Welcome back!
We hope everyone is having a great start to the Spring 2020 semester! This month’s Moodle News includes our Spring 2020 Faculty Workshops, Request your Moodle and Echo360 course in SPIRE for Spring 2020, Moodle tip of the month: Upload and Download Groups, and Moodle Help and Resources.
Spring 2020 Workshops
We are offering over 20 workshops during the Spring 2020 semester. Register early to guarantee your spot!
We will be covering topics on educational technology tools and create engaging content, such as Getting Started in Moodle, Getting Started in Echo360, Teaching with Zoom, Quizzing in Moodle, A Gentle Introduction to G-Suite (Apps at UMass), Camtasia for Mac, Building Interactive Content with H5P on Moodle, Engaging Your Students with Echo360, and more.
We will be covering topics on new teaching technology, exploring accessible technology and managing your projects, such as Team Formation and Peer Assessment with CATME: A Faculty Panel, Explore the Future of Classroom Technologies, Creating Accessible Podcast, Introduction to Screen Readers, Group Work with G-Suite (Apps at UMass), and more.
Check out our Innovation Events page to see more and register. Can’t decide which workshops to take? Have questions?
Contact the Instructional Media Lab (instruct@umass.edu | 413-545-2823) for help in deciding which workshops are right for you.
Our colleagues in the IDEAS group and the Center for Teaching and Learning are also running a number of workshops to support faculty and instruction at UMass.
You can see their offerings on the Online Faculty Development Upcoming Events page and the Center for Teaching & Learning Upcoming Events page.
Request Your Spring 2020 Moodle Course in SPIRE
There’s still time to request your Spring 2020 Moodle courses. Remember that every semester you will have to request a new Moodle course through SPIRE.
Request your Echo360 Course in SPIRE
Request your Echo360 course in SPIRE for your Spring 2020 semester. While making your request, you can specify that you’d like to:
- Automatically record in-person class meetings in Classrooms Equipped with Lecture Capture.
- Re-use recordings from a previous semester.
- Create screencasts and record custom lessons for students to watch outside of class with Echo360 Universal Capture.
For step by step instructions, see Request Lecture Capture. Once your Echo360 courses are ready, it’s easy to give students access to Echo360 recordings through Moodle.
Moodle Tip of the Month: Upload and Download Groups
Did you know that you can import groups already populated with students into Moodle by using the Upload / download groups block? This block also lets you download group roster information as a CSV file, or you can upload groups that you’ve already created using a team-building tool such as CATME. Check out our documentation on how to Upload or Download groups from Moodle.
What’s New in Moodle?
We have made some improvements to Moodle to support faculty and instruction at UMass Amherst.
- The histograms are back! Graphic reporting of grade data has once again been made available.
- Selecting a Grouping is now required when creating a group submission assignment to provide clarity.
- We have improved the clarity and functionality of the Manage Back-Up Files tool.
If you have any questions about these features, contact the Instructional Media Lab (instruct@umass.edu | 413-545-2823).
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 | 413-545-2823) with a question, or to set up a time for a one-on-one consultation.