Technology & Instruction for UNEX

Moodle's blocks are a great feature. They allow you to customize the look and functionality of your course home page. There are also times when you may not want blocks on your course page. These step by step instructions (PDF) explain how to add, delete and move blocks in Moodle.

PDF file showing the layout of part of a typical Moodle course with various items labeled.

I've been using ScreenSteps 2.5 for all of my step by step instructions. It has a few more editing tools which make it even more useful. Now that I can add text to the screenshots, there is rarely a need to go outside of the program.  I was really surprised to learn that ScreenSteps is developed with Runtime Revolution , the HyperCard-like scripting language. It just shows how much you can do with a toolkit like that. Initially I thought ScreenSteps was not very Mac-like in terms of the interface, but those issues are really tied to what is available with Revolution.

This PDF file covers the steps involved in setting up a basic Moodle course.

Tracking is a feature in Moodle forums which will highlight unread forum messages so you can easily see what is new to you. You can turn tracking on and off for individual forums, but in order to use it, you must first turn it on in your profile. Instructors have the option of turning tracking on or off or making it optional for each forum they create in a course. This means if your instructor turns off tracking, you won't be able to track posts in a forum. The default setting is optional, so each student can decide whether or not to track posts. If you turn on tracking for a forum and you are also subscribed to that forum (receiving copies of posts via email), you will notice that posts you've been emailed will be marked as read once you return to the forum in Moodle. There is no communication between the email message and Moodle –– as long as you are sent the post via email, Moodle will mark it as read. If you aren't going to read forum posts via email, you may want to tu...

We have moved all of our Moodle instructional materials onto our Moodle site in a course accessible to any instructor or student with access to our site. The materials include short videos and PDF files. I'm making the PDF files available here to anyone who would like to use them. Some of the instructions may be specific to Moodle at UCR Extension, but most are general and will apply to any installation of Moodle 1.9x.

Christine Borgman's presentation from this week's EduCause conference is available online as a combination video and presentation recorded with Mediasite. The quality is impressive -- I can get just as much out of the presentation at my desk as I would have sitting in the auditorium. The title is the Future of Cyberlearning and it is based on the recent NSF report with the same name. Professor Borgman was the chair of the committee which produced the report. They present an exciting future for technology and learning, but I have two sons who are students in a school district that bans all electronic devices, so as enthusiastic as I am about the power of technology to enhance all aspects of learning, I'm a little skeptical about the impact it might make in schools. The same story has been told too many times already and despite lots of examples of success, there are too many examples of non-use.