moodle | Thomas' Work Space

How to do writing assignments in Moodle with deadlines, file and response file upload and MS-Word tracked changes

2012/01/20 plagwitz Leave a comment

Benefits
1. Keep the cohort in shape and focus it on studying by enforcing deadlines.
2. You can have students automatically receive reminders of the upcoming deadlines from their calendar (in NINERMAIL, no need to even look at the Moodle Calendar)
3. You can save time managing the assignment.
  1. Moodle does it for you; you will save even more time once you begin recycling your assignment across terms) and rather provide more timely feedback, and improve changes that your feedback arrives during a teachable moment.
  2. Automatic email notifications, which are available in Moodle for teachers (if you do not prefer to grade student submissions in a batch) and students to (automatic correction and grading is not ready for prime-time when it comes to essay writing; you may however consider teaching some more basic writing skills using it with close-exercises in Moodle).
4. Costs
  1. You need to TBA:create a Moodle file upload assignment for writing (once)
  2. You need to grade a Moodle file upload assignment for writing (any time you assign; depending on your preference as submissions arrive or conveniently as a batch from the gradebook past the deadline)
    1. I prefer the MS-Word reviewing features for grading writing assignments,
    2. but other tools have other affordances, e.g. like recently described here for Adobe Acrobat Professional.
  3. Moodle does not automatically add unique usernames to student submitted files like Blackboard. It also does not afford the TBA:convenience of a shared network storage that the WebDAV-based Blackboard Content system provides. However, as long as you do not need to maintain a local archive of student submissions, you can rely on the Moodle gradebook managing the archive of assignment files (student submissions and teacher response files).
  4. How? These 4 posts guide you through the entire workflow from teacher to student back to teacher to student:

Categories: assignments, audience-is-teachers, e-languages, lms, office-software, Writing Tags: 1.9, gradebook, moodle, MS-Word, reviewing, simple-file-upload

How a student reviews a Moodle MS-Word file upload assignment for writing

2012/01/18 plagwitz 1 comment

The student can see the submitted grade in her user report:
She can view the assignment:
from where she can open the corrected MS-word file
for more detailed corrective feedback:

Categories: Arabic, audience-is-students, documentation, e-languages, English, Farsi, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Writing, Yoruba Tags: moodle, MS-Word, track-changes

How a teacher grades a Moodle MS-Word file upload assignment for writing

2012/01/18 plagwitz 1 comment

Where students have submitted MS-Word files in the Gradebook, click (1) button “Grade”:
This opens the (2) Feedback window, with the (3) student MS-Word submission:
Download the student MS-Word submission by clicking on the link:
open with MS-Word:
Correct with track changes turned on (CTRL+SHIFT+E), and save:
YOU WILL SAVE under a different filename (suggest adding “_corrected”at the end) INTO YOUR DEFAULT TEMP DIRECTORY, here is a shortcut to get to it: key-combination WIN+R, %temp%, “ “OK”:
Back in Moodle, select your response file from the temporary directory:
Provide (1) Grade and (2) comment, then (3) upload the file:
Done, you can move to “ Next”
Which is where you are here: now repeat as above (provided student has submitted his file already)
Or view the gradebook, where your results are visible,
including to the student.
Instead of using the Moodle Response File feature, can I just make my corrections in MS-Word and copy/paste the resulting track changes markup into the Moodle Feedback Window Comment textbox? I would not try this. This way, you are not giving the students the full functionality of the track changes feature in MS-Word for them to continue working with the file. Moreover, whether the basic coloring of track MS-Word’s changes get preserved, will likely depend on how the web browser that you (and possibly the student later) uses supports the rich edit control of the comment textbox. If you just want to preserve the colors, I would instead try and Save as PDf from MS-Word 2007 and up, and send the PDF as a Response File.

Categories: all-languages, audience-is-teachers, lms, Writing Tags: moodle, MS-Word, track-changes

How to view all assignments per student in a Moodle course

2012/01/18 plagwitz Leave a comment

follow the screencast from the gradebook, clicking on a student name in the row headers, “ activity reports”, “complete report” (plays in Windows media player on Windows).
to get this (note the breadcrumbs on top pointing to “ Reports” / “ Complete” )):

Categories: audience-is-teachers, lms Tags: 1.9, gradebook, moodle

Sanako comparative recording exercises using Moodle

2012/01/13 plagwitz Leave a comment

Comparative recordings are one of the best-established practices in SLA with technology. We can implement them here using:
1. The Sanako Study 1200 language lab software installed in LRCRoomCoed434 facilitates comparative recordings by students, based on a teacher-provided model audio, with its student dual track recorder software.
2. Moodle’s Simple file upload assignment aids in managing the workflow,
  1. from delivering the audio file with the model recording to the student
  2. to organizing, assessing and grading the student input.
For the teacher
1. to create such an exercise, she
  1. creates an audio recording that serves as a model for the student pronunciation – a special application of our Audacity recording introduction. It is advised, however, to insert clear cues for the student to start his repetition.
  2. creates a Moodle’s Simple file upload assignment to which she attaches the audio recording
2. continue with How a teacher grades a Moodle simple file upload assignment
For the students to take such an exercise:

Categories: Absolute-Beginner, Arabic, audience-is-teachers, Beginner, documentation, e-languages, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek (modern), Intermediate, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, software, Spanish, Speaking, Student-Computers, Yoruba Tags: moodle, sanako-study-1200, student.exe

How a student takes a Moodle Single file upload assignment

2012/01/13 plagwitz 2 comments

Find your assignment:
read the assignment text:
Create the file locally, according to the assignment text
Click the browse box and upload your file from your hard drive:
Once the upload finishes, click: “ Continue”
You are done:
Now wait for your grade.

Categories: assignments, audience-is-students, e-learning, lms Tags: moodle, single-file-upload

How a teacher grades a Moodle simple file upload assignment

2012/01/13 plagwitz 1 comment

When you initially createdyour single file upload assignment, there were no student submissions:
Once there are, the link in the upper right of the assignment will tell you and take you right to the gradebook:
Here you have an (1) overview who has submitted, and can click (2) to grade;
In the grading dialogue, you can (1) download and open the file submission (see techniques of grading student audio submissions with Audacity), (2) write comments as you assess the file, (3) assign a final grade and (4) save and move on to the next submission (fastest, when you do batch grading, the notify student of your grading feedback is still useful under these circumstances, but even more so when you your self asked to be notified by email of student submissions as they come in: faster feedback)

Categories: assignments, audience-is-teachers, e-learning, lms, Speaking Tags: audacity, moodle, simple-file-upload

How a teacher creates a Moodle Single file upload assignment, with optional attached file

2012/01/13 plagwitz 1 comment

turn editing on
add activity / simple file upload
Write the assignment instructions
For your students to be able to download a fle with additional information (e.g. the model recording), select some text pointing to it and click the link icon on the editor menu
(1) button: “browse”, (2) click your file uploaded into your moodle course earlier, have the window close and (3) your URL appear (or type one manually, if the file is from the WWW), (4) click button: “ok”:
Voilà, your link:
set the other assignment options according to your needs :
click button: “save and display”, you are done: