moodle | Thomas' Work Space

Solved: Moodle RSS feed not updating

2014/02/27 plagwitz Leave a comment

Here is what I see in my Moodle course: (in IE9, also tested in Chrome).
Here is how Moodle’s RSS feed is configured:
If I click on this link, this is the current feed status in IE feed display:
The last displayed article is not even visible on this page anymore – I “lost” 50 posts, and more in Moodle – what am I missing ?
Doh. I and the (I find: clumsy) way RSS-feeds have to be configured in Moodle meet again: You RSS feed list may be correct, but then you also need to select the right feed to display.

Categories: e-learning, Glitches&Errors, lms Tags: moodle, rss

Audio player error message involving “pluginfile.php” in Moodle quiz

2014/02/24 plagwitz Leave a comment

LRC assistants may get called by students with this error regarding pluginfile.php in a Moodle quiz, it appears in the audio player interface itself and looks like this:
1. The error messages flashes only briefly, and afterwards the audio simply will not play.
2. In a Respondus lockdown browser quiz, you can bring up the error message again by clicking “next” and then resuming the attempt. When the quiz page reloads, the error message will briefly flash again.
LRC assistants cannot work around this error, they need to alert permanent staff. Usually it is related to a quiz author needing to update the audio file link, like so:
1. Go into the quiz, on the left, click “edit the quiz”):
2. Find the audio file link, edit the link:
  1. Can you actually load the link? If it says “file not found”, you have the root cause:
  3. Does it say “draft” in there? Not good. Copy the unique identifier from the path:
3. Go to in Moodle course / Files section, locate the offending file (you can use the unique id you put in the clip board to search), i.e. make sure it actually exists:
4. Get the correct URL for the file, puit it int the clipboard:
5. Go back to editing the quiz, update the wrong URL with the correct one.
6. Save the updated quiz.
Now the student can reload the quiz, if in Respondus lockdown browser, like above by clicking “next”and back.

Categories: assignments, audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, lms Tags: audio, moodle, Respondus-lockdown -browser

FAQs for issues with Respondus Lockdown Browser

2014/02/18 plagwitz Leave a comment

New to Respondus Quizzes? Read the CTL’s write-up.
No Photo ID (Niner ID or other state-issued)? Use the reception desk camera to take a photo with sheet, like below, we will forward it to the teacher for verification.
Issues with starting:
1. Respondus won’t open: How to bypass a Moodle Popup Window when using Respondus lockdown browser
2. Test won’t open and you get a warning
  1. in Moodle that this test must be run in Respondus Lockdown Browser? Close your regular web browser and double click on the desktop on the Moodle Lockdown Browser Icon:, then go to Moodle2 from in there.
  2. in Respondus that “No more attempts are allowed”, but the student has not made any attempts yet and the quiz closing date is long in the past: contact the teacher to check whether the quiz needs updating.
Issues with Audio:
1. Students are advised to test the headsets before entering Respondus Lockdown browser assessments:
  1. Start Audacity from the desktop, click record: if you say something, you must see something;
  2. Play back to test the speakers. Hear nothing? Try the volume knob:
  3. (More detail here).
2. Rewind-audio may get you stuck – to fix, next-page, then back (reloads page). More info: How to workaround Moodle quiz audio not playing to the end in Respondus Lockdown Browser
3. How to bypass a Moodle Popup Window when using Respondus lockdown browser
4. If no audio and error “pluginfile” flashes when clicking “Next”and back: notify permanent staff.
Issues with Writing:
1. Lost the ?
  1. Clicking around nearby where it was may bring it back.
  2. Or , quickly cancel (gets you out of lockdown browser), new attempt from desktop shortcut.
  3. Learn to use the installed US-international keyboard shortcuts. .
  4. more info: Problems with accented characters in Respondus Lockdown Browser
2. If your keyboard stops typing in English in a Respondus lockdown browser quiz…
Issues with finishing
1. If the test won’t submit, start Respondus lockdown browser on a different computer to see whether you can resume your attempt there.
More issues? Let us know in the comments here.

