Mark's Moodleings

Accurate Alphabetic scale

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:33:04 GMT

Using Alphabetic Scale

1. The problem

Moodle does all it's internal calculations with grades using real numbers to a precision of 5 decimal places. For activities that are graded with numbers there is no hitch going from the grade allocated to the calculation of weighted men totals and so forth. But what happens when teachers want to use an alphabetic scale? Moodle has to translate between the scale and internal numbers in some way and it does this by setting a max of 100 a min of 0 and dividing the difference between the two end-points. So, for example, a three point scale "Not completed / Resubmit / Completed" would have equivalent grade points of 0, 50, 100. Note that the scale goes from lowest to highest and so in a scale described as "Completed / Resubmit / Not completed" the 'Completed' grade would be worth 0!
If we take the alphabetic scale that faculty often use and translate this directly into Moodle parlance, we'd have:

A	100
A-	90
B+	80
B	70
B-	60
C+	50
C	40
C-	30
D+	20
D	10
F	0

And while we may think that an 'F' deserves 0 points and an 'A' 100 nevertheless students would be rather upset with this scale.

2. The solution

The solution is to add dummy grade divisions until the interval is what we would expect. Thus to make the correct interval between letters we have to add 17 failing grades. And it turns out that since an 'A' is generally 93% and above we need to add two extra divisions above A which I have called 'AA' and 'AAA'. Here's the scale :

FQ	FP	FO	FN	FM	FL	FK	FJ	FI	FH	FG	FF	FE	FD	FC	FB	FA	F	D-	D	D+	C-	C	C+	B-	B	B+	A-	A	AA	AAA
0	3	7	10	13	17	20	23	27	30	33	37	40	43	47	50	53	57	60	63	67	70	73	77	80	83	87	90	93	97	100

And the teacher would be using the section in yellow.
This scale has to be added by the Site Administrator in Grades : Scales and [Add new scale]. Here it is in comma delimited form for copy/paste convenience:

FQ, FP, FO, FN, FM, FL, FK, FJ, FI, FH, FG, FF, FE, FD, FC, FB, FA, F, D-, D, D+, C-, C, C+, B-, B, B+, A-, A, AA, AAA

3. How this affects grading

To show that this does operate correctly with the Moodle gradebook of 1.9.5 we'll turn to the dummy course 'Defence Against the Dark Arts' and add an Offline Assignment, 'Blog Posting III' and show how it works. Check out the 7 minute screencast below:

Deploying the alphabetic scale and checking that it works

ColorPalette

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:27:31 GMT

Background: #fff
Foreground: #000
PrimaryPale: #8cf
PrimaryLight: #18f
PrimaryMid: #04b
PrimaryDark: #014
SecondaryPale: #ffc
SecondaryLight: #fe8
SecondaryMid: #db4
SecondaryDark: #841
TertiaryPale: #eee
TertiaryLight: #ccc
TertiaryMid: #999
TertiaryDark: #666
Error: #f88

New

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:56:00 GMT

Alphabetic Grading sussed

MyMoodle new features

Problems

Course request

Download video

New Stuff

New ▾

Newish

Alphabetic scale screencast

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:34:00 GMT

OUWiki : Refactor pages

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:34:00 GMT

Refactoring wiki pages

Refactoring page OUWiki screencast

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:30:00 GMT

NoticeBoard

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:23:00 GMT

Last Updated: 6-Nov-09
Mark H Pearson
Интендантство для Верховного Совета Академичного Мудлэрс
Commissariat for Supreme Soviet of Academic Moodlers

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

MiniBrowserList

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:22:00 GMT

Refactoring a wiki page in OUWiki
http://www.earlham.edu/markp/Refactoring%20a%20wiki%20page%20with%20OUWiki/Refactoring%20a%20wiki%20page%20with%20OUWiki.html

MiniBrowserList_original

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:54:00 GMT

TiddlyWiki.com - official release
http://www.TiddlyWiki.com

TiddlyWiki.org - wiki, tickets, source control
http://www.TiddlyWiki.org

GoogleGroup: TiddlyWiki - user/author discussion
http://groups.google.com/group/TiddlyWiki/

GoogleGroup: TiddlyWikiDev - core/plugin discussion
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TiddlyVault - index of add-ons from many sources
http://TiddlyVault.TiddlySpot.com

TiddlySpot - instant TiddlyWiki hosting!!
http://www.TiddlySpot.com

TiddlyTools - plugins, scripts, templates, etc.
http://www.TiddlyTools.com

del.icio.us - find popular TiddlyWiki sites
http://del.icio.us/tag/tiddlywiki

Links to other wikis

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:03:00 GMT

to wiki pages belonging to other groups. Procedure :
- open new tab with wiki. Holding down the Ctrl key (or Command key on Mac) click OUWikis on the navigation bar. A new tab to the wikis will open. Go to the new tab and open the desired wiki home page.
- navigate to desired page
- highlight address in Address bar
- return to home tab and highlight text to link
- hit link icon (as above) and past in the URL to the page you just visited
- add title
- Target : opens in same window (this is different to external links).
- Now [Save]

Using Moodle Wiki

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:25:00 GMT

A guide to using the OUWiki in Moodle

The wiki Activity in Moodle is a plugin module from the UK's Open University called OUWiki.

