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Millikin University > Staley Library > Educational Technology > Ed Tech Blog > Categories

6/23/2010

Maximize your laptop's battery's life

If you have a Windows based laptop computer (i.e. not a Mac), lifehacker.com provides some useful tips for getting the most time out of your laptop's battery.

Posted at 4:47 PM by Deborah Campbell

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1/11/2010

Moodle: Getting Set-Up for Spring Semester

With classes about to begin, here are a few reminders for instructors about getting your course set-up in Moodle:

1. Training sessions will be offered on Moodle. Click here for dates/times.

2. Moodle courses are automatically generated and enrolled with your students. However, MuOnline contains your OFFICIAL course roster.

3. Adds/Drops - New improvement! Students who add or drop your course (through the Registrar's Office), will be removed from your Moodle course during the next nightly update (please allow 24 hours). The update process will run nightly (Mon-Fri) throughout the duration of the semester.

4. Course Start Date - You will need to set the start date for your course. I recommend choosing the Sunday BEFORE the first day of classes (Jan. 17th for the traditional Spring semester) as your start date--this allows your course to run in a traditional weekly format. Click here for the steps. You will also need to select the correct number of weeks: Choose "17" for a traditional spring semester. Click here for the steps.

5. Adding the Quickmail (E-Mail) Application to Your Moodle Course - If wish to be able to e-mail your class from Moodle, you will need to add the Quickmail application to each of your courses. Click here for the steps.

6. Teaching Multiple Sections - If you teach multiple sections of the same course, and you only want to use one Moodle course shell, contact Joe Hardenbrook. He will set you up with a manually-created course shell that you can use.

7. Teaching Cross-Listed Courses - If you teach a cross-listed course, you will have Moodle course shells for both cross-listed courses. Your students will be displayed in both Moodle course shells. Pick one of the cross-listed course shells to use. Re-title the "full name" of the course (use the Settings link on your course page, but DO NOT change the Short Name) to reflect both course numbers. Then make the course shell you are NOT using unavailable.

8. Moving Content from Old Courses to New Courses - You can transfer all documents/files/labels from old courses to new ones. Click here for the steps. Quiz content must be transferred separately.

9. Fall 2009 Moodle courses have been made unavailable to your students. On instructors' Moodle accounts, these courses will appear "grayed out" and below active courses.

10. More Moodle Tips - http://www.millikin.edu/staley/edtech/Pages/moodle.aspx.

Posted at 11:28 AM by Joe Hardenbrook

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10/30/2009

Podcasting Your Lectures: Step-by-Step

Have you wanted to experiment with recording your lectures? Not sure where to start? The blog, ProfHacker, has some practical tips written by professor on how to record your lectures and then edit them.

Interested in learning more? Conract Joe Hardenbrook for a consultation.

Posted at 1:30 PM by Joe Hardenbrook

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10/6/2009

I Will Survive: Moving Your Class to Moodle When You're Sick

Cold and flu season is upon us. If that weren't enough, we have H1N1 to worry about this year too. What do you do if you're sick? The class sessions keep coming! So, if you're home sick (or need to be away from the classroom for an extended period)--consider moving some of your classroom activities to Moodle.

Here are some tips:

- Assignments: use Moodle's Assignment collection feature to electronically collect your students' work.

- Readings: provide full-text linking to articles available via Staley Library's databases.

- Electronic Reserves: request that Staley Library set up an electronic reserves course with scanned articles and book chapters that your students can access. Contact Amanda Pippitt in the Library for more information.

- Uploading Documents: provide electronic copies of any handouts or notes that you would have given out in class. Word, PDF, PowerPoint, Excel, small audio/video files, etc... Up to 195.3 MB for each file.

- Forums (asynchronous): capture some of the classroom discussion by using online forums. Post a question or topic and ask students to reply online.

- Chat (synchronous): Live, online in real-time "virtual" office hours or discussion.

- Online Quizzes: used by some professors as a "pre-test" or review of previous content. Ideal strategy for determining if students understood concepts and ideas.

- News Forum: available in every Moodle course. Keep students up to date by posting classroom announcements here. Postings are also automatically sent to students' Millikin e-mail accounts too.

- Online Lecture: If you own a laptop with a built in webcam, consider recording a mini-lectures. Break large lectures up into 5 minute increments.

