changes & new features in the vle (sep 2016)€¦ · staff and students can easily distinguish...

Changes & New Features

in the VLE

Sep 2016

GUIDE v1.0

User Services

IT Services

User Services

IT Services

University of Malta

Msida MSD 2080

Malta

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.um.edu.mt/itservices/vle

Tel: +356 2340 4113

Last Updated: 02 September 2016

‘Changes & New Features in the VLE (Sep

2016)’ is licensed under the Creative

Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-

ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view

a copy of this license, visit

http://goo.gl/R8rwUW.

Table of Contents

The VLE ___________________________________________________________________ 1

Single VLE Instance _______________________________________________________ 1

Menu Bar _______________________________________________________________ 1

New Mobile-Friendly Theme _________________________________________________ 2

Dashboard ______________________________________________________________ 3

My VLE Areas Block _______________________________________________________ 3

Search _________________________________________________________________ 5

Sandbox Areas ___________________________________________________________ 5

User Preferences _________________________________________________________ 6

User Profile _____________________________________________________________ 6

Course Management _________________________________________________________ 8

Improved Section Organisation ______________________________________________ 8

Section Renaming _______________________________________________________ 8

New Menu for Editing Sections _____________________________________________ 8

Delete Section in VLE Area ________________________________________________ 8

Recycle Bin _____________________________________________________________ 9

Easily Add a Participant to Multiple Groups ____________________________________ 10

Collapsed Topics Format __________________________________________________ 10

Activities _________________________________________________________________ 12

Forums ________________________________________________________________ 12

Easily Post to All Groups in a Forum ________________________________________ 12

Pinned Forum Discussions _______________________________________________ 12

Easily Link to Forum Posts _______________________________________________ 13

Assignment ____________________________________________________________ 14

Enhanced Assignment Grading ____________________________________________ 14

Download Selected Assignments __________________________________________ 16

Quizzes _______________________________________________________________ 16

Section Headings ______________________________________________________ 16

Randomising the Order Questions Appear ___________________________________ 16

New Question Types ____________________________________________________ 16

Changes & New Features in the VLE (Sep 2016) v1.0

‘Changes & New Features in the VLE (Sep 2016)‘ is licensed under the Creative Commons

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit


IT Services, University of Malta

www.um.edu.mt/itservices 1

The VLE

Single VLE Instance

As of October 2016, all the study-unit areas of different academic years (starting from 2015/16)

will be available within one single UM VLE.

Thus, upon accessing the UM VLE, staff and students should expect to find the following:

study-unit / class areas that they were registered to during 2015/16

study-unit /class areas that they are being registered to during 2016/17

eventually study-unit / class areas that they will be registered to during 2017/18,

2018/19, etc

PG dissertation areas (available to dissertation students, supervisors and examiners only)

sandbox areas (available to academic staff only).

Tutors are still required to use the VLE Copy Tool to copy study material from past study-

unit areas to 2016/17 study-unit areas.

The benefits of having study-unit / class areas from different academic years in the same VLE

include:

Staff and students will not need to switch to a different VLE site to access material from

previous academic years

Staff and student VLE profile details, including descriptions and profile images, will be

retained

Turnitin activities in UM VLE will also be replicated when copying material from 2015/16 study-unit areas to 2016/17 study-unit areas using the VLE Copy Tool.

Menu Bar

A new menu bar has been added to the VLE. This menu provides easy access to a number of

webpages such as VLE Support, Plagiarism Detection, and Archives & Other VLEs.

Note:

Staff and students can easily distinguish between VLE areas of different academic

years by making use of category filters, via the My VLE Areas block.

The single VLE instance will be implemented for the 2015/16 VLE areas onwards.

Archived VLEs for 2014/15, 2013/14, etc. will remain accessible from the ‘Archives &Other VLEs’ page.






www.um.edu.mt/itservices

2

New Mobile-Friendly Theme

The mobile-friendly theme allows the VLE to automatically resize appropriately according to the

device you are using, be it a tablet, smartphone, laptop or desktop computer. Thus, this theme

provides an improved user experience.

Figure 1 Laptop or desktop computer layout

Figure 2 Mobile layout







3

Dashboard

The Dashboard, formerly known as My Home, is the default page which you are directed to

upon accessing the VLE. The Dashboard provides you with links to your VLE areas and activities

within them, such as unread forum posts, and assignment activities that still need grading. A

new Search feature is available to help you easily locate VLE content. A number of side blocks

are also available.

