User Manual for Students

Compiled by the Distance Learning School, UPSA including adaption of user instructions from:

Moodle Docs “https://docs.moodle.org/”

Oklahoma City Community College Moodle Student Guide

“http://www.occc.edu/c4lt/pdf/snap/MoodleStudentGuide.pdf”

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 Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 4

Aims and objectives ....................................................................................................................................... 4

Aim............................................................................................................................................................. 4

Objectives .................................................................................................................................................. 4

First time login ............................................................................................................................................... 5

How to navigate within your portal .............................................................................................................. 8

User (Student) Profile .................................................................................................................................... 9

Your profile ................................................................................................................................................ 9

To view and Edit your profile .................................................................................................................. 10

To edit Profile .......................................................................................................................................... 11

Your notifications and messages ............................................................................................................. 12

Your courses ............................................................................................................................................ 12

Your dashboard ....................................................................................................................................... 13

Downloading Course Materials ................................................................................................................... 14

Using/Opening downloaded file.............................................................................................................. 15

Saving downloaded file ........................................................................................................................... 16

Assignments and Review Exercise ............................................................................................................... 16

To attempt a question ............................................................................................................................. 16

Participation in a Forum .............................................................................................................................. 18

To join in an already started topic........................................................................................................... 19

To start a new discussion ........................................................................................................................ 21

Online Exams or quizzes .............................................................................................................................. 23

Before beginning an exam or quiz ........................................................................................................... 23

If issues arise............................................................................................................................................ 23

Starting an exam or quiz .......................................................................................................................... 23

Taking an exam or quiz ............................................................................................................................ 25

How to check your grades? ..................................................................................................................... 28

Messaging .................................................................................................................................................... 31
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 Messaging features ................................................................................................................................. 31

Contents .................................................................................................................................................. 32

Personal messaging space ....................................................................................................................... 32

Deleting messages ................................................................................................................................... 33

Restricting who can message you ........................................................................................................... 33

Group messaging ..................................................................................................................................... 33

Sending a message to selected course participants ................................................................................ 33

Log Out ........................................................................................................................................................ 34

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Introduction
In this guide you will be introduced to the basics of participating in an online course or as part of
your regular class.

The actual appearance on screen is governed by settings on your own computer plus what courses
you are enrolled in, and as a result what you see may be slightly different from that shown in the
examples.

Please follow the steps in the order shown until you have completed the sections on entering the
course and basic navigation.

Aims and objectives

Aim
To provide a guideline for using an online learning environment

Objectives
After going through this manual, students should be able to:

1. Able to log into UPSA Virtual

2. Enroll into a course
3. Identify the key elements of the course
4. Navigate around a course
5. Work on review questions and assignment
6. Interact with the course lecturer and other students

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First time login
1. Type the address join.upsavirtual.site in the address bar of the browser

2. Login by clicking on the top login link or the left down link as indicated by the ovals
below

3. Log in with your user name and password

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 4. Change your password and click Save Changes

5. Click on Continue

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On successful login your Portal will be loaded for you. On the top left (marked oval) is Home,
Dashboard, Events, and MyCourses

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 1. Click on MyCourses to view all courses you have registered for the semester

2. Click on a particular course to accees the resources and activities of the course

How to navigate within your portal

1. Click on any link on you left side to move directly to it

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User (Student) Profile

Your profile

You can access your profile from the user menu top right. It's where you see your name and an
arrow. Click there (1) to open up the menu (2) Clicking the Profile link will then display other
options, such as a list of your courses, any forum and blog entries and a link to edit your profile
(3).

Your profile page

Clicking the Edit profile link will allow you to change certain information such as your correct
timezone, add an avatar, description and, optionally, extra contact details. You cannot normally
change your username and your admin might have restricted other changes too.

When you upload an image, it will appear in the user menu by your name and also on your
Dashboard page.

Retrieved from
"https://docs.moodle.org/37/en/index.php?title=User_quick_guide&oldid=132690"

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To view and Edit your profile
1. Put the cursor on your name in the top right corner

This will show the Dashboard, View profile, Edit Profile, Grades, Preferences, Calendar, and
Logout

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To edit Profile
1. Click on Edit profile

2. Make changes to your particulars and scroll down and click on update profile

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Your notifications and messages

Your site can alert you when you have new messages from your teacher and other participants.
You can receive alerts about new forum posts or graded assignments and more.

