Preparing your course site

1. Go to Administration > Settings
   1. The Category has been set by your Moodle administrator. Please do not change that.
   2. The Full name and Short name and is provided by the Moodle system administrator.
   3. You can use any ID number that you want. Use the same number as your school's Program of Studies or curriculum guide if you want to.
   4. In Summary, add a one-paragraph course description.
   5. In Format, decide whether you want to organize your course by week or by topic.
   6. In Number of weeks/topics, select the number that you want.
      
      Scroll down to the Availability section.
       
   7. Availability: If you want to work on your course before you want to make it available to your students, choose "This course is not available to students." When you want to make your course available, choose "This course is available to students."
   8. Enrollment key: The enrollment key is a password - anything you like. If you don't use an enrollment key, anyone on the Moodle server will be able to enroll in your course.
   9. Guest access: If you choose to allow guests into your course, they will have access to all course content and to the discussion board forums. However, they will not be able to post in the forums. This is a lot like having visitors in your regular classroom who are allowed to sit in the back but not participate in any discussions.
      
      Scroll down and click on Save changes. If you forget to do this, your changes will not take effect.
      
       
2. For additional features, click on Turn editing on in the upper right-hand corner of your course site or at the top of the list in Administration.
   1. A Blocks menu appears at the bottom of the right-hand column of your course site.
   2. Within Blocks, note that you can add several features to your course site.
   3. Add a Calendar to your site. Note that its top border includes several small icons.
      Experiment with the icons to see what is possible. Add other features from Blocks. Once you have decided on the appearance of your course site, Turn editing off. You can return to Turn editing on anytime you want to change the appearance of your course site.
   4. Note: Resist the temptation to make your site "too busy." Do not feel that you have to integrate all these features just because they are available. Simplicity is often the best approach for your students.

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Unique features of the News Forum: Unlike other forums, the News Forum is automatically added to the top block in the center section of your course site. Everyone in your class is automatically subscribed to the News forum. "Subscribed" means that every time you post a comment in this forum, everyone will automatically receive an email copy of your post. This is where you can make announcements that will reach everyone in you online classroom.

1. Open News Forum.
2. Add a new topic.
3. Enter the required information, scroll down and Post to forum. (You can do this later when your students are actually in your course site.)
4. Note the Turn editing on button in the upper right-hand corner of your course site. Click on it. Then note the small icons to the right of your News Forum. Click on the small eye. That will turn the News Forum title to light gray. That will make it invisible to your students, thereby preventing them from entering the News Forum. Remember - this feature is for general announcements only.
5. Finally, click on Turn editing off.

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Adding content to your course site: One of the most important documents in your course site is your syllabus. By now you have organized your course into Topics or Weeks. Each Topic/week has its own block for resources and activities. Note that the top block (what I call the zero block is not numbered. This is where you should place your syllabus and other introductory material.

1. Turn editing on. This will insert two pulldown menus in each block in your course site.
2. In the zero block, click on Add a resource > Link to a file or Web site.
3. Enter the Name, in this case "Syllabus." Leave the Summary blank or add a comment if you wish. I typically leave it blank.
4. Choose or upload a file.
5. Upload a file. (In this case you are working on the syllabus. However, you would use this same approach for other documents on your computer including images, audio and video files.)
6. Browse to your syllabus, click on it and Open.
7. Upload this file. This will place your syllabus into your Administration > Files area.
8. Choose.
9. Scroll down and Save changes.
   
   If you want to create a link to an external Web site instead of adding a file from your computer, follow steps 1-4 and then in step 5, insert the URL in Location. Then scroll down and Save changes. This is especially helpful when you want to add Web-based information as well as audio and video files that are hosted elsewhere.
10. Now that your syllabus is in the "zero block," you might also want to add some supplementary material - a podcast, a video, etc.
11. Use the small icons to the right of each item to change the order of items if you want to by using the small up-down arrows.
12. Note the small icon in the upper left-hand corner of your zero block. Click on it. Then enter a title, an introductory paragraph, or any other information that you want your students to have.
13. Turn editing off. Your zero block is now complete except for an introductory forum (see below). However, you can retrace these steps anytime you want to modify the zero block.
14. You can use these same steps to add content to the numbered blocks in your course site - Module 1, Module 2, etc. or Week 1, Week 2, etc.