Categories: assessments, assignments, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, Glitches&Errors, Listening-Stations, lms, service-is-testing-troubleshooting-debugging Tags: FAQs, moodle, Respondus-lockdown -browser

If your keyboard stops typing in English in a Respondus lockdown browser quiz…

2014/01/24 plagwitz Leave a comment

Short answer
1. press key combination LEFT ALT + SHIFT, then try typing:
2. Are you back at typing in English?
  1. If not, repeat, until you are.
  2. If yes: Do not rejoice too soon. Try inserting a character with the Respondus Lockdown Browser accent bar. If it only inserts a “?“, then repeat also, until this works also.
Long answer
1. The Respondus Lockdown browser blocks use of most key combinations, but not this default combination on Windows for switching keyboard languages (and it cannot – the user may need access to other language keyboards for the quiz!).
2. A user may inadvertently have switched the keyboard from the default (which works fine in most language quizzes in Respondus).
3. The Respondus Lockdown browser hides the language toolbar near the notification are in the lower right, so the change is not obvious, and also cannot be undone from the menu there.

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students Tags: FAQs, moodle, Respondus-lockdown -browser

LRC Faculty Showcase: Enhancing reading fluency in Spanish through Online Courses

2014/01/24 plagwitz Leave a comment

The videos of the presentation by Maria Mahaffey, Emily Kristoff and Shaun Stone on SPAN2200, using Hot Potatoes exercises in Moodle, and the ensuing discussion, are available on the intranet:
PowerPoint screencast with audio: “S:\CLAS\LCS\MYDEPT\mahaffey\span2200\showcase\SLP_2014_PowerPoint.wmv” (size: 130MB).
Video with presenter and PowerPoint on projector: “S:\CLAS\LCS\MYDEPT\mahaffey\span2200\showcase\showcase-SLP-2014.mp4” (size:410MB).

Categories: audience-is-teachers, e-languages, faculty-showcases, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, Practice&Demos, Reading, Screencasts, Spanish, Videos, workshops Tags: hot-potatoes, moodle

Trying to reduce Attempt abandoned in Hot Potato Hot Pot Moodle quizzes

2013/12/20 plagwitz Leave a comment

The Hot Potatoes quiz activity per se does not seem to have a submit button, since it is auto-grading, per question.
. When the quiz is completed, the string in ExerciseCompleted (usually: “You have complete the exercise” )appears in a modal dialogue and on top.
Before Exercise is complete, the instructions now remain, since I have turned off ShowCompleteSoFar:
One could make ExerciseCompleted much more visible (like with ShowCompleteSoFar permanently in a Hot Potatoe inhstallation), if looking out for this message would help the students not abandoning the quiz early:

Categories: assessments, e-learning, service-is-configuring-learning-tools Tags: hot-potatoes, javascript, moodle, quizzes

Another way to upload many files into Moodle 2

2013/12/04 plagwitz Leave a comment

Last time we started from “Add folder” to get to the handy drag-and-drop file upload control in Moodle 2.
This time we do not want to create a new folder, but work within an existing folder (better for categorizing lots of files).
Browse into the folder and click edit
click create folder
add name and click create
click to open folder
drag/drop files as zip in folder
oops, check the upper right warning :
Split your files into smaller segments
And be patient, there is no visual indicator of progress, or any action, after the drop), or else you get duplicates:
Just delete duplicates you might have created:
click on each zip file and choose “unzip”:
Delete the zip files (not needed anymore)
Finally, click “save changes”
Note, by working within a folder, you cannot link directly to the new folder you created. It should however be easy enough to navigate to it if you send the link to the root folder, here “Interaction”.

Categories: audience-is-teachers, e-learning, lms, training Tags: files, folders, moodle

How to record screencasts with Kaltura in Moodle 2

2013/11/18 plagwitz Leave a comment

Go to your video assignment in Moodle: .
Click “Record screen”, “Add”, and pass the Java security Dialogues:
The default video resolution is 640*480, but you can change this by unfolding the drop down menu:
Full screen is recommended for a Slideshow:
To start, click the red record button:
You will get a few seconds to collect your thoughts:
After finishing your slide show, stop the recording from the taskbar icon, and stop the recording: .
From the video window that opens:
1. You can preview it
  And upload it which includes encoding which takes a bit of time (but not as much as encoding of webcam footage).
Finally,
1. you can see the result in your media library
3. preview it once more:
4. and submit your video content from the media library.
Kaltura screencasts can be used from any Java-compatible device. In the LRC, however, you can also record screencasts to files, using MS-Community Clips which you can still upload to Kaltura – extra step, though –, while maintaining compatibility with Mahara.