete ONLINE or HYBRID courses that contain student data. They must stay in the system for auditing purposes.

Download and/or remove any course backups you have sitting in your course (including previous semesters). These files are located in the Files - Backup folder. You can access the backup files by clicking the "Files" link under "Administration" then click on the "backupdata" folder. We encourage you to make personal backups of your course(s) but these backups should not be stored within the course. We have found some courses that have over 5GB worth of backups sitting in there, which eventually hurts or server efficiency.

NOTE: Our site automatically backs up each course twice a week, overwriting the previous back up. In case of an emergency, we can easily download and restore one of these backups onto our site.

 

Students can not post to the Discussion boards?

Your students can not post to the discussion boards in Moodle when discussion assignments are set to "visible groups" instead of "no groups."

To determine if an assignment is set to "visible groups," turn editing on and look to the right of the assignment title. If the little green person is split in two then it is in group mode. Simply click it until it becomes a single person.

To prevent this from happening with future assignments you create, click "setting" under "Administration" scroll down until you see "Group mode" make sure it says "No Groups" click "Save Changes."

 

Distance Education Department Contact Information

Location: Wayne Learning Center 306
Hours: M-Th 7:45AM - 5:30PM / Fr 8AM-1PM

Randall Shearon
Coordinator of Distance Education
919-739-7029
shearon@waynecc.edu

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