E-learning: Pre-course questionnaire

It's a good practice to create an statement for students to sing in before they take your online courses. I am copying below the statement in an online course I am taking at the moment...

Course Title This questionnaire forms the first part of the course evaluation. It is intended to seek your awareness of [Course's Title here] and your expectations of the course. You should fill it in and return it before you start the activities of week 1. It should take no more than 10 minutes to complete this questionnaire. All information provided in this questionnaire is anonymous and will remain strictly confidential. It will be used for the sole purpose of the course evaluation.  *Required Please tick the statement below before you start completing the questionnaire: I understand that the information that I will provide in this online questionnaire will be used for the sole purpose of the course '[Course's Title here]' and can be used for educational or research purposes, including publication. * □ I understand the statement Thank you in advance for your participation.

Questionnaire should follow now...

Some questions as an example...

Have you taken a course delivered mostly or fully online before (including MOOCs)?
Yes/No

What do you hope to get out of this course? (Please tick all that apply) *

Improve my career prospects

Learn new things

Learn more flexibly around my other commitments

Add a fresh perspective to my current work

Interact with other people

Supplement my existing professional development

No expectations

Other:

Please rate from "strongly dislike" to "strongly like" how you would like to learn this course (Please select one option for each row.) *
Strongly dislike/ Dislike /Neutral /Like /Strongly like /Don't know

by reading text
by watching videos
by reading comments posted by other participants
by discussing things with other participants in live webinars
by trying things out and receiving feedback
by doing quizzes and getting immediate feedback

We would like to have your current perspectives on '[Course's Title here]'. Please rate the following statements from 'strongly disagree' to 'strongly agree'.
....
....

After the questionnaire and if you would like to link the questionnaire results to the student results in the course you could place the next...

For reporting reason only We’d like to record your email address so that we can link your responses on this survey to your  '[Course's Title here]'account and to your responses to the post-course questionnaire which will be sent to you at the end of the course and use them to improve learning experience. If you prefer to remain anonymous, please just leave this question blank. If you would like to allow us to link your survey responses to your '[Course's Title here]' account, please provide your email address below. What is your email address? This should be the email address you used to sign up to'[Course's Title here]'

Finally you can show an screen as follows...

'[Course's Title here]' Thank you for completing this questionnaire. Your answers were submitted. All information provided in this questionnaire is anonymous and will remain strictly confidential. It will be used for the sole purpose of the course evaluation. Let's meet on the course '[Course's Title here]'  Link to course here

Hope the above is useful. Please write your comments below...

Moodle's embedded Youtube Videos: Customize Player Parameters

When working with Moodle (or with your website) it's great to take advance of the videos in Youtube as to be able to customize the players in the embedded videos so they show the controls that you want...

1. The basic steps here. Youtube give you an interface to configure some options
2. For more advanced requirements, you will learn how to customize a lot of parameters looking at the website here
3. If you still can not get what you want you can find answers or ask questions in the 'YouTube Help' forum. I found some answer for the right 'related videos' code in this specific question of that forum.

As an example, there are a lot of people who do not like the idea of having their Moodle students going to Youtube when clicking in the link in the top of an embedded video.

Example: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iOyLq0B-rz0?'start=136&end=178"rel=0&;autoplay=0&;showinfo=0&;modestbranding=1" frameborder="0"></iframe>


Where...
start begin playing the video at the given number of seconds
end measured in seconds from the start of the video, when the player should stop playing the video
rel=0 whether the player should show related videos when playback of the initial video ends.
controls=0 whether the video player controls are displayed
showinfo=0 Setting the parameter's value to 0 causes the player to not display information like the video title and uploader before the video starts playing
modestbranding=1 to have a player that does not show a YouTube logo
“#t=”   add “#t=” to a video’s embed code, followed by the time at which you’d like the video to begin playing.
Orther interesting options...
&autoplay=1 Make an embedded video play automatically
Add “#t=” to a video’s embed code, followed by the time at which you’d like the video to begin playing to start an embedded video at a certain time (you can now configure the same from youtube interface when clicking in embed)

If you have problems with your code, there are some interesting answers here

See the video embedded below (the start and end time code has been removed here)...



Please write your comments below...

Moodle: Blocks for Events

Good video created by Moodle. You can send it to teachers for them to have a nice overview about the different Blocks for Events in Moodle.

I like the 'trick' in the video in minute '1:50' in how to replace the calendar block by double clicking the icon in the calendar and selecting an area to move the calendar to.

Please write your comments below...

Open Textbooks

British Columbia  University (Canada) has a web where they are sharing open textbooks. The contents in that books is either created by British Columbia or just adopted from open materials already available on internet. They seems to be saving a lot of money to students with that project and other universities can use these open textbooks for their courses too. Here is an introduction to the project

Mobile World Congress 2016

This year (2016)  'Mobile World Congress'  will be on Barcelona from 22-25 February. I am sure that there will be incredible innovations in mobile devices and will keep an eye on the online reports about that congress to try to predict the impact of all that innovations in the mobile learning sector.

