Backing Up Course Grades

Moodle makes it extremely easy to keep grades for each of your courses.  However, as with any online system, accidents do happen.  That's why it is EXTREMELY important to back up your course grades weekly.

Moodle allows you to backup in many formats.  The demonstration below backs up to an Excel format.  Click play to check it out:




If there is a topic you'd like to see, or if you have any questions, let me know!

Merry Moodlin'!

Sharing PowerPoint Presentations in Moodle Courses

Instructors use PowerPoint presentations to convey important information to students.  However, posting them in Moodle can pose a problem.  PowerPoint presentations do not natively run from Moodle.  Students have to download them, and open them on their own computer.  This could be problematic if the student does not have Microsoft Office.

This problem is easily solved by using Google Docs.  PowerPoint presentations can be uploaded and converted in Google Docs and run from there.  By setting the share settings, presentations can be viewed online from any device.  Check out the steps below:





If there is a topic you'd like to see, or if you have any questions, let me know!

Merry Moodlin'!

Adding Files to Your Moodle Course

Adding files to Moodle allows instructors to share important resources with students.  While PDF & Word documents are the most common file formats shared with students, any file format can be uploaded and added to the course content area.

Click the play button below to find out how:



If there is a topic you'd like to see, or if you have any questions, let me know!

Merry Moodlin'!

Adding Images to Your Course

Images are most commonly used to make courses visually appealing to the student.  For some courses, they are also an important aspect of learning.

Images can be added to your weekly/topic module summaries located at the top of each module.  They can also be added to labels or in the descriptions of assignments, discussions and quizzes.  To add images to your course, see the steps below:



If there is a topic you'd like to see, or if you have any questions, let me know!

Merry Moodlin'!

Changing The Timezone (And Why You Should!)

Occasionally I get calls/emails/texts from faculty asking about an interesting situation with students.  A faculty member would create an assignment or quiz with a specific due date, and the students would contact them because they are unable to submit their assignments.  From the faculty member's perspective, the assignment is late; but, the student would swear they were right on time.  The culprit?  Mismatched timezones.

The Moodle system is designed to allow each user to customize his or her environment.  This includes the timezone in which they reside.  If this is not set according to users' (both faculty and students) locations, time sensitive activities will not sync properly.

Fortunately, it is an easy fix.  Check out the demo below:

If there is a topic you'd like to see, or if you have any questions, let me know!

Merry Moodlin'!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Moodle Mania Tips & Tricks blog.  This blog will feature useful tips on how to use different elements in your Moodle courses.  I will be posting "How-To" type videos as well as instructional handouts.   At this time, the demonstrations will be using Moodle 1.9, however I will be switching the focus to Moodle 2 later this year.

Please feel free to subscribe to this blog and share as much as you care to share.  Also, if you feel I am not covering a specific topic you'd like to see, or have any questions, please let me know!

Merry Moodlin'!