NMT Moodle 1.

9 Administrator's Guide
John W. Shipman
2012-02-08 17:39

Abstract
This guide describes procedures for local administration of our Moodle courseware server. This publication is available in Web form1 and also as a PDF document2. Please forward any comments to tcc-doc@nmt.edu.

Table of Contents
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 2 2. Definitions of Moodle terms ..................................................................................................... 2 2.1. Category ....................................................................................................................... 2 2.2. Course .......................................................................................................................... 3 2.3. Role .............................................................................................................................. 3 3. Overview of administrator operations ....................................................................................... 4 4. Processing an instructor request ................................................................................................ 4 4.1. Researching section data ................................................................................................ 5 4.2. Building the adds.xml file ............................................................................................ 7 4.3. Uploading current courses and sections to Moodle .......................................................... 9 4.4. Editing the new section ................................................................................................ 10 5. Daily operations ..................................................................................................................... 11 5.1. Creating all user accounts on the Moodle server ............................................................. 11 5.2. Transferring current enrollments to the Moodle server ................................................... 12 5.3. Uploading SIS integration files ..................................................................................... 12 6. Cross-listed courses ................................................................................................................ 13 6.1. Creating the metacourse for a cross-listed set ................................................................. 13 6.2. Adding and deleting child courses from a metacourse .................................................... 14 6.3. Hide the children ......................................................................................................... 15 7. Manual operations through the Web interface ........................................................................... 15 7.1. Manual class creation .................................................................................................... 15 7.2. Manual enrollment: Assigning instructors to classes ....................................................... 16 7.3. Creating and editing course categories .......................................................................... 16 7.4. Assigning system roles ................................................................................................. 17 7.5. Creating a new role ...................................................................................................... 18 8. Making a course backup ......................................................................................................... 18 9. Restoring and merging backups .............................................................................................. 19 10. Operations at the end of a semester ........................................................................................ 19 11. Outline for a Moodle training course ...................................................................................... 20 11.1. One-on-one instruction ............................................................................................... 20
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http://www.nmt.edu/tcc/help/pubs/moodle/mooadmin/ http://www.nmt.edu/tcc/help/pubs/moodle/mooadmin/mooadmin.pdf

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NMT Moodle 1.9 Administrator's Guide

11.2. Classroom instruction ................................................................................................. 12. Appendix I: Department codes .............................................................................................. 13. Configuration change log ...................................................................................................... 13.1. 2012-02-08: Change to the Advising Center role ............................................................ 13.2. 2012-01-26: Clarify role descriptions ............................................................................. 13.3. 2012-01-20: Allow teachers to assign more roles ............................................................ 13.4. 2011-09-08: Create the Grader role ............................................................................ 13.5. 2011-07-01: Create the Advising center role ................................................................ 13.6. 2009-08-03: Disable email self-registration and name-munging ......................................

21 22 23 23 24 24 25 25 26

1. Introduction
This guide is written for day-to-day administration of the Tech Computer Center's Moodle site. Installation and configuration of the server is beyond the scope of this document; for those issues, refer to tccwiki/moodle3 in the TCC internal Wiki. The server is at https://moodle.nmt.edu/. The master administrator account is admin. Obtain the password from a co-worker. Once you have the admin password, set up an account using your TCC staff account login, and give it administrator privileges. Use that account thereafter for administration. Mail sent to TCC mail alias cms_master goes to all administrators. Make sure you are included in this alias. If you make any changes in Moodle's overall configuration through its web interface, be sure to add a section to this document under Section 13, Configuration change log (p. 23). For documentation on the implementation of the tools described in this document, see cmsimport: Courseware Banner integration tools4.

2. Definitions of Moodle terms

For those familiar with Blackboard or WebCT, beware: Moodle uses the same terms in different ways.

2.1. Category
Like Blackboard, Moodle allows the creation of categories to group similar courses. However, Moodle also allows you to build an entire hierarchy of categories, subcategories, sub-subcategories, and so on. We would like to avoid unnecessary proliferation of categories. For now, these should be sufficient: On-campus courses For regular NMT courses taught on campus. Moodle training Use this category for test courses given to instructors who want to learn Moodle before starting a live course.

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Inactive Move courses here at the end of each semester. Leave them here indefinitely, because some courses are taught again after a gap of years. (future semesters) If you have built courses for semesters beyond the current one, create a category for them. Use the obvious name, e.g., Fall 2012. Distance education For regular NMT courses administered by Distance Education. Distance Education has their own Moodle server, but instructors who have both on-campus and DE listings may choose to host on either server. Uncategorized This category is built into Moodle as the default category. For example, if you create a category, place a course in that category, and then delete the category, that course's category will automatically be changed to uncategorized. No courses should live in this category permanently. If courses appear in this category, either categorize them or delete them. To view or modify the category structure, see Section 7.3, Creating and editing course categories (p. 16).

2.2. Course
Moodle does not support the concept of section. Use a course to contain what the NMT Registrar calls a section. Cross-listed courses are supported by Moodle using the meta-course feature. A meta-course is a special course that contains other courses. We will use a meta-course to hold the parent course, with the content shared between the child sections; the child sections will be hidden, so that the parent section inherits the enrollments from the child sections.