My VLE Areas Block

Upon accessing the VLE, the My VLE Areas block displays all the VLE areas you are enrolled to.






www.um.edu.mt/itservices 4

For easier navigation, you can now choose which category to display from the Category

dropdown menu. As a tutor, you have access to the following categories:

upcoming academic year, UM 2016/17 or JC 2016/17

past academic year, UM 2015/16 or JC 2015/16

UM Sandbox or JC Sandbox

PG Dissertations (UM supervisors and/or examiners).

Upon choosing the required category, only the respective VLE areas are displayed.

Note:

The category selected is preserved between sessions. Thus, if you choose the UM 2016/17 category, it will be displayed the next time you sign in again.

If no results are displayed for a particular category, select any other category fromthe dropdown menu, e.g. All. You may then re-select the required category.







5

Search

Search is a new feature that helps you to easily locate VLE content. The Search feature is

available in the Dashboard page.

To search for a particular resource or activity, simply enter part of the name of the resource or

activity in the Search field. If your search yields any matches, these will be listed, and you can

click on the required match to view the resource or activity.

Sandbox Areas

The Course Preparation Area (CPA) VLE, which was used for the preparation of study material

and for exploring the features of the VLE, has been closed down permanently. Instead, a sandbox

area has been provided in the VLE that contains the 2015/16 and 2016/17 VLE areas.

The sandbox area may be used to explore and experiment with the features and tools of the

VLE. You may also prepare resources and activities that can later be transferred to your VLE

areas using the VLE Copy Tool.

Note:

The sandbox area cannot be accessed by students.

Additional sandbox areas may be provided upon request.

Academics who want to work on the preparation of a VLE / course area in collaboration

with other tutors may request to have a joint sandbox area.







6

User Preferences

The new user Preferences page lets you review and easily edit all your preferences. This page

replaces the settings formerly in the Administration block. You can access the Preferences page

from the User menu.

1. Click on your User menu (top-right corner).

2. Highlight Preferences and select User.

The Preferences page is displayed, where you can proceed to update your account preferences,

such as your profile, and forum and messages preferences.

User Profile

The redesigned Profile page, formerly, My profile, provides more useful information and quick

links to forum posts, forum discussions, and badges. You can access your

Profile page from the User menu.

1. Click on your User menu (top-right corner).

2. Click on your name and surname.







7

Your profile page is displayed. You can click Edit profile to edit your profile description and

image.







8

Course Management

Improved Section Organisation

Section Renaming

You can now change section names directly within the VLE area homepage.

1. In the VLE area homepage, click the Turn editing on button. The Edit topic name

icon will appear next to all section headings.

2. Click the Edit topic name icon. This will allow you to edit the section heading. In the

following example, the text Topic 1 is replaced with the text Introduction.

3. Press Enter to confirm the inputted title.

New Menu for Editing Sections

Use the new Edit action menu at the top-right corner of each section to add a section summary,

highlight the current section, or hide a section. The menu also includes the option to delete an

entire section.

Delete Section in VLE Area

A new option to delete a whole section is available within the Edit action menu. This allows you

to completely remove a particular section and its contents, regardless of where the section is

located in the VLE area page.







9

Recycle Bin

The Recycle Bin is a new feature available within every VLE area

and is accessible via the Administration block. Any activities,

resources or files that you delete from a VLE area will first be sent

to the recycle bin for fifteen (15) days, allowing time to restore

anything that may have been deleted in error. Deleted items will

be permanently deleted after fifteen (15) days.

The recycle bin is visible to Tutors, Guest Tutors and Content

Developers. Students cannot see or access the recycle bin.

To restore an item from the recycle bin:

1. Access the Recycle bin from the Administration block.

2. Locate the file which you would like to retrieve, and click the Restore icon adjacent to it.

The file will immediately be restored to your VLE area.

Note:

It is important to note that user data, such as students’ assignment submissions, forum

posts, etc., cannot be retrieved when an activity is restored.

If you delete a whole section within a VLE area, any resources and activities in the

section will be temporarily stored in the recycle bin, and hence can be retrieved. However, the section name and summary text will be permanently deleted.







10

Easily Add a Participant to Multiple Groups

Adding participants to multiple groups at the same time is possible from the Enrolled users

page.

To add a participant to multiple groups:

1. In the required VLE area, access the Enrolled users page from the Administration block.

Expand Users under Course administration, and click Enrolled users.

