Moodle guide

Log in to the learning platform Moodle with your own login details.

Please note that you must log into the system using the prefix (1st letter of first name + surname).

The navigation bar is located at the top. In the menu you will find:

• Start page: One click always takes you back to the Moodle start page.

• Dashboard: "Dashboard" takes you to your calendar and gives you an overview of all the courses you are enrolled in.

• My courses: Here you will find all courses sorted by name and semester. Click to go to the course.

 

After you have successfully logged in with your login details, you will find your user profile in the top right-hand menu. In the drop-down menu you will find the options to edit your profile, view ratings from the Moodle system and view calendar entries. You can also customise your user account under Settings and select your preferred language or log out

 

A Moodle course is automatically created for Viadrina lecturers if this was specified in the registration for the courses viaCampus.

Teachers are entered in the course in the role of "Trainer" and can make changes there. If your course cannot be found under "My courses", please contact the IKMZ: elearning-support@europa-uni.de

 

There are two options for students to enrol in courses. Students can enrol themselves ("self-enrolment") with or without an "enrolment key", provided that self-enrolment is active in the course OR you can enrol students individually by hand.

Self-enrolment (with or without an enrolment key) is an enrolment method that allows users to enrol in a course themselves. At the same time, manual enrolment must be activated in the course.

How to proceed:

1.) As a teacher, go to your course and click on Students in the course navigation.

2.) Select Enrolment methods in the pull-down menu (or in the Settings > Course administration > Users > Enrolment methods block).

3.) Make sure that the eye symbol is activated in the table for the enrolment method Self-enrolment (participant).

Note: Self-enrolment is deactivated by default for all newly created Moodle courses. If you are unsure about this, you can contact the IKMZ team: elearning-support@europa-uni.de

After logging in, you will be shown your dashboard, where you will find all your courses.

You have access rights for courses already listed. You can find more courses via the start page. You can find the courses you want via the navigation bar.

How do I inform students about the course before or independently of course enrolment?
Open the Moodle course for your event. Click on the "Settings" tab (in the centre). You can now enter information about your course under "Description" in the "Course description" field. Now select the "Show" option under "General" in the "Course visibility" field. The course can only be found by Moodle users if it has been set to "Display". Please confirm the details by clicking "Save and display" at the bottom of the page.

In order to make orientation and semester planning easier for students, please include at least the following information in the course description:

• Course format (online synchronous, online asynchronous, face-to-face, blended learning (online with individual face-to-face sessions) or hybrid teaching (face-to-face with streaming/video conferencing)

• Course dates

• Examination form

A course is an area in which teachers provide working materials and activities for course participants. This can be a simple page with documents to download or a complex collection of activities that enable learning through various interactions.

The learning progress can be logged in different ways. The course page consists of individual sections that contain the learning content.

If you want to provide participants with materials, proceed as follows:

Go to the "Edit" mode
and select the desired course. In the course, select "Create material or activity" in the desired section.

Make your selection from a variety of activities and work materials and click on "Add". A window will open where you can enter further details (title, description, etc.). After clicking on "Save", your addition will appear on your course interface.
Tip: To add a PDF document, select the "File" option, for images select "Lightbox Gallery".

Activate the editing mode by switching on the "Edit field" in the top right-hand corner.

The rights of users are linked to roles. Every Moodle user has at least one of the following roles:

• Trainer - can manage courses and course content (and assign all the roles below)

• Trainer without editing rights - can make assessments in courses, but cannot make any changes to the course or course content.

• Hidden teacher - can manage courses and course content (displayed in the course "without role").

• Participant - can access a course and participate in the course activities
.

Teachers usually have the role of "Trainer".

To change editing rights, click on the pencil icon next to the desired person, then on the triangle and select the desired role. Only roles that have not yet been assigned are available for selection

To create your own Moodle course, contact the Dean's Office of the Faculty in which you work. A newly created course will appear under My courses in the basic layout and with the note "hidden for participants".

In addition to the content area with sections, the basic layout contains a navigation area on the left-hand side that can be shown or hidden.

On the right-hand side, you can optionally insert blocks with functions such as the calendar.

Blocks are elements that allow you to add various functionalities such as calendar, recent activities, search in forums or even Panopto.

In order for future participants to be able to find your course, you must first make it "visible". To do this, go to "Settings" in the course. On the page that opens, select the option "Show" (instead of "Hide") under "Course visibility". Now the course can be seen by Moodle users in the navigation and found in the search.

To add work materials or activities to your course, you must first switch to edit mode. Then click on the link Create material or activity in the desired section. You can now view the numerous options that Moodle offers. The various options are categorised according to work materials and activities so that you can always make a suitable selection for your course. You will receive a brief description after selecting the info icon.

If you want to mark certain selection options as favourites, click on the star symbol. You will then find your favourites in a new tag under Favourites.

A task is a Moodle activity that you can create in a course.
To create an assignment, first navigate to one of your courses via the dashboard.

Go to edit mode and add an "Assignment" activity.

Make further settings (submission time, feedback options, etc.) and check the submission settings in particular (declaration of independence, number of attempts, etc.). Please also specify the type of assessment.

Rating assignments
Once the participants have submitted their solution, you can rate the assignments. To do this, click on the assignment on the course page and click on "Show all submissions".

You can view individual submissions, download all submissions, add annotations to uploaded files, make assessments, leave feedback as a comment or file. Don't forget to save everything at the end.

Forums within a course are used for communication with participants. This communication can be one-way (announcement) or two-way (discussion).

There are two different forms of forums: 

• Forum for announcements: Teachers communicate important information to course participants, such as the cancellation of a course at short notice. Every participant is required to receive these forum posts by email. Students cannot reply to the announcements or write new posts themselves. A forum for announcements is automatically included in every course.

• Forum for communication: There are forums for discussions, debates, questions and sending files in which all course participants can write posts and reply to others. It is also possible to upload files.

Add a communication forum
To add a communication forum, proceed as follows: 

Switch to edit mode and click on „Create material or activity“.  Select „Forum“ in the main field of the course. In the following view, select „Standard form“ as the forum type. This allows students to reply and create posts themselves. Subscription & Tracking" can be used to specify whether students are obliged to receive the forum by e-mail (useful when announcing the forums).

Control access to forums
If you also want to control access to a forum using additional criteria, select the "Add prerequisite" option under "Prerequisites" in the forum settings.

Here you can assign a validity period, for example. The forum is not available outside of this period.

Tip: A combination of prerequisites can quickly become confusing. Therefore, use this function with caution and care.

Contributions
Forums in courses also provide a range of functions that you are probably familiar with from your Internet experience. Only the general functions that teachers should be familiar with are presented here.

Click on the forum (speech bubble or text) in which you want to work.

Read post and reply
Click on the topic you want to open and then click on „Reply“ (on the right). A field will appear in which you can enter your answer. To access additional tools, select "Advanced" under the text field.

To add a file (e.g. PDF), click on "Insert image" in the "Messages" field.

Save“ the contribution will be sent.

Create post
Click on „Add new topic“. A new window will open. What you write under „Subject“ will then appear in the “Subject“ column.

Tip: Delayed storage
If you write a new post (new topic), it will be sent with a 30-minute delay (note in the field highlighted in green). You have this time to edit or delete your post.

Subscribe to forum
Click on "Subscribe to forum" to subscribe to the forum. A green box will then appear indicating that you will receive the forum by e-mail in the future. You can also cancel this again using the same button.

Tip: Use the dual role
In the role of trainer AND participant, you will receive all posts from the forum by email. You will then know if and when they have arrived.