moodle glossary activity

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MOODLE Glossary Activity: Adding Glossaries to Moodle CoursesJuly 30

th, 2011


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What is the Glossary Activity in Moodle?

Glossaries can be used in Moodle by creating a table to define specific words used in your course. Its a way to

share a resource with your students. Teachers can edit what is called a main glossary and secondary glossaries

may be configured to allow student entries and comments.

Creating a Glossary

In your Moodle course you can have one main glossary, but you can also add as many secondary glossaries as

you please. You can export entries from any secondary glossary into the main glossary. You can create the link

anywhere youd like within your course section. You may find it best to create the glossary in the top section

of your page then add the secondary glossaries to other sections where they are relevant.

To create a glossary:

1. Click on the Turn editing on button located in the upper right corner ofyour course page.

2. Go to a course section where you would like to add the glossary activity. Clickon the Add an activity drop-down menu and select Glossary.

3. On the next page, give your glossary a name. In theDescription field, provide some instructions on how the glossary

will be used.

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4. Select the general options:Entries show per page This indicates the

number of words and definitions your

students will see when they access the

glossary.

Is this glossary global? Administrators can

create a global glossary with entries linking

throughout the entire site. Any course may

have a global glossary but usually they are

found on the site front page.

Glossary Type The glossary types can

either be main or secondary. You can export

entries from any secondary glossary into the

main glossary.

Duplicated entries allowed This allows

you to enter more than one definition for a

particular word.

Allow comments on entries Students and

teachers can leave comments on glossary

definitions. Comments are read by clicking

on a link at the bottom of the definition.

Allow print view This link will allow

students to print the glossary out.

Automatically link glossary entries

Moodle has a text-filter feature that automatically creates a link from a word in the course to its

corresponding glossary definition. Linked words are highlighted in gray.



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Approved by default If students are

allowed to add entries, they can

automatically add them to the glossary or

they would require your approval first before

other students can see them.

Display format You can select how the

glossary appears when students list the

entries. There are a number of different

options available:

Simple, dictionary style: This lookslike a standard dictionary with

separate entries. No authors are

displayed and attachments are shown

as links.

Continuous without author: Thisshows the entries one after the other without any kind of separation except for the editing

icons.

Encyclopedia: This is similar to the Full withauthor format apart from attached images

being displayed within each line.

Entry list: This lists the concepts or words aslinks.

FAQ: This is useful for displaying a list of Frequently Asked Questions. It automatically appendsthe words QUESTION and ANSWER in the concept and definition respectively.

Full with author: This is a forum-like display format with attachments shown as links. Full without author: This is a forum-like display format that does not show authors data with

attachments shown as links.



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Show Special link When users browse the

glossary, they can select the first character of

a word from a list. The Special link displays

special characters such as @, #, $, etc.

Show alphabet You can use this option to

display the alphabet for easier glossary

browsing.

Show ALL link If you want students to see

all glossary entries at once set this to Yes.

Edit always If you want entries to always be

editable, set this to Yes.

5. Select the grade options:Allow entries to be rated You can grade glossary entries yourself or allow students to grade entries

as well. Select Only teachers or Everyone from the Users menu. Then select a grading scale. You

can also restrict when entries can be graded to a specific date range.

6. Select the common module options:Group mode Another location to set the group mode for the activity. If group mode is forced in the

course settings then this setting will be ignored.

Visible This determines whether students may view the activity or

not.

7. Click the Save changes button located at the bottom of the page.8. Your new glossary page is now added to your Weekly Outline View.

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Adding Glossary Entries

Once youve created a glossary its a good idea to add a couple of entries to it so students have a model to

work from.

To add entries, click on the name of your glossary link

under your Weekly Outline (i.e. English Terms

Glossary).

1. Enter the word you want to define in theConcept text field.

2. Add the definition of the word or concept.3. If youve defined categories in the Browse by

category tab, you can categorize your entry

here. (See Glossary Categories on page 6)

4. If there are synonyms you want to include,add them to the Keyword(s) text area.

5. Any attachments such as pictures or articlescan be attached in the Attachment area.

6. To have this entry linked within the course,place a checkmark next to This entry

should be automatically linked. If you

select automatic linking, the checkboxes

below determine whether the links are

case sensitive and if only whole words are

linked.

7. Click the Save changes button to addyour word to the glossary.



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Glossary Categories

Categories can help organize your glossary entries. If youve enabled autolinking, the category names can be

linked along with individual entries.

1. Click on the Browse by category tab in the main page of the glossary (see above).2. Click on the Edit categories button on the left side of the page.3. Click on the Add category button on the resulting Categories page.4. Give the category a name.

By autolinking the category name, any instances of those words will be linked. When a student clicks on the

link, they will be taken to the Browse by category page of the glossary.

How Autolinking works

Once youve added an entry to the glossary and enabled autolinking, any instance of a glossary term anywhere

in Moodle will have a link to its definition. For example, if you create an entry word for the word haiku in the

glossary, whenever someone uses the word in a forum, assignment, HTML or text page, or even in a

description field, it will be clickable.



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Once you click on the word, a new window with the glossary entry will pop up.

Importing and Exporting Glossary Entries

As you build your glossaries, you may want to share them between classes or with other instructors.

Fortunately, theres a way to export and import glossary entries without needing to share your entire course.

To export glossary entries:

1. Follow the Export entries link located in the top right corner of the main glossary page.

2. Click on the Export entries to file button.

The autolinked word appears grayed out in

your course page. Click on the word to go to

the glossary page.



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3. Save the automatically generated XML file on yourcomputer.

4. From here, you can use the xml file for another courseor you can email the file as an attachment to share with

another instructor.

To import glossary entries using a saved XML file:

1. Click on the Import entries link at the top right of the main glossary page.

2. Browse for the exported entries XML file on your computer.

3. Select the destination for the new entries, either the current glossary or a new one.4. If you want to import category information, click the checkbox.5. Click on the Save changes button.



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6. You will then see a report on the number of entries and categories added to the glossary. If youenabled duplicate entries when you created the glossary, the import process will add all of the new

definitions. Otherwise, it will not allow you to import any duplicate entries. Click Continue.

Printing a Glossary

If you set Allow print view to Yes, then you will see a little printer icon located in the top right corner of

your main glossary page. Clicking on the icon will open a new browser window and present all the words and

definitions in a printer-friendly format.

To print the glossary:

1. Click on the printer icon at the top of the page glossary page.

2. From the newly opened window, choose Print from the File menu of your browser.



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3. Once the word list has printed, exit the printer-friendly format window by browsing backwards.


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