Researching about which could be the new innovations, I found this link very informative about the trends in mobile learning in 2016.

Moodle statistics

This is a highly recommended Moodle to get the statistics option activated. If it's on your site will generate very nice and useful graphs and tables showing activity of  users. The Report types you can generate are  as follows...

1. All activity
2. Views
3. Posts

To enable statistics you need to follow the next steps...

1. ‘Enable statistics’ under Site administration--Advanced features
2. After step 1 the link 'Statistics' will show under Site administration--Server
3. After clicking in the link 'Statistics' in the last step, another page will show up to set variables as Maximum processing interval, Maximum runtime, Days to process, Run at. (I didn't change anything here)
4. After the last steps, When I go to Site administration--Reports--Statistics and, in the select boxes, choose

Once the statistics are enabled, a manager, teacher or non-editing teacher will be able to see the graphs and tables for a course activity under the course layout in Reports > Statistics.

As an administrator, and this is my favorite part, you will be able to see the hole site activity under Settings > Site administration > Reports > Statistics
This is very useful for managers in the Educative organization, as can support decision making moments. As an example, if statistics is on you will be able to see how the Moodle user activity increase from year to year, in the case you Moodle stores information from several years.

With a quick search I found some other plugins that provide staticitis information as...

Overview statistics

Look at this link for more information on Analytics & Reports in Moodle

Moodle user profile page: customization

Some interesting customization tips for the user profile page in Moodle...




A. Setting the blocks on the default profile page for new users.

1. Access Administration > Site administration > Appearance > Default profile page.
2. Add blocks using the "Add a block" drop-down. Configure each block as desired.

B. Adding blocks to all profile pages:

1. Add the block to the front page
2. Set the page contexts to 'Display throughout the entire site'
3. Go to your profile and set 'Display on page types' to 'Only user profile pages'

C. Preventing users from updating their profile:

1. Administration > Site administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles; 
2. when editing the authenticated user role we need to unselect moodle/user:manageownblocks

D. Creating new user profile categories and fields

1. Go to Administration > Site administration > Users > Accounts > User profile fields
2. You can configure settings as...

• Is this field required?
• Is this field locked?
• Should the data be unique?
• Display on signup page?
• Who is this field visible to?
• If it's Checked by default

E. Removing the "customise this page" button from the students profile only (Not teachers)
I found the solution for that in this Forum in the Moodle community.

F. Using profile fields visible to students 

when the students click in their profile under the Navigation block and before clicking in 'Edit Profile' they are able to see just certain fields. I am still looking for the place where I can set which field are showing in there.

*Other options about 'User Profile Fields' here

Influence of public funding in Higher Education in the E-learning sector in Europe

The 'Higher Education in Ireland' is facing a rising in student numbers and dwindling resources since the crash in 2008. As the below table shows, it seems that the Higher Education in Ireland is suffering more than Higher Education in other European countries affected by the economic crash.



I am wondering about the impact of the above situation in the e-learning sector in Higher Education in Ireland and the EU. I think that all the Institutes of Technology and Universities in Europe have a LMS (Learning Management System) to support their face to face classes or even to deliver full masters and degrees online, but i doubt that all of them have a professional that can properly administrate that system.

From my point of view, this situation will have two main consequences in the e-learning sector:

1. A fostering in the use of online resources by lecturers in Higher Education, as they face classes with a lot of more students. Some of the lecturers that have never use a LMS in their classes before are pushed to do it to save time and effort and manage to overcome their busy schedules.

2. At the same time, the lack of funding might influence the implementation of LMSs and the recruitment of qualified e-learning professionals that could manage the new tendency.

The challenge for the European Higher Education sectors in countries like Ireland, Spain, Portugal... will be to provide enough professionals that could properly show the right path to all lecturers that struggle with new educational technologies in their classes.

The Higher Education system will need to plan the provision of more degrees and masters in e-learning in all that countries in order to counteract this situation.

Please write your comments and ideas below.

Wikispaces for educators

Going to wikispaces.com you will be able to create your own wiki.

They offer two types of wikis for free...

• For educators
• For businesses, non-profits, government, community groups, individuals, and everyone else not in education.

To create an account is very easy, you need to give them an email address, but you will not need to click in the confirmation email to create the account.

Once you create your wiki you can add Files, Events, disscussions and projects.

Also, you will have the option to create a Wikispaces Campus account, but that is not free and starts at $1000 / year for 100 users.

Google Sites

Google give you the possibility to create your own website throught 'Google sites'. To do that just go to the next link https://sites.google.com/site/sites and Create a new Site. You will be able to create a blank site or to use the google templates where you will just need to add your contents.

