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Moodle

Moodle: Instructor FAQs

Q. How do I control grade visibility?

A. If you are using the grade book in Moodle and your students report that they can’t see their grades, it is frequently because one or all of your grades are hidden. To fix this, go to the grade book select “Full View” from the drop down menu in the upper left hand corner of the grade book. From this page, you can hide or unhide grades by clicking on the closed eye to unhide a grade item, category, or all the course grades.

Using Moodle Gradebook (PDF Guide)

Q. What are separate groups and visible groups?

A. Separate groups will make material posted by one group invisible to other groups, while visible groups makes material posted by any group visible to the other groups. You can toggle this setting on and off at anytime for an activity or resource. You can change this setting by editing any item, or there is an icon with little people on it, it is next to each item in your course. Clicking on this icon will toggle the setting from no groups, visible groups, or separate groups.

Letting Student View Group Members (PDF Guide)

Q. What are Groups and Groupings?

A. Groups and Groupings control access and/or visibility of communications tools like discussion forums or your course materials. Groups are collections of students, while groupings are groups of groups. You can create groups and/or groupings by clicking on the group menu item on the left hand navigation menu of your course. Once you are on this page, you can create groups and/or assign students to groups. There is a tab at the top of this page to manage groupings, which is where you can create groupings and assign groups to those groupings.

Creating Groups (Video)

Other Group-Related Material:

Using Groups With Forums (Video)

Working with Multiple Groups (Video)

Q. How do I remove an activity or resource from the view of a specific student or group of students?

A. When you are creating an activity or resource there is an option to remove that item from the view of students that are not part of a group that should have access to that item. You can use a combination of groups and/or groupings to create the desired outcome of using this setting. For example, if you have students that need extra time for a quiz, you can create a quiz that has extra time and then check this option for that quiz. You will then need to create a single group that has these students in it, so that they can access the quiz. However, if you are already using groups in the class for some other purpose, you will need to create a grouping and assign the quiz to the grouping that contains a group with these students. To make sure that students don’t see two quizzes, you will need to have groupings that are assigned to the regular or extended time quiz appropriately.

Editing Blocks, Resources and Activities (Video)

Resources and Activities (Video)

Using groups to control access to Resources or Activities (PDF Guide)

Q. Why do students see the correct or incorrect marks for a quiz, immediately after it has been taken?

A. If you have a quiz with multiple attempts enabled, responses available immediately after the quiz, and have each attempt build on the last, it will show them correct or incorrect marks when they view their attempt. To prevent this from happening, turn off the option for each quiz attempt to build on the last.

Q. How do I control the frequency of emails from Moodle?

A. In your profile you can set the option for E-mail Digest Type to send you a daily summary of subjects or entire posts.

E-mail Digest Type Guide (PDF guide)

Q. How do I set Moodle to notify me of unread forum posts?

A. You can turn the option for Forum Tracking on in your user profile. This will display the number of unread posts in each forum thread.

Email Digest Type - Faculty - Track Posts (PDF Guide)

Q. How do I transfer a course from one semester to the next?

You can create a course backup, download it, upload it, and then restore it to the new course, or you can simply go to the new blank section of your course and then click on the import button that is located on the left navigation menu. Once you click the import button a page will appear that has a drop down menu that lists courses you have taught using Moodle. Using that drop down menu, select the course to import from and then click the Use this Course button. You will then need to select all or parts of the course to import. Once you have confirmed what you are importing, press the continue button and then press it on the next page to finish the process.

How to Set Up a Course Backup (Video)

Q. How do I see my course like my students will see it?

A. Next to the Turn Editing On/Off toggle button at the top of your course there is a drop down menu that will allow you to switch your role to student. Once in the student role, your course will appear, as it will for students. You will be able to view it as a student, except you will not be able to submit homework or take quizzes that are graded.

Q. How can I change the size of text when I am editing a label or item description within Moodle?

A. You can change the size of text by highlighting the text in areas that the WYSIWYG editor appears and then changing the heading style. The heading style control for the WYSIWYG editor is a drop down menu located on the left hand side of the editor.

Q. How can I prevent text pasted from MS Word from displaying Microsoft formatting information?

You can use the Safari web browser that doesn’t support the WYSIWYG editor, or you can turn off the WYSIWYG editor by clicking the <> button on the right hand side of the editor to switch to HTML source before pasting.

Q. Why don’t I see the WYSIWYG editor when editing an item in Moodle?

A. Safari and Google Chrome do not support the WYSIWYG editor, if you are using a Mac you can download the Firefox web browser, which does.