2. Locate the required participant and click the Add user into group button.

3. The Add user into group page is displayed. Choose which group you would like to add

the participant to. If the participant needs to be added to more than one group, hold the

Ctrl key and click on the different groups you would like the participant to be added to.

4. Click Save changes.

The groups will be displayed adjacent to the participant under the Groups column.

Collapsed Topics Format

The Collapsed Topics course format is similar to the standard Topics format, where all topics

(except the General topic), have a toggle that allows users to open or close the topic. This

reduces clutter in VLE areas that have a large number of topics or content.

To organise your VLE area using the Collapsed Topics format:

Note:

By default, when the user first accesses a VLE area with the Collapsed Topics format,

all topics are displayed as closed. If additional topics are added by the tutor, these will

also be displayed as closed.

The state of a topic toggle is preserved between sessions.

One or more sections can be displayed as open at any given time.







11

1. In the Administration block, click Edit settings under Course administration.

2. Click to expand the Course format section. Choose Collapsed Topics from the Format

dropdown menu.

3. You may apply any other changes you deem necessary, such as Number of sections.

4. Click Save and display.

The Collapsed topics format is applied to the VLE area.

The user can easily open or close a particular topic by clicking its title. It is also possible to open

or close all topics at once, by clicking the Open All or Close All buttons.







12

Activities

Forums

Easily Post to All Groups in a Forum

If you make use of groups, it is now possible to post your message to each group immediately

when using a forum activity.

After writing your message, scroll down and tick the option Post a copy to all groups.

Pinned Forum Discussions

As a tutor, you can pin important forum posts to the top of a forum thread list, making these

more visible to your students.

You can pin a new forum discussion by ticking the Pinned option before posting your message

to the forum.

If a message has already been posted, click on the message within the forum thread, and click

the Pin button.







13

Pinned forum discussions will be displayed at the top of the respective forum thread.

If a forum discussion is no longer important, you can unpin it. To unpin a forum discussion, click

on the discussion to view, and subsequently click the Unpin button.

Easily Link to Forum Posts

A new permalink feature is available that makes it easier to share useful forum posts. The

permalink allows both tutors and students to link directly to a specific forum post and then share

it with other participants.

To share a particular post:

1. Access the required forum thread.

2. Click on the forum post to view.

3. Click Permalink, under the corresponding post.

4. A specific web address is generated. Copy the generated web address and share it with

other users.

Note:

If a user shares a forum post with other users who are not enrolled in the VLE area,

they will not be able to access the post.







14

Assignment

Enhanced Assignment Grading

Assignments can now be graded more efficiently from a single screen. Upon accessing an

Assignment activity, you can choose to View all submissions or Grade the students’

submissions.







15

Clicking the Grade button will direct you to the first student in the list.

You can easily navigate between students or select a specific student from the dropdown (top-

right corner).







16

Download Selected Assignments

As tutor, you can now select which assignments to download for offline viewing.

1. Access the required assignment activity.

2. Click the View all submissions button.

3. Tick the box adjacent to the students’ name whose submission you want to download.

4. From the With selected… action menu, select Download selected submissions.

The selected submissions will be downloaded as a ZIP file.

Quizzes

Section Headings

You can now include section headings in a Quiz activity. A section heading may be added to

every new page.

Randomising the Order Questions Appear

The order in which questions appear to the students may be randomised by ticking the Shuffle

option at the top-right corner of every section.

In a quiz that contains multiple sections, each section has its own Shuffle option. This means

that you can shuffle questions in one section, but in another section where the questions’ order

is important, you can keep them in the order you need them to display.

New Question Types

The following four new question types have been added:

Select missing words – Students choose the correct word from a dropdown menu for

each text field.

Drag and drop into text – Students drag words into available placeholders within text.

Drag and drop onto image – Students drag either text or small images onto a

background picture uploaded by the tutor.

Drag and drop markers – Students drag text markers to a location predefined by the

tutor on a background image.

More information about the new question types is available in the YouTube Moodle video, New

Question Types in Moodle 3.0.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pqMDwXICRY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pqMDwXICRY

User Services

IT Services

University of Malta

Msida MSD 2080

MALTA

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.um.edu.mt/itservices/vle

Tel: +356 2340 4113

‘Changes & New Features in the VLE (Sep 2016)’ is licensed under the Creative Commons

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this

license, visit http://goo.gl/R8rwUW.

changes & new features in the vle (sep 2016)€¦ · staff and students can easily distinguish...

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