Summer 2023 course requests open in SPIRE
Summer 2023 course requests are now open in SPIRE. By default, most Summer courses are in Blackboard. If you would like to use Moodle instead, you’ll need to send an email to instruct@umass.edu with your course information and a note that you would like to use Moodle.
If you haven’t done so already, you can still request your Spring 2023 Moodle course in SPIRE. Don’t forget that each semester you will need to request Moodle for the courses you are teaching.
For step by step instructions on requesting a Moodle course, see:
If you request a Moodle course after the first day of classes, you will need to manually make your course available to students once you are ready.
Moodle Tip of the Month: Use Student Reports to check on participation
Did you know the Student Reports in Moodle let you see your students access to your course and content? You can use the reports to check whether students have accessed course content and materials, their progress through the course, and more. This might help you identify students who are disconnecting with the course and need support, or find superstar students who are very active, and give them feedback before Spring break.
Update to Moodle
The Office of Academic Planning and Assessment is deploying the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). The NSSE is a survey of UMass Amherst first-year and senior cohorts designed to assess how involved students are in practices associated with high levels of learning, and it will be available to students in Moodle in March.
Planned Downtimes
There are no planned downtimes outside of regular maintenance windows for March 2023.
Scheduled routine maintenance windows for UMass Amherst Moodle in the Cloud are Thursdays 11pm-12am (ET). Regular maintenance is a necessity for a stable, secure, and improving service. Many of these maintenance windows will not actually have the site unavailable for more than a few minutes, but it is still not advised to plan activities or set due dates during maintenance windows.
You can check the status of Moodle, Zoom, and other supported teaching technologies on the IT Services Status for Remote Teaching and Learning page.
Moodle Help and Resources for Instructors
To learn more about Moodle or to get help, you can:
- Review our Moodle Support Articles.
- Contact the Instructional Media Lab (instruct@umass.edu) with a question, or to set up a time for a one-on-one consultation.
- Request a consultation with an Instructional Designer.
- Join our Instructor Support Zoom room between 10am and 3pm to meet with a staff member.