2.3. Role
Moodle uses the term role to describe various different kinds of association between people and courses. Several common roles are predefined; you can even define new roles. Here are the roles defined in a stock Moodle install. Administrator Can do anything, anywhere on the site. Course creator Can create a new course and teach in it. Teacher This role is defined relative to a specific course, and any user with that role can modify course content and assign grades. Non-editing teacher Like Teacher, but cannot change course content. In particular, someone with this role can grade assignments, but they cannot change external grade columns in the gradebook.

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Student For a given course, someone with Student role in that course can see the course content, submit assignments, and see their own grades. Guest For a given course, someone with Guest role can see the course content but can't enter text anywhere. Authenticated user Anyone is currently logged in. Advising center A new role created locally to allow New Mexico Tech Advising Resource Center personnel to view a course's gradebook (with the permission of the instructor). See Section 13.5, 2011-07-01: Create the Advising center role (p. 25). Grader A new local role for graders with limited access; see Section 13.4, 2011-09-08: Create the Grader role (p. 25). A person with this role can grade assignments, but cannot see the grader report. To manage the set of roles, see these sections. Section 7.2, Manual enrollment: Assigning instructors to classes (p. 16). Also used to add or remove other roles from specific users. Section 7.5, Creating a new role (p. 18).

3. Overview of administrator operations

Here is an overview of the operations you will perform as Moodle administrator. Section 4, Processing an instructor request (p. 4). Section 5, Daily operations (p. 11). Section 6, Cross-listed courses (p. 13): Creating a cross-listed course. Section 7, Manual operations through the Web interface (p. 15): Infrequent operations using the Web interface. Section 8, Making a course backup (p. 18) and Section 9, Restoring and merging backups (p. 19). Section 10, Operations at the end of a semester (p. 19). Section 7.5, Creating a new role (p. 18). You won't need to do this often, but you can specify what people in each role can do with a pretty fine granularity.

4. Processing an instructor request

Although you as an administrator can do any courseware operation through the web interface (see Section 7, Manual operations through the Web interface (p. 15)), it would be extremely tedious to use this approach to create the many student accounts, courses, and sections, and to enroll students in classes. We have locally-built tools that streamline this process to a great degree. Files using XML (Extended Markup Language) technology are used in two places in this system. The IMS Global Learning Consortium5 has created a standard XML file format for batch creation of user accounts, courses, and enrollments.

http://www.imsproject.org/

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Our locally-built tools extract information about students and courses from the campus-wide Banner SIS (Student Information System) and generate XML files in this IMS format. You will upload these files into the Moodle server to create user accounts and courses. You will create and maintain an adds.xml file each semester to keep track of which instructors have requested which Moodle sections. This file format was designed here at the TCC. Other locally-built tools read your adds.xml file and generate IMS files to be uploaded to the Moodle server. When an instructor asks you to create one or more sections, perform these steps in order:

Procedure 1. Overall procedure for section creation

1. 2. 3. 4. Section 4.1, Researching section data (p. 5): It is vital to use the exact course titles and CRNs from the official catalog and course schedule. Section 4.2, Building the adds.xml file (p. 7): Record all the current requests here. Section 4.3, Uploading current courses and sections to Moodle (p. 9): Tell the Moodle server to update all current courses and sections. Before updating the enrollment data that connects each student's accounts with their courses, the student accounts must be in place in the Moodle server. This process is described in Section 5.1, Creating all user accounts on the Moodle server (p. 11). Section 5.2, Transferring current enrollments to the Moodle server (p. 12): The process that transfers enrollment data from Banner to the Moodle server is one of the regular daily operations, but you can do it again just after creating the course on the server. In their current state, the SIS files made by our home-grown scripts do not completely automate the creation of sections. There are still some manual steps: see Section 4.4, Editing the new section (p. 10).

5.

6.

4.1. Researching section data

Most teacher requests for courses and sections will come in through email to the administrator address: cms_master@nmt.edu However, verbal requests are also okay. Eventually we hope to put up an authenticated Web-based form that will automate the collection of the relevant data. For each semester, you will be building a file named adds.xml that records all the requests for that semester. This file is used as input to several scripts that generate IMS files that, when uploaded into the Moodle server, create accounts, course sections, and enrollments. The first step, however, is to research the official class schedule and ensure that you are using the correct department and course numbers, titles, and CRN (Course Reference Number) values when creating the course. We have developed a paper form that will guide you through the research process. This form is available online6 as a PDF file.

Procedure 2. Filling out the section research form

1. Print a copy of this PDF for each instructor.

http://www.nmt.edu/tcc/help/pubs/moodle/mooadmin/img/mooform.pdf

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2.

At the top of the form, write in the semester, the instructor's name (last name first), and their TCC email account name. (Note: By administrative ruling, we may send all official mail to their @nmt.edu address. If they want it sent elsewhere, they can set up mail forwarding.) For each course requested, fill in the department code, course number, and full title in one of the large boxes on the left. The definitive source for course titles (as opposed to section titles) is the NMT Student Catalog. Current catalogs are available online7 in PDF format.