I have created the next site as a test: https://sites.google.com/site/antonioarco6/



If this is useful for you, please add your comments bellow...

Moodle: Portfolios

A. To enable Portfolios in Moodle you need to follow the next steps...
* Used Moodle 2.7

1. Check the box 'enable portfolios' in Settings > Site administration > Advanced features
2. A link will now show under Settings > Site administration > Plugins > Portfolios > Manage portfolios
3.  In the link in step 2 you will be able to enable the next portfolios...

• Box.net
• File download
• Flickr.com
• Google Docs
• Picasa
• Mahara. Mahara is open source and works well with Moodle. Here you can see how to connect Mahara and Moodle. (Another related link here)
• Portfolios FAQ
• Mahara ePortfolio

B. How to use Google and Mahara for portfolios (information for two of the above Portfolio tools)

Once your Moodle is connected to Google Drive or Mahara you will need to learn how to create a portfolio.

1. Google Apps for portfolios
Google apps are amazing and you can do a lot of what is in your imagination but the main ways in which you can use create a portfolio using Google apps are...

1. Shared folder
2. Google doc with a table of contents
3. Google slides
4. Google sites

Here is a very interesting link in how to deal with every of that tools.

2. Mahara. I found an interesting videotutorial

Please write your comments below.

Moodle Statistics

To see Statistics about the user activity in your Moodle, you will need to follow the next steps...

1. Tick the ‘Enable statistics’ under Site administration--Advanced features
2. After step 1 the link 'Statistics' will show under Site administration--Server
3. After you click in the link 'Statistics' in the last step, another page will show up where you can set variables as 'Maximum processing interval', 'Maximum runtime', 'Days to process', 'Run at:', 'User threshold'

4. After the last steps, when you go to Site administration--Report--statistics you will be able to filter, in the select boxes by Course, Report type and Time period. The information is shown together with visual graphics.

Hope that help!

Creating a newsletter to send by Email

In my diary work apart from solving all questions and problems, related to our LMS, found by students at lecturers, I need to promote the use of educational technology among the academic community. 

My aim is to make lecturers to go an step beyond and start using an activity in Moodle they have never used before or let them know about new ways in which they can help themselves and their students using Moodle.

My predecessors had a basic workshops training for lecturers, so a couple of times per week an email will be send to all lecturers to let them know about the two sessions in which different Moodle tools and skills will be taught. 

I keep teaching these 30 minutes to 1 hour workshops as they are very useful for lecturers but not all of them are willing to come to the workshop or, even if they are, not all of them will find enough time, in their already busy schedules, to come for the face to face sessions.

As the assistance to that workshop is very low, I thought about a new way in which I could make that learning and motivation to get to lecturers and my idea was make the learning go to their mobile and computer screens a couple of time per week and in the format of very short videos. 

To accomplish that I first though that I will need to send a nice and professional email to all staff inviting them to watch the Moodle Minute Videos. To create that email I used the next tools:

1. Komposer: I downloaded this HTML free editor 

2. Downloaded a free template from https://99designs.com

The process was as described…

a) Edited the downloaded template with Komposer and adjusted it as wished.

b) Saved it as html and opened it with Internet explorer

c) In internet explorer under the next path: File—Send—Page by Email (If you do not see ‘File’ in the top left is because it’s hidden. Click ALT on the keyboard and the menu bar will show up)

d) That will open the html designed email in the default email program installed in your computer (Outlook in my case).

Creative ways to promote the use of technology at Universities

One of the best examples in the use of new technologies in Education is the  Open University's. During four years their initiative 'eSTEeM' have been bringing together academics (STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) to promote innovation in online learning. They are providing a mechanism for professional development through practice-based scholarship within a mentored community.

In the Science field they have a lab where they accept students and academic to access experiments with new technologies
 Among their activities they facilitate feedback forums where student can suggest ideas: For example in their 'Ecological interactions on iSpot' they provide the link to a forum with feedback's aims.

Moodle: Total number of courses, users, posts...

At first view, it seems like a very easy information to find out in Moodle, and it's if you know where it is.

You can find that information under the 'administration block'-- Site administration--Registration-There, under the label 'More information' you will be able to find the bellow information.


Number of courses (0000)
Number of users (00000)
Number of role assignments (00000)
Number of posts (00000)
Number of questions (00000)
Number of resources (00000)
Number of badges (0)
Number of issued badges (0)
Average number of participants (00.0)
Average number of course modules (00.00)



Other ways to extract specific information in Moodle are...

Bulk user actions: creating a 'New filter' under 'Bulk user actions' (under Site administration) or you can install the ''Custom SQL queries report', this admin report plugin allows Administrators to set up arbitrary database queries to act as ad-hoc reports.

Site Wide Reports: There are some options where but I would like to highlight 'Question instances': lists all the contexts in the system where there are questions of a particular type...

Course Reports: Here is a video in Moolde showing how to use them.