Main new features of Moodle 3.11

The Moodle Upgrade to Moodle 3.11 has now been completed. Moodle looks and operates essentially the same as before: there are no major changes. There are a few new features: Student activity completion Instead of tick boxes, there are now clear labels to indicate to students what they need “To do” and when completed. You …

Changes to where Teams meeting recordings are stored

Next Monday 4th July, is now confirmed as the date when changes will take place to where Teams meeting recordings are stored. While new meeting recordings will continue to appear in the Teams Chat, they will NOT now be stored in Microsoft Stream. Recordings will appear in your personal OneDrive if: you have created the …

More accessible ways to use Turnitin Feedback Studio

 Accessibility can be an issue for both students and staff using Moodle. If you are spending hours studying or marking online, then you want it to be as comfortable as possible.  I’ve been asked by several staff if there’s anything the marking technologies can do to support academics marking who have vision impairment. We’ve collected …

How to download your feedback from assignments

At this time of year students are submitting assignments and exams and, once marked, you’ll then want to view your feedback. We recommend saving off a copy of your feedback for future reference, to plan for future assignments and exams, and to provide evidence for job and further degree course applications. You should do this …

The Courtyard

The painting “A Courtyard in Chernihiv”, by Victor Onyschchenko, shows what I’d probably call a back alley. It’s that space behind the house (or beside the house) where you park your bike, play with the dog, kick a ball around, do a bit of experimental “gardening”. This courtyard is in a city far away, but …

Top ten tips for preparing for online exams

At this time of year, we find students often have questions about exams or assignments, so here are our top tips for coping with the technical aspects of online exam season.  Where are you going to be for the exam? Make sure you’re not in a house full of people watching Netflix etc. If this …

Submitting dissertations and assignments

At dissertation time, we often get questions relating to preparation of documents and submitting online. Here are some of the things you can do to avoid problems previous students have had with submitting dissertations or assignments. Preparing your document, including converting a document to PDF Many dropboxes specify that a PDF must be provided.  Dissertations …

Why you should never reveal your SPY, SUPERHERO or ROCKSTAR name

You’ve seen it on Facebook loads of times (the examples are not real!). Questions like these: What’s your SPY name (middle name and current street name), e.g., Jane Middleham What’s your JEDI name (middle name spelled backwards, your mother’s maiden name spelled backwards): e.g.,Enaj NosnhoJ Your SUPERHERO name: (“The”, your favourite colour and your first car): e.g., The Purple Astra …

Blind double marking with Turnitin

Although much requested as a feature, as yet neither Moodle nor Turnitin goes very far technically in enabling double marking, second marking, moderation, or sampling, and certainly not blind double marking. In most cases, an external document such as a spreadsheet, or two spreadsheets, are still the best way to manage double marking. The two …

Word games and learning – make your own Wordle!

So have you caught the Wordle bug yet?  I have. And of course there’s a group of colleagues sharing our scores… It’s taught me a few things that I hope to apply to my digital learning design, particularly perhaps for revision and key learning points: Make it a small activity: Wordle takes a few minutes …