You can receive these alerts via email or pop up, and you can control how you receive them from
Preferences > Message preferences in the user menu. The documentation Messaging gives more
detail.

Sending a message

If your Moodle admin has set the site up for the mobile app, you can also receive alerts on your
mobile phone. See Moodle Mobile for more information.

Your courses

How you find courses depends on how the administrator has set up the site.

Site front page - Some sites display all their courses on the front page and students click to enrol
themselves into a course. When you are logged in, some site front pages may display only the
courses you are enrolled in (to avoid clutter and confusion).

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List of available courses

Dashboard - This is your personal page which you can customise and view your enrolled courses
and outstanding tasks. More information in the section below.

Your dashboard

Every user has their own dashboard which they can customise. The screencast Dashboard gives
a brief introduction to this, and the documentation on Dashboard gives further information.

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Your dashboard

You can access your dashboard quickly, from the user menu top right and your site may redirect
you automatically to your dashboard once you are logged in.

Retrieved from
"https://docs.moodle.org/37/en/index.php?title=User_quick_guide&oldid=132690"

Downloading Course Materials

1. Click on the links below the title Unit Materials as indicated by the arrow below

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 2. The Download dialog box will show after clicking on the course material link. You have
the option of saving the file or open the file and click on ok.

Using/Opening downloaded file

1. Select option open and click ok. The file will be loaded in the file format as shown below.

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Saving downloaded file
1. Select the option save and click ok

The file will be save into your download folder

Assignments and Review Exercise

To attempt a question
1. Click on the review question below the review exercise

2. Click on add submission to type in your answers to review questions

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 3. Type your answers to the questions in the online text box and click on save changes

4. After clicking on save changes the dialog box is show below. You can edit your
submission if you want to. If you don’t want to edit your submission, click on the Unit on
the left as indicated in the diagram below to go back to the course page.

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Participation in a Forum
1. Click on forum below the Review Exercise as indicated in the diagram below

2. You can join in a discussion already posted by the lecturer or a colleague or you can start
a new discussion

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To join in an already started topic
1. Click on the topic below Discussion

2. Click on reply to share your view on the question raised

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 3. You can type in your views or attach your view from file

4. Scroll down and click on post to forum

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 5. You can delete, or edit your post

To start a new discussion

1. Click on add a new discussion topic

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 2 . Type in, or attach your topic, and input a message

3. Scroll down and click on post to forum

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Online Exams or quizzes

Before beginning an exam or quiz

 Be sure you’ve studied the course material!

As most of your exams will be timed, it is imperative you use your time wisely. Being
prepared will reduce much of the stress associated with taking exams.

• Be sure you have enough free time to finish the exam!

Once you press the start button on an exam, the timer will begin and continue to
count down until time has expired, whether you are actively taking the exam or not.

Do not navigate to other pages in UPSA-VIRTUAL while you have the exam open. This
can cause issues with your submission.

• Be sure you have a reliable Internet connection.

You should only start exams from a reliable Internet connection. If your home Internet
connection fails often or has other issues, you may want to take your exams from a
more reliable Internet connection.

 Be sure you fully submit the exam once you are finished.

If you navigate away from the exam before completing the submission process
your exam may not save properly, or other issues could arise.

If issues arise

• Be sure to contact your Coordinator or Lecturer immediately to make them aware of

your issues.

Starting an exam or quiz

Select the exam from the course home page.

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The next page has your instructor’s directions for the exam, information about the
number of attempts allowed and time limit, and the Attempt quiz now button.

Be sure you have enough time to finish your exam.

After ensuring you are prepared to begin the exam and going over your instructor’s
directions, use the Attempt quiz now button to begin your attempt.

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A confirmation box will load, reminding you of the time limit and number of attempts. If you
are certain you are ready to begin, use the Start attempt button to begin. This will begin the
exam and start the timer.

Taking an exam or quiz

After starting the attempt, the first page of quiz questions will be displayed along with the quiz
timer at the bottom of the page.

