Learningware/Moodle Resources
Overview
Moodle is designed to help educators create online courses with opportunities for rich interaction. Its open source license and modular design mean that people can develop additional functionality. The UW School of Dentistry has been using Moodle for over 3 years now taking advantage of many features to help overcome some of the most basic obstacles in making information available to students, instructors, affiliates and constituents. There are more than 50 courses available with more being added each quarter.
How do I request a new course?
To request a new course please contact the SoD Webmaster, below
Ryan Irilli
Email: ryani@dental.washington.edu
Phone: 206.616.4802
Office: D221
How do students get access to my course?
This is perhaps the most widely asked question by administrators and instructors using Moodle. Fortunately the answer is quite simple and stress free. In short, the Administrator or Instructor needs to only provide 2 pieces of information:
- The link to the course
- The Enrollment key
Every course in Moodle is required to have an Enrollment Key. This is a one time only key that you will provide the students at the beginning of the quarter along with a link to your course.
Any course adminstrator has access to this key
From the course homepage you will notice an 'Administration' box located on the left hand side.
From there click: Settings >> Then scroll down to availability >> and check the box 'Unmask' to view the current Enrollment key.
With these pieces of information the Administrator/Instructor can simply email the classlist instructions to go to the course homepage link and enter the enrollment key when prompted. Students will either already have a moodle account or be directed to create one (which they can do manually).
Click here to see a template email for students
You can simply copy the below text and paste it into your email to the students, replacing all necessary fields with your specific information.
Email Template
University of Washington
School of Dentistry
Department of -----------
(Date)
TO: Class of 20XX, ------ Year Dental Students
FROM: Your name and title
RE: Your course name
In ____________ Quarter you will be taking the ---------- Course. This course is clinically oriented and....etc. All course information, including lectures, as well as assignments will be available on the course website at (Copy and paste the link to your course here)
In the website, you will find all the information you need such as, objectives, references and schedule.
You MUST sign up in advance for the course. To join this course you need the enrollment key. Please DO NOT share this key with anyone else for security purposes. The enrollment key is:
(Copy and paste your enrollment key here)
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.
Sincerely,
You!
Uploading files to your course?
This is one of the most useful and important features of Moodle and it is important for anyone managing an online course to understand.
In Moodle, you can upload practically any file within the 50mb filesize limit. These types of files could be PDFs, Powerpoints, Word, Excel or even video!
you can manage these files by clicking the 'Files' link located in the Administration box.
Click here to see a short video demonstrating how to upload and link to a file
Other resources regarding Uploading Files
Create a webpage vs. Uploading a file and what should I choose?
In many cases you will find that uploading a file is a very easy and intuitive way to share information. This is very true for documents such as Powerpoint presentations, Excel Files, and other types of information that is not likely to change throughout the quarter or subsequent offerings of the course.
There are however certain instances when this is not necissarily the best method. Take for instance a course schedule. usually this document contains dates, guest speakers, readings, and other pertinent information.
In this case, the suggestion is to spend the time putting this information in a webpage resource. You will notice when creating this resource you have similar functionality to word (tables, headings, lists, images and paragraphs).
The advantage to this is that it makes it much easier to update the information from quarter to quarter and year to year. You don't have to bother with the timely process of swapping old schedules with new ones and so forth. You can simply click 'Update this resource' and change any information right there in the page. Then hit the save button and preview your edits. This is a very simple way to manage information that will be changing frequently
