Category: Uncategorized

FAQ’s

How long can I continue to use Moodle?

Although we encourage you to adopt Canvas for your fall 2021 courses, we realize that timeframe may not work for everyone depending on sabbaticals or other scheduled research.  Moodle will continue to be available for teaching through the spring 2022 term. 

Beginning on Sept. 1, 2022, Moodle will be put into “archive mode” and will continue to be accessible by faculty until Sept. 1, 2025. This will allow faculty to login to Moodle to retrieve course materials and backup a course and restore it to Canvas. You must be on campus and using a Lawrence-owned computer to access Moodle beginning on Sept. 1, 2022.

How soon can I teach in Canvas?

Faculty with no prior Canvas experience should plan to wait until fall term 2021 after taking advantage of training opportunities over the summer.

We have also created a “sandbox course” for each individual faculty member so you can get in and explore at your convenience.

When will training opportunities be available?

The first Canvas workshops will be held during finals week of spring term 2021 and will continue throughout the summer. See the “Canvas training” on the main Canvas info page.

How will my Moodle stuff get into Canvas?

If you would like to have a course exported from Moodle and imported to Canvas, contact Jedidiah Rex. You can also watch this video to learn how you can do this yourself. As of September 2022, you must be on campus to access Moodle.

Which Moodle items will be converted?

Uploaded documents, links, Assignments, Forums, Pages, and Quizzes will all be converted to their Canvas equivalent.

This document is a good resource on this topic.

What new features are available in Canvas?

A few of the more exciting new features include:

* a video/screencast recording tool built into Canvas
* an interactive video tool (pause video at a certain point, pop up a quiz question, student responds, video continues to play, quiz results flow to the gradebook)
* a mobile app for instructors (there is also an app for students)
* a feature called the “Speed Grader” that has a more efficient grading workflow compared to Moodle
* change assignment due dates by a simple drag-and-drop on the Canvas calendar
* a simple way to create office hours or advising appointment slots that students can sign up for
* better communication options including SMS messages to students (if they opt in to the feature)
* one-click course analytics to identify disengaged students
* a peer review assignment feature that is much simpler to setup and use than the Moodle workshop
* 24/7 phone or chat support for faculty and students

What Moodle features will we lose by moving to Canvas?

Some custom quiz question types that we had added to Moodle for Chemistry and Music Theory. We are currently exploring alternatives.

Canvas quizzes cannot be set to be “adaptive” (immediately allow re-attempts on individual questions if a wrong answer is selected). We are currently exploring alternatives.

H5P is not built in to Canvas, but we will offer an integration for those faculty that have invested time building a library of H5P exercises. (As mentioned above, Canvas has a built-in interactive video tool which is one of the more popular H5P activity types.)

Class Share Folders

Those of you who routinely use network class_share folders will need to adopt a new strategy for the spring term. In general, if you have files that are smaller than 200 MB, use Moodle as your file repository. There is no limit to the number of files you can store in Moodle, but each file does need to be under 200 MB.

If you have files that are over 200 MB, place them in a OneDrive folder and share the OneDrive folder with your class.

Video

If you have DVD’s that you would normally put on reserve in the library for students to watch, email Pete Gilbert.

Student Presentations

If possible, plan to use Zoom to have your students give live presentations. If the synchronous nature of live presentations is a problem for your course, consider asking students to use some combination of YouTube, PowerPoint, or Zoom to record their presentations and upload them to Moodle.

YouTube

The YouTube mobile app makes it very easy to record, auto-upload, set privacy settings (we recommend “Unlisted”) on the video, and to get a link back that could be posted as an assignment for you to assess, or to the Moodle forum if all students need to view it.  See this tutorial

PowerPoint

If students are encouraged to use PowerPoint, have them produce a narrated PowerPoint video and upload that to YouTube (or to Moodle if it’s small enough).

Zoom

If a mix of “talking head” and “slides” is best, a student can make a recording using Zoom in the same way you can be clicking record in Zoom, sharing a window, presenting, and then stopping the recording. If video editing is required, a saved Zoom recording could be opened in a video editor like iMovie.

John Seely Brown delivered the keynote at the NITLE Summit last week.

NEW MOODLE Activities will be showcased during the Reading Period. A general review of the application’s core features will also be presented. Join a group of Moodle Users investigating new and effective ways of employing the LMS software.

Two highlighted features will be the:

1. FEEDBACK activity – A NEW anonymous survey tool that can used to conveniently collect student input.

Judith Humphries, visiting Assistant Professor of Biology, will be previewing a recent example of the new FEEDBACK activity.

2. GRADEBOOK function – MOODLE can be of great value organizing and calculating grades AND automatically allowing students up-to-date feedback.

Adam Clausen, visiting Assistant Professor in Physics, will be sharing his experience using the Gradebook function during the 2008 winter term.

Thursday, May 8, 10:00 AM, Main Hall, 108

If you are interested in attending this Moodle workshop, please contact Arno Damerow (damerowa@lawrence.edu). The computer lab will be remain open following the discussion for personal Moodle course development.