Table of contents

There are about 20 different types of customisable activities available (forums, glossaries, wikis, assignments, quizzes, choices (polls), databases etc). There are a number of other tools that make it easier to build communities of learners, including blogs, messaging, participant lists etc, as well as useful tools like grading and reports.

You can log in using your Aalto account. Moodle also supports non-Aalto accounts.

Our Moodle is version 2.6, see the new features here.

For more about Moodle, see moodle.org.
The other great place to start is Moodle.org's online documentation.

Support: vipu(at)aalto.fi

Suomenkieliset ohjeet opettajille

Moodle video tutorials by Vipu

Moodle video tutorials (English)

Panu Erästö´s wiki: Tutoriaali Moodlen sähköisiin harjoituksiin/ Tutorial for Moodle's electronic exercises

Logging in

Go to moodle.aalto.fi

"Log in" -link is in the upper right corner. Step-by-step instructions here.

Instructions for non-Aalto account creation.

What is a workspace and how do I get one

Workspace is the course's homepage where virtual activities happen. This could include anything from sharing lecture presentations to peer reviewing assignments.

You can request one for your course from the My Moodle page after logging in. Service / Help > Workspace request / Työtilan tilaus

You will receive an email with a link to your workspace and the student registration key.

Moodle's layout

Moodle consists of 3 columns. Here's a screenshot of a typical workspace view.

1^st column is for navigation and administration

2^nd column is for the content

3^rd column is for automatically created content, listing deadlines and course activity

After you have received your workspace

Your workspace will be empty and you have a teacher-role which allows you to start building the workspace to your liking. Click the "Turn editing on" button on the top right corner to start.

In editing mode you can start adding activities and resources. To see the workspace nearly as a student would, click

Adding students and teachers to your workspace

You were given the enrolment key with which students can join the workspace.

Teachers and students can be added manually in Course administration > Enrolled users > Enrol users

Select the teacher role from the drop-down menu and search using surnames.

Moodle activities

An activity in Moodle is a feature where students learn by interacting with each other or with their teacher. They might for instance contribute in a forum, upload an assignment, answer questions in a quiz or collaborate together in a wiki. Activities can be graded.

Assignments

Enable teachers to grade and give comments on uploaded files and assignments created on and off line

Chat
Allows participants to have a real-time synchronous discussion

Choice
A teacher asks a question and specifies a choice of multiple responses

Database
Enables participants to create, maintain and search a bank of record entries

External tool
Allows participants to interact with LTI compliant learning resources and activities on other web sites.

Feedback
For creating and conducting surveys to collect feedback

Forum
Allows participants to have asynchronous discussions

Glossary
Enables participants to create and maintain a list of definitions, like a dictionary

Lesson
For delivering content in flexible ways

Quiz
Allows the teacher to design and set quiz tests, which may be automatically marked and feedback and/or to correct answers shown

SCORM
Enables SCORM packages to be included as course content

Survey
For gathering data from students to help teachers learn about their class and reflect on their own teaching

Turnitin
Turnitin is a submission box with the following features: originality check report, feedback tools for effective commenting on document (e.g. drag and drop phrases). This activity is enabled by request: turnitin@aalto.fi
More about Turnitin usage in Aalto: Turnitin Checklist for Teachers https://wiki.aalto.fi/x/_KNkBQ

Wiki
A collection of web pages that anyone can add to or edit

Workshop
Enables peer assessment

Resources

A resource is an item that a teacher can use to support learning, such as a file or link. Moodle supports a range of resource types which teachers can add to their courses. In edit mode, a teacher can add resources via the 'Add an activity or resource' link. Resources appear as a single link with an icon in front of it that represents the type of resource.

Book
Multi-page resources with a book-like format. Teachers can export their Books as IMS CP (admin must allow teacher role to export IMS)

File
A picture, a pdf document, a spreadsheet, a sound file, a video file

Folder
For helping organize files and one folder may contain other folders

IMS content package
Add static material from other sources in the standard IMS content package format

Label
Can be a few displayed words or an image used to separate resources and activities in a topic section, or can be a lengthy description or instructions

Page
The student sees a single, scrollable screen that a teacher creates with the robust HTML editor

URL
You can send the student to any place they can reach on their web browser, for example Wikipedia

Using the sections, structure and layout

When your course workspace grows, it sometimes gets very long to navigate. To keep things more manageable you can clean things up using folders to collect similar materials in one place. Using different workspace layouts will focus students' view to current themes.

Groups

Groups
On the course level can you assign a user to one (or more) groups. In a course you can assign a context(activity) to a group. When members of the group leave the course, they lose their identity with the group.

There are three group modes

• No groups - There are no sub groups, everyone is part of one big community
• Separate groups - Each group can only see their own group, others are invisible.
• Visible groups - Each group works in their own group, but can also see other groups. (The other groups' work is read-only.)

How to create groups and populate them?

1. Click the 'Create group' button in Administration> Course administration > Users > Groups
2. Add a group name and optional description (displayed above the list of group members on the participants page), enrolment key and picture (displayed on the participants page and next to forum posts)
3. Click the 'Save changes' button
4. Select the group to which you want to add participants, then click the 'Add/remove users button
5. In the "Potential members" list, select the users you want to add to the group. Multiple users may be selected using the Crtl key.
6. Click the Add button to add the users to the group

Groupings
A collection of groups. If you had 10 groups, you could combine or mix and match the smaller groups into 2 or more groupings. You can assign a grouping to a context like an assignment.

Note that Moodle also enables peer review and group peer review. This can be done e.g. in workshop- or forum-activities.

Grading, feedback and gradebook

Every Moodle-activity can be graded with feedback text or a file. Every graded activity is automatically collected into the gradebook. This is a powerful tool to see an overview of your students.

Possible progression of a Moodle user

1. Putting up the handouts (Resources)
2. Providing a passive Forum (unfacilitated)
3. Using Quizzes and Assignments (less management)
4. Using the Wiki, Glossary and Database tools (interactive content)
5. Facilitate discussions in Forums, asking questions, guiding
6. Combining activities into sequences, where results feed later activities
7. Introduce external activities and games (internet resources)
8. Using the Survey module to study and reflect on course activity
9. Using peer-review modules like Workshop, giving students more control over grading and even structuring the course in some ways
10. Conducting active research on oneself, sharing ideas in a community of peers