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Adding a discussion forum: It is important to add a forum to your zero block so students can introduce themselves and ask questions about your course.

1. Turn editing on. This will insert two pulldown menus in each block in your course site.
2. In the zero block, Add an activity > Forum.
3. Enter a Forum name and a Forum introduction. In the introduction, emphasize the importance of establishing an online learning community.
4. Remove the checkmark from Allow posts to be rated. (We will deal with rating posts later.)
5. Save changes.
6. Use the small icons to the right of each item to change the order of items if you want to by using the small up-down arrows.
7. Your zero block is now complete.
8. You can use these same steps to add discussion forums to the numbered blocks in your course site - Module 1, Module 2, etc. or Week 1, Week 2, etc.

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Adding students to your course site: You can add students to your course site IF they have an account on our Moodle server. There are two ways through which your students can have an account. The first is for you to tell them to go to the site and create their own account. You can process this in a computer lab with them if you wish. The second approach is for you to send me a list that I can upload directly into Moodle. This takes a little time but usually works out MUCH better.

1. Download the form. Complete the form exactly as demonstrated in the first row. Leave that first row intact. Begin with the second row. All usernames must include lower case letters ONLY - no caps. Don't forget the commas and spaces. Each student needs a unique email address. Press ENTER at the end of each row to add another student. Save the completed for and email it to romeo@romeomarquis.com. Once I have uploaded the form into Moodle to create the new accounts, you can add them to your course site as follows:
2. From your course site, go to Administration > Assign Roles > Student and then move the appropriate names from Potential Users to Existing Users (right to left).

Removing students: From your course site, go to Administration > Assign Roles > Student and then select and move the name(s) from left to right.

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Editing a profile: All users (teachers and students) can edit their profile as follows:

1. Login to Moodle.
2. In the upper right-hand of the corner of the page you see You are logged in as xxxxxxxx (Logout).
3. Click on your name to edit your profile.

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Resetting your course site for a new group of students: Once you have completed the course with a group of students, you can reset it for a new group without losing any of your course content or discussion forums.

1. Be sure that your current students will no longer need access to the course site.
2. From your course site, click on Administration > Reset.
3. Leave all items as they are (default settings).
4. Click on Reset course.
5. When the next page opens, scroll to the bottom and click on Continue. You will then be taken back to your course site with all content and forums intact but with all student data removed.

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Using the Groups tool: Using student groups online can be far more effective than in a face-to-face environment because you can evaluate each member's contributions in addition to the contributions of each group. Written transcripts are produced as the groups get their work done. This is especially helpful within a forum.
Important! You must establish your groups before you create the forum. Here are the steps:

1. Go to Administration > Groups and click on Create group.
2. Give your group a name and a description. Leave the other areas blank. Scroll down and click on Create group.
3. Once you've added the members to the group, click on Create group to create your second group.
4. Repeat this process until you have created all the groups you need. Then return to your course site.
5. To create a forum that will include your groups, Turn editing on, select Add an activity and then select Forum.
6. Give your forum a name and a description.
7. Scroll down to Common module settings and choose Separate groups. Set Visible to Show.
8. Click on Save changes. You do NOT have to create a separate forum for each group. Moodle will do that automatically for you. Poof! Magic!
   
   Each group will now have its own private forum. Each group can see only their own work. They can't see the work of other groups. If you DO want groups to see the work of other groups, select Visible groups instead of Separate groups in Step 7.
   
   To review and or participate in any or all groups as the instructor, first enter the forum. In the upper left-hand corner of the page just below the blue border you can use the menu to go to any group you choose.

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