Using Moodle

Last updated: 1/18/05

About Moodle. Moodle is an "open source" course management system (CMS), in the same niche as Blackboard. "Open source" means:

• Developed by a community of users
• Free to those who want to use it or modify it

Blackboard is an example of a proprietary CMS, which means:

• Developed and copyright by a private party, as a trade secret
• Pay for rights and upgrades

Currently (1/7/05) there are 2501 sites from 103 countries who have registered with the "Moodle mother ship" (there may be many others which have not registered).

Moodle at WSU is at http://techtools.culma.wayne.edu/moodle (CULMA = college of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs, which houses the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies (DIS), among other departments and programs. The Administrator of WSU Moodle is Bill Warters (w.warters@wayne.edu), who has been a lot of help to me in getting started.

Moodle-Speak

• Breadcrumbs. The trail of how you got to the screen you are looking at now. Breadcrumbs are very helpful. They are shown on the top green bar of every Moodle screen, except for the opening screen. Here is an example:
  
  Use breadcrumbs as follows:
  • General orientation as to where you are ("Weekly Report" in the figure) and where that is (the white bread crumbs).
  • The last white crumb ("Quizzes" in the figure) works like a "Cancel" button to get you out of where you are now
  • The first white crumb ("CULMA_Forums" in the figure) is the overall WSU Moodle home - the page you see when you go to the WSU Moodle URL above.
  • The second white crumb is the Moodle home page for the course you are in ("ISP_3360" in the picture above).

  You should use the breadcrumbs for moving around in Moodle, rather than the Back button on your Browser.

• Forum. A Moodle Forum is a discussion forum, elsewhere called a "computer conference." Each Forum participant can
  • Read messages arranged by topic.
  • In most Forums, reply to a message.
  • In many forums, start a new topic.
• Profile. Your profile contains:
  • Name
  • Email (and who can see it)
  • Yes / no automatically subscribe you to activities you post in
  • City and country (public within class)
  • Self-description
  • Picture
  • (for Instructor only) ID number, telephone numbers and street address
• Subscribe. Subscribing to an activity, such as  Forum, does not mean to join it. Subscribing means that you will get email whenever anything happens in that activity. You can subscribe by default, or forum by forum

After you read this, you will know

• The Instructor can become you (anyone) temporarily, to see how things work for students.
• Use "People" block to:
  • View public information about everyone
  • Edit your profile
• Use "Administration" block to:
  • View all activities (you control how far back to see)
  • Change your password
• You can upload a picture that will appear by all of your messages.
• As long as you leave your Browser running, you can leave and come back to Moodle without logging in again.

Times' Harvest courses (ISP 3360 and ISP 3340): Starting Moodle assignments:

I think these instructions will work well for you, but if you have trouble, CONTACT ME FOR HELP RIGHT AWAY! (Do not let your frustration build up. Phone will be better than email.) This may look like a lot to do, but most of it will go very quickly.

A. Start a web browser and go to http://techtools.culma.wayne.edu/moodle (there is also a link off of the course web site).

B. Scroll down to the very bottom of the screen and click on Login

C. Follow the directions on the right side side of the screen - the ones under "Is this your first time here?" That is, create a new account on Moodle. (When Moodle asks for your "Surname," that is your last or family name.)

D. When you get to step 3 of the instructions on the Moodle web site (reading your email from Moodle), the title of the email message will be "CULMA Open Learning Forums: account confirmation" and it will be from "Bill Warters."

E. When you get to Step 5 of the instructions on the Moodle web site, the course you want to enrol in will be listed as "Times' Harvest."

F. Trust me, you will need this: the enrolment key for this course is "interesting" (without the quotes).

AFTER THIS FIRST TIME, YOU WILL LOGIN ON THE LEFT SIDE UNDER "Returning to this web site?"

G. On the opening screen - it says "CULMA Open Learning Forums" in big letters up at the top - under "People", click on "Edit profile." You can set this as you wish, except I do require an address and TWO telephone numbers (which can be the same) down near the bottom. Phone 1 should be a daytime telephone number, and Phone 2 an evening telephone number.

ON EVERY SCREEN AFTER THE OPENING SCREEN, the "breadcrumbs" separated by ">>" on the top green bar are very important and very helpful for moving around, and are much better than the "Back" button. For example, clicking on the rightmost white breadcrumb works like a "Cancel" for whatever you are in at the time. The "ISP_3360" breadcrumb will always get you back to "Course Central" in Moodle, where there is a link back to the public web site for the course.

H. Under "10 January - 16 January" there are four Forums (online discussions) for the first four assigned messages to post in ISP 3360, and a fifth for the people in ISP 3340. Click on the blue text to respond in each of these during the first week. To post your reply, look for the blue "Reply" link in the lower right corner. For the "First responses" Forums, you need to have done SOME reading in that textbook, even if it is only five or so pages.

I. In the same block, there is also a Weekly Report to complete during the first week. Click on the blue text to complete your report.

J. In the same block, there is a "File Test." Prepare a word processing file The file should contain (a) your name, (b) the name of this assignment ("File Test"), (c) your email address and (d) the date of your file. Your file name should start with your three initials (use "_" if you do not have a middle initial). Then click on the blue File Test link and follow the directions to upload the file. Watch your email for my emailing the file back to you with something new added and a slightly new name, and finally email me to tell me what I added to your test file. This will test that we can read each other's computer files, an important part of this online class.