To answer multiple choice or true/false questions, simply select the answer you believe is
correct. For essay and short answer type questions, you will need to type your responses into
the indicated fields. Other question types may require you to select the correct answer from
a drop-down menu.

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When you have answered all of the questions on a page, use the Next button at the bottom
of the page to navigate to the next page, or to begin the submission process if you are on the
last page.

This will show you a summary of your attempt, including any unanswered questions and the
amount of time remaining. If you have skipped a question, it will be shown here as Not yet
answered. A question’s number under the Question heading is a link that can be used to take
you directly to a question. The Return to attempt button will take you to the beginning of the
exam.

After verifying you have answered every question and you are satisfied with your attempt, use
the Submit all and finish button to submit your attempt for scoring.

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Depending on your instructor’s settings, this will take you to a review. Here you can see a
review of your attempt, which will show you information about each question and your
results.

When you are done reviewing your submission, use the Finish review link at the bottom of the
page to end the review.

This will take you back to the start page of the exam or quiz. This page will give you an
overview of your previous attempts and enable you to attempt the exam again if your
instructor allows more than one attempt

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How to check your grades?

To check your grades, go to the course’s home page. In the CONTENTS menu, select Course
tools.

In the Course tools area, select Gradebook.

This loads your User report, which lists your grades for each assignment and your course total.

If you have questions regarding your grades, please contact your instructor

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Questions about your course, course material, coursework, or grades should always be
directed to your instructor.

Contacting your instructor from Moodle is EASY!

From the course home page, select Course tools in the CONTENTS menu.

Scroll down from course tools area until you locate the Quickmail heading. Select
Compose New Email beneath this heading.

Select the name of your instructor in the Potential Recipients list. When the instructor’s
name is highlighted, use the Add button.

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Scroll down on the page to locate the Message composition area.

You can attach any desired files, add a subject, and type a message to your instructor here. If
you would like to receive a copy of your email, select Yes beneath Receive a copy. Use the
Send Email button when finished to send the email.

Retrieved from: “http://www.occc.edu/c4lt/pdf/snap/MoodleStudentGuide.pdf#search=moodle%20”

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Messaging

Unless disabled by the administrator (in Advanced features), teachers, students and other users
may send and receive private messages via UPSA-VIRTUAL. This is in addition to receiving
notifications about assignments, forum discussions etc.

Messaging features

 A number at the top of the screen reflects the number of people who have sent new
messages.
 Clicking the icon displays the messaging drawer, divided into starred messages, group
messages and personal messages.
 Contacts and contact requests may be accessed from the Contacts link.
 A star may be added by clicking the three dots when viewing a message

 From the three dots, messages may be muted, so that email notifications of new
messages are no longer sent:

 Clicking the cog icon displays privacy settings, notification preferences and the option to
press enter to send messages.

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Contents

Personal messaging space

Each user now has their own starred area where they can add draft messages, links and notes
for later use:

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Deleting messages

 Messages may be deleted by clicking them, ensuring they are selected (with a visible
checkmark) and then clicking the bin/trash can icon at the bottom of the messaging
drawer.
 Note that messages are only deleted for that particular user, not others involved in the
conversation.
 Teachers may delete the messages of others in a group conversation if they are given the
capability

Restricting who can message you

 By default, when clicking the cog icon, a user has the option to restrict messages to their
contacts only or to their contacts and others in their courses.
 However, the administrator can enable site wide messaging, thus giving visibility to all
users, from a setting in Advanced features.

Group messaging

 A teacher or user with the capability can enable group messaging when setting up a
course group. The group will then appear in the group messaging section of the
messaging drawer.

Sending a message to selected course participants

A teacher can send a message to course participants as follows:

1. Go to the Participants page.

2. Select participants from the list or use the "Select all" button at the bottom of the list.
3. Choose "Add/send message" from the "With selected users..." drop-down menu.

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 4. Assuming you are satisfied with the message, click the "Send" button.

Retrieved from "https://docs.moodle.org/37/en/index.php?title=Messaging&oldid=134840"

Log Out
Put cursor on your name in the top right corner and click on log out

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