What is a wiki?

Wiki software, named after the Wiki Wiki shuttle at Honolulu Airport, is basically a form of electronic whiteboard where contributors can add material (text, graphics), edit existing text, and create new pages. It has become the classic form of collaborative software. For more details see Wikipedia : wiki

'Getting' the wiki approach

The wiki approach is basically a collaborative one. Here's a typical workflow:

You have a new sub-topic to write about so you create a new page linked from an existing page.
You emphasise each section with it's own heading.
As you are typing the material you add links to other wiki pages and external web URLs (this is sometimes known as caffeinating the text) (By the way, the article Caffeinate Your Hypertext explains how to use hypertext links to organize and link ideas and is well worth a read).
Later on, you add more stuff to the page and then it gets too long (how long is too long?) and so you refactor by cutting out chunks and creating new pages from them.
One of the links you use is to another student's wiki and so you take a look at his pages and add comments there.
On another page you spot a spelling mistake, so you correct it, and then there's a grammar error, so you fix that too. You know that she'll be able to see what you've done in the History.

Starting out : Create page

I asserted above that you create a new page from an existing one and this is true. But where to start? Each wiki has a startup page which you create by clicking [Create page]

You can paste in text from MS Word, but a better approach is to compose directly in the Moodle editor

Sections

You might want to approach the onerous task of writing by creating an outline. You'd do this by adding headers and by the magic of the OUwiki these become sections when saved. Sections are editable by themselves and also allow comments to be made.
To add a header:

type the header text, eg "Introduction"
highlight the text.
Apply heading level from the appropriate editor pull down menu. To effectively apply the heading we have to work around a bug in the WYSYWG editor:
- pull down heading to a different level than the one you want. Eg Say you want heading level 2, so pull down to heading 3
- now select the heading level you actually want. Now it'll stick.

By adding headings in this way you subdivide your page into sections which allows people to place comments next to relevant paragraphs. screenshot

New pages

To create a new page from an existing page you add the link first and then clicking on the link will take you to the new page where you can paste or type in new content.

To add the link type the name in double square brackets, eg [[Introduction]]
[Save changes]
now click on the link and add your stuff
note that you can make a heading be a link by adding to it.

Link link link

Links to external web sites / pages details
- Open a new tab (Ctrl-T or Command-T (Mac)) and find the web page you want to reference
- Highlight the URL in the address bar and copy (Ctrl-C / Command-C)
- Select the text that the user will click on
- In the editor click the chain link button
- Paste in the URL,
  - Add some explanatory text in the 'Title' field, eg "opens in new window"
  - Select Target -> New window. This will cause the link to open up in a new window or tab.
to other pages in your own wiki. Use two square brackets around the link text as before : [[Link here]]

Dos and don'ts for links
Don't :
Just insert the URL to make a link looking like this:

Do :
instead make "Read more" the link :

and, better, add a 'title' :

make sure that the link is correctly formatted:

Edit edit edit

Collaboration means reading other people's wiki pages, commenting on them and even changing their text!

Add comments. Just click the obvious place. Type in a meaningful Subject and short comment.
Correct errors. Don't be afraid to correct other's spelling, grammatical and syntax errors. Make big changes to your own group's wiki.
Add links to own stuff to generate cross references. The more cross references you make, the more interesting is the site. Put the hyper into hypertext

Formatting problems

To circumvent problems with formatting the text, especially after having pasted from MS Word, I'd suggest doing the following:

Rather than pasting text straight into the editor, click the HTML code icon, thus :

Now paste in your text and it'll lose it's formatting and all the crud
Toggle the switch back and format with the tools in the bar. This will be like Advil to the formatted page!

