Online Instructional Presence in Moodle

Overview

A new initiative coming this fall is a minimum standard for online course sections called My.Seneca Online Instructional Presence.

How Does This Affect Me?

This initiate is mandated for 100% compliance for all courses taught at Seneca College.

How Can I Comply with Online Instructional Presence?

Q: What does this mean for Moodle users? How do I comply?

A: There are 5 items in the minimum standard. Below are some recommendations:

1. All course sections need to be available to students.
Here's how to make your courses available to students in Moodle (by default, courses are 'greyed out', i.e., not available to students):

1. login to Moodle
2. click the link to the course you want to make available
3. click the "Settings" link in your admin block
4. select the "This course is available to students" option in the "Availability" section
5. save the changes

2. Subject outlines, addenda (if there are addenda), schedule, and assignments need to be posted.
Here's how to do this in Moodle:

1. A link to your subject outline is already provided when a course shell is created for you
2. The easiest way to add addenda, schedules, assignments is click the "Turn editing on" link in your admin block from the "Add a resource..." option box, select "Compose a text page" or "Compose a web page" or "Link to a file or web site" (Note: many of you have your materials on a wiki already and can just link to them via the "Link to a file or web site" option. Many of you also use the calendar in Moodle for scheduling purposes.)

3. A welcome message (and ongoing announcements) should be posted.

An "Announcements" forum is already provided when a course shell is created for you; however, obviously, no announcements are posted yet. Recommendation is to send out regular (i.e., weekly) announcements. Here's how to do this in Moodle:

1. click the "Announcements" link
2. click the "Add a new topic" button
3. Type your "Subject" and "Message"
4. click the "Post to forum" button (Note: in Moodle announcements are automatically sent via email to enrolled students if students have not turned off this feature. Students can select to receive a daily digest as well, which goes out at midnight each night.)

4. Faculty contact information should be posted.
Here's how to do this in Moodle:

1. Faculty contact information is already provided in Moodle via your profile. However, you may want to edit your profile to add your office hours, phone extension, best way to contact you, expectations (i.e., how often you reply to email, etc.). To edit your profile:
2. login to Moodle in the top right corner of the page you will see "You are logged in as [your name]", click [your name]
3. click the "Edit profile" tab
4. add appropriate information in the "Description" box (i.e., office hours, etc.)
5. in the "Optional" section (you may need to click the "Show advanced" button to see the options) add appropriate information (i.e., phone number and extension, etc.)
6. click the "Update profile" button to save the changes

5 The Grade Book should be used.
Grades are available to students via the "Grades" link in the admin block. There are a number of ways to set up and use the gradebook. Below are some links to tutorials that may be of help:

• http://docs.moodle.org/20/en/Gradebook_1.9_Tutorial
• http://moodle.njit.edu/tutorials/faculty/index.php
• http://fcpe.adelphi.edu/moodle/gradebook/

Note: the final grade column ("Course Total") needs to be turned off until after promotion meetings.

To do this:

1. login to Moodle and enter your course(s)
2. click the "Grades" link in the admin block from the "Choose an action..." option box, select "Simple view"
3. locate the Course Total row (bottom) and click the "eye" icon to "Hide Course total"
4. click the "Save changes" button

How Can I Comply with Online Instructional Presence If I Use Moodle Instead of Blackboard?

If using Moodle you should post a link to Moodle in your course sections in My.Seneca and explain to your students in My.Seneca that you are using Moodle. This will mean that you need to make your courses available in My.Seneca as well.

Sample Announcement in Blackboard to Redirect to Moodle

Here is an sample announcement that could be used to help inform and redirect Blackboard users to Moodle:

Your instructor will using Moodle (as opposed to Blackboard) to host x's course materials, links, quizzes and grade information.

To access Moodle, please perform the following steps:

1. Access the Moodle website at:   http://open.senecac.on.ca
2. Under Course Categories, click School Name for Course x.
3. Click on the link for Fall 12 (i.e. Fall 2012 semester).
4. Select the course: x
5. You be prompted for a password. Enter the generic password:  changeme
6. You will be prompted to to enter a new password. Note: Moodle does not
   require password changes every 45 days (like Blackboard). Therefore, if 
   you are using your learn password, if you can't login, try the previous
   learn password (after the 45 day period!)

 Additional Things to Consider in Moodle:

1. REMEMBER YOUR PASSWORD! If you forget your password, you need to
   contact your instructor to reset your password to the temporary password
   changeme   (This can take time to reset!)

2. If you used Moodle for another course in a PREVIOUS semester, try
    using the old password prior to sending e-mail to instructor to reset password.

3. If Moodle system indicates student is NOT ENROLLED in course, indicate this message in e-mail
   to instructor for correction.



FYI,
Instructor's Name