- PowerPoint with Audio: Have a microphone? Add audio to provide more explanation to your PowerPoint presentations.

- Online Learning Objects: provide links to ready-made learning objects, such as those in MERLOT and OpenCourseWare.

Questions on how to do this? Contact Joe Hardenbrook for questions, or to schedule a consultation.

Posted at 3:15 PM by Joe Hardenbrook

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9/24/2009

Moodle: Have your students been clicking?

Information Technology personnel are currently investigating problematic issues with the Last Access feature in Moodle--at a quick glance it is supposed to tell you when a student last access the course. However, there is an alternative, and more robust method for figuring out which documents and activities students have accessed in your Moodle course: the Reports feature. The Reports feature allows you to run an activity report on your entire class, or an individual student.

Directions on how to run a report are located on the Moodle FAQ web page.

Posted at 4:01 PM by Joe Hardenbrook

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9/10/2009

Clicking in the Classroom

Want to break up that lecture? Looking for an opportunity to gain more interaction in your teaching? Try using "clickers"--also commonly referred to as a student response system. With clickers, you pose a question and students respond by choosing their answer choice on the clicker. You get instant results. From there, you can guide your discussion to the next topic, or provide further emphasis based on the feedback you receive.

Clickers are useful for:
- Gauging prior knowledge
- Content review
- Impromptu quizzing
- Serving as a lead-in to class discussion

Want to know more?
Clicking in the Classroom: An Active Learning Approach
7 Things You Should Know About Clickers
Going Beyond Classroom Clickers
Clickers FAQ

Staley Library has 60 clickers from Turning Technologies available for checkout to faculty and staff. The system works within Microsoft PowerPoint, or you can download a non-PowerPoint version to use on computers. Contact Joe Hardenbrook to reserve them for a class or to provide training.

Posted at 5:40 PM by Joe Hardenbrook

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9/8/2009

Weighting Your Grades in Moodle

Many instructors assign specific weights to different areas in their gradebook. For example, maybe papers are worth 40% of the total grade, quizzes are worth 30% of the total grade and so forth. In Moodle, you can create categories in the gradebook, assign a percentage and move all of your individual assignments into their respective categories. For info on how to do this, check out the Moodle FAQ page.

Posted at 10:19 AM by Joe Hardenbrook

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9/2/2009

Moodle: Moving from Beginner to Advanced

Whether you are new to the Moodle course management system, or have been using it in your classes for some time, here are some steps to help advance the level of interaction in your classes.

Beginner:
- Post the syllabus/course outline.
- Add any handouts that you would have normally printed out.
- Require students to edit their Moodle profile, write a description about themselves, and upload a photo.
- Use the gradebook so that students can keep track and "take ownership" of their progress in the course.

Intermediate:
- Collect student work electronically using the Assignments feature.
- Use the Forums feature to continue classroom discussions outside. Require students to respond to a question or topic that you post. Ask them to reply to a fellow student's posting.
- Use the Choice feature to post a simple question and poll students. Ask a question for content review, or to gauge prior knowledge.

Advanced:
- Create an online quiz.
- Hold virtual "office hours" using the Chat feature.
- Use the Journal feature to create a self-reflection component in the course for students.
- Determine whether the textbook you use has an online component (aka "course cartridge") that can be uploaded to your Moodle course. This usually includes interactive activities, quizzes, glossaries, Power Points, etc...

Questions on how to do this? Contact Joe Hardenbrook at jhardenbrook@millikin.edu or call 424-3692.

Posted at 11:51 AM by Joe Hardenbrook

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8/28/2009

Moodle Tip: Learn Names and Faces More Quickly

As the first week of classes end, are students' names and faces just a blur? Use Moodle to get to know them and foster a sense of community! Have students edit their Moodle profile, upload a picture, and ask them to write a little something about themselves (What do you do for fun? What do hope to learn?...).

Want to know more? Click for instructions.

Posted at 11:04 AM by Joe Hardenbrook

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8/27/2009

Automatically Translate Documents into 42 Languages Using Google Docs

Have you used Google Docs before? They have rolled out a nice feature that allows you to translate documents that you write. Google Docs is a free web-based word processing, spreadsheet and presentation application. You don't need to download any software. Just access it through the Internet.

Find out more.

Posted at 10:29 AM by Joe Hardenbrook

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