How to Refactor wiki pages

You will always come across a situation when you need to hack away at either your page or someone else's page. As a rule of thumb if the page you have created is longer than 1.5 screens deep then it needs to be refactored. This basically involves chopping out content and stuffing it into new pages. The following screencast will show you how to do this:

Refactoring wiki pages

Create non-printable PDF

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:28:00 GMT

Make a PDF non-printable

Why would anyone want to make an Acrobat PDF file not printable? Here's an email message from a faculty person:

Is it possible for me to scan a document into Moodle and — just for that one document — DISABLE the ability to print?

Here's why I'd like to know: I am typing up a document that illustrates (anonymously, of course) good answers and not-so-good
answers that students gave on the last quiz. I would like for them to be able to read this document but not HAVE a copy of it (unless they were to bother to re-type it themselves), because I don't want them to be able to pass it to future generations of students in this class, who might use it to cheat.

Here's how with Acrobat version 8

Having scanned the material or saved to PDF from Word :

Select File -> Properties : Security tab
Select Security Method : Password security. The Password security — settings screen opens
In the Permissions section:
- check Restrict editing and printing
- enter password (but not your regular email password).
- click [OK] screenshot (Note the default settings — Printing Allowed : None, Changing Allowed : None)
a pop-up window will pop up. Read the contents and click [OK]. (You may wish to check the box so that this does not appear again)
You'll now be asked to confirm the password you used, so type it in and ever so gently press [OK]
Now Save the file with File -> Save. This will activate the settings — the converse is also true; the changes you made will not be activated until you do a Save.
Pull down the File menu and notice that Print is greyed out. Also in File -> Properties. Note "(SECURED)" in the title.
Now you can upload this file into your Moodle course and students will not be able to print it out.

EIS Workshop: working with groups

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:34:00 GMT

Workshop for Librarians

Targeted at Reference Librarians (Amy, Jennie, Anne, Janet, etc) who'd like to get further into Moodle. Assumes a basic understanding of Moodle. We'd use either the Faculty Development Lab downstairs or the Biblio Lab.

Group work. How to implement group work in Moodle:
- Create and allocate groups. Options available. Student choosing with Choice.
- How to use Forums with groups. Assessing forums. Sharing files & presentations. Variety of uses for Forums.
- Wiki. When to use a wiki. Group research.
- Groupings. What are they and why might they be useful?
Setting up assignments for grading and responding to students
- Setting up and using the Gradebook.

I'm going to suggest a 2 hour session on October 15^th which is mid-semester break.

NITLE Workshop: Teaching with Moodle

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:43:00 GMT

NITLE workshop — faculty group opportunity

Earlham Information Systems are pleased to present an opportunity for faculty at Earlham to engage with other teachers in the NITLE group in an online participatory group workshop about teaching with Moodle.

Join Professor Simon Garcia, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Kenyon College, who will discuss just in time quizzing and feedback in Moodle, and Professor Christopher Phillips, Assistant Professor of English, Lafayette College who will discuss using Moodle for collaborative writing and information literacy assignments. Both will answer and ask questions about how best to use Moodle for teaching and learning."Teaching with Moodle," an online program via MIV in NITLE's series "Special Topics in Digital Teaching" will be offered online on Wednesday, October 7, 2009, at 4 PM

We will be hosting the program in two locations where we have a presentation screen:

Room 304 in Lilly Library with host Scott Silverman
Multi-media room in Wildman Science Library with host Mark Pearson

The remote presenters will be doing their thing and you'll have opportunity to ask questions and make comments via the hosts.
Following the NITLE workshop we'll have a discussion about the features presented and desired followup activities.
We can accommodate up to 10 faculty in each room so please don't hesitate to come along. I would be useful to know numbers, so please let me or Scott Silverman know which room you'd like to join.

Summary

What's on offer: NITLE online workshop about Teaching with Moodle.
Details?: Just in Time quizzing and feedback (Chemistry prof from Kenyon), collaborative writing and information literacy assignments (English prof from Lafayette)
When?: Wednesday October 7^th at 4pm
Where?: Room 304, Lilly Library and Multimedia room, Wildman Science Library.
RSVP: email to Scott Silverman or Mark Pearson with room favourite

15/10/2009

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:28:00 GMT

EIS Workshop: working with groups

07/10/2009

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:27:00 GMT

NITLE Workshop: Teaching with Moodle

PopupsBlocked!

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:48:00 GMT

Sometimes the course you are using has music players which appear in popup windows. And sometimes they don't appear when they should do. This is usually because the popup blocker on the browser has not been set to allow popups from moodle.earlham.edu.

The solution is trivial:

For Internet Exploder, click on the bar and choose "Always allow popups from this site" (ie moodle.earlham.edu)
For Firefox, click on [Options] and choose "Allow popups for moodle.earlham.edu"

Teaching Large Classes : workshop overview

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:22:00 GMT

This is a summary of the Large Classes workshop that Jonathan Diskin and I hosted in August 09.

The overall assessment was that the Workshop was a success. Faculty enjoyed the talks, the discussions, and the free and frank exchange of successes and failures with teaching large sized classes. In particular, the discussions about engaging student in lecture situations was fruitful for many and the description of techniques for engaging students into interactive discussions within the lecture format were also greatly helpful. Many faculty volunteered that they would be incorporating these and other ideas springing from the workshop into their courses this semester. Inevitably there were some aspects which were not covered as well, these included effective use of Teaching Assistants, ways to limit the quantity of grading without losing track of student progress and help with the technical aspects of managing large classes (especially with regard to Moodle). There were a few issues that were not covered that teachers were interested in. These included the issues of grading / assessment and cheating / plagiarism.

There were several strong recommendations for follow up. Firstly, the comment that "This workshop was sorely needed. We need more opportunities for this kind of pedagogical conversation (not just Friday Forum)." should spur us to continue providing opportunities targeted at teachers of large classes. Faculty seemed keen to meet once per semester to report back on ideas / techniques that they tried and how they worked. Finally, there was considerable interest in taking the use of Moodle to a more sophisticated level.

Where next?

Moodle sessions during mid-semester break (Thursday 15th - Friday 16th October) ?
Large Classes Workshop followup in late December — perhaps 1/2 day with Moodle session the other half?
Other ideas for followup.

TLCS : Items not covered

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:44:00 GMT

Grading — formative assessment
assessment / evaluation
meaningful assessment — assignments leading to that
classes of 1hr 20 mins — how to handle
dealing with large range of abilities with limited time for developmental work.
student assessment when you don't know them personally
cheating, honour code — what to do about plagiarism and prevention techniques.

TLCS : Moodle workshops

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:17:00 GMT

#	Workshop	Level of interest
		Definitely	Maybe	Nope
1.	Tracking student attendance and class activity with Attendance	4	1
2.	Ways of doing your quiz online to minimize grading overhead.	3	1
3.	Doing effective group work online with Forums/ Wikis and Groups/Groupings	7	1
4.	Setting up assignments for online processing – submission, mark-up, grading	4	1
5.	Using the Moodle gradebook	3		1

Going beyond Moodle — Social Software

FQ	FP	FO	FN	FM	FL	FK	FJ	FI	FH	FG	FF	FE	FD	FC	FB	FA	F	D-	D	D+	C-	C	C+	B-	B	B+	A-	A	AA	AAA
0	3	7	10	13	17	20	23	27	30	33	37	40	43	47	50	53	57	60	63	67	70	73	77	80	83	87	90	93	97	100

FQ	FP	FO	FN	FM	FL	FK	FJ	FI	FH	FG	FF	FE	FD	FC	FB	FA	F	D-	D	D+	C-	C	C+	B-	B	B+	A-	A	AA	AAA
0	3	7	10	13	17	20	23	27	30	33	37	40	43	47	50	53	57	60	63	67	70	73	77	80	83	87	90	93	97	100

Mark's Moodleings

Accurate Alphabetic scale

Using Alphabetic Scale

1. The problem

2. The solution

3. How this affects grading

ColorPalette

New

Alphabetic Grading sussed

MyMoodle new features

Problems

Course request

Download video

New Stuff

Newish

Alphabetic scale screencast

OUWiki : Refactor pages

Refactoring page OUWiki screencast

NoticeBoard

MiniBrowserList

MiniBrowserList_original

Links to other wikis

Using Moodle Wiki

A guide to using the OUWiki in Moodle

What is a wiki?

'Getting' the wiki approach

Starting out : Create page

Sections

New pages

Link link link

Dos and don'ts for links

Edit edit edit

Formatting problems

How to Refactor wiki pages

Create non-printable PDF

Make a PDF non-printable

Here's how with Acrobat version 8

EIS Workshop: working with groups

Workshop for Librarians

NITLE Workshop: Teaching with Moodle

NITLE workshop — faculty group opportunity

Summary

15/10/2009

07/10/2009

PopupsBlocked!

Teaching Large Classes : workshop overview

Where next?

Links:

TLCS : Items not covered

TLCS : Moodle workshops

FQ	FP	FO	FN	FM	FL	FK	FJ	FI	FH	FG	FF	FE	FD	FC	FB	FA	F	D-	D	D+	C-	C	C+	B-	B	B+	A-	A	AA	AAA
0	3	7	10	13	17	20	23	27	30	33	37	40	43	47	50	53	57	60	63	67	70	73	77	80	83	87	90	93	97	100