3.

4. 5.

For each Moodle section requested, write in the section code (examples: -02; L-01; V-05) in the first column of the table on the right. Even if the instructor provided a CRN for the section, you will want to verify it from the online Banner class schedule. Start at the Banweb8 page, then click the Class Schedule link. Select the semester and the academic department and then click Course Search. You will see a table showing all the current sections in that department.

6. 7.

Write the CRN in the appropriate column on the form. If the section's title is different from the course's title, enter the title as well. If the instructor wants to copy the contents of an existing Moodle section into the new section, in the Reload from column, enter the CRN and year of the old section. Example: 31334-2010 means the instructor wants to use the course design for CRN 31334 in year 2010. If the primary instructor wants to designate any additional instructors or teaching assistants, enter their TCC email account names under Instructor (TA) emails. Place TA emails in parentheses to distinguish them from instructor emails. In Moodle terms, instructors get the Section Designer and Section Instructor roles, while TAs get the Teaching Assistant role. For more on roles, see Section 7.2, Manual enrollment: Assigning instructors to classes (p. 16).

8.

9.

The last column, labeled with *, should be checked off only after you have performed a few manual steps that can be done only after you have created the course and section in the Moodle server. For these procedures, see Section 4.4, Editing the new section (p. 10).

Here is an example showing the use of this form:

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This form shows that Professor Forrest Glump, email glump@nmt.edu, has requested six sections. MATH 102-01 (CRN 24909) and MATH 102-02 (CRN 24910) want separate sections in Moodle, and the professor whose email is xyzzy@nmt.edu will have section instructor and section designer role in both sections. Additionally, the person with email plugh@nmt.edu is a TA for MATH 102-01, and fnord@nmt.edu is a TA for section -02. The instructor also wants these sections reloaded from CRN 24988 in 2010. Two sections, with CRNs 28608 and 29663, are to be cross-listed. Keep the filled-out sheets in a ring binder filed alphabetically by instructor name. It is quite common for instructors to add more requests (such as new sections or new TAs) once the semester is underway.

4.2. Building the adds.xml file

As each new semester approaches, you will build an XML file named adds.xml containing all the information about instructor requests for the semester. You can use any ordinary plain-text editor to build this file, such as vi or Notepad. There are many tools for the direct creation of XML. The author recommends emacs because it has features that insure that your XML file is valid even as you are typing it in: see XML document authoring with emacs nxml-mode9. If a graphical user interface for XML creation is desired, the xxe editor from XMLMind10 is installed at the TCC. This version supports locally created XML schemas such as the one for adds.xml.

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For every different kind of XML file, there is a special file called a schema that defines the rules for that file format. The schema for the adds.xml file is presented in the internal documentation for the cmsimport: Courseware Banner integration tools11. This schema uses the Relax NG schema definition language documented in Relax NG Compact Syntax (RNC)12. However, we'll explain the format here, in case you are not familiar with the schema language. The first and last lines of the file must look something like this: <request-list host='Moodle' year='2012' name='Spring'> </request-list> The host attribute is Moodle. The year attribute is the semester year and the name attribute is the semester name (Fall, Spring, or Summer). Between these lines are groups of lines for each instructor who has asked for sections this semester. Before we get to the general case, here is a complete example, continuing the example form shown in Section 4, Processing an instructor request (p. 4). <request-list host='Moodle' year='2012' name='Spring' > <req family='Glump' given='Forrest' email='glump' > <course code='MATH 102' desc='Math for Houseplants' > <section code='-01' crn='24909' reload='24988-2010' in-list='xyzzy' ta-list='plugh'/> <section code='-02' crn='24910' reload='24988-2010' in-list='xyzzy' ta-list='fnord'/> </course> <course code='CHEM 151' desc='Cold Fusion Theory' > <section code='-01' crn='28608' /> <section code='L-01' crn='28609' /> <section code='L-02' crn='28645' /> </course> <course code='MATE 231' desc='Cold Fusion Theory' > <section code='-04' crn='29663' /> </course> <xlist desc='CHEM 151-MATE 231 Cold Fusion Seminar (Spring 2012)' > <child crn='28608' /> <child crn='29663' /> </xlist > </req > </request-list> It is not strictly necessary to maintain the strict indentation shown, but it is most helpful in keeping the structure straight. The nxml-emacs package does this for you automatically. All the information for a single instructor is contained in one req element. The family attribute is the last or family name. The given attribute is the first or given name. The middle attribute is optional and may contain a middle initial or middle name. The email attribute is required, and must contain the instructor's TCC email account name. Within each req element, add one course element for each different department and course number. The code attribute is the standard department code (see Section 12, Appendix I: Department codes (p. 22)) followed by one space and the three-digit course number. It is important to be
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consistent in the positions of spaces here, or the software may not match things up correctly. Examples: CH E 489; IT 326. The desc attribute is the course name. Be sure this matches the name in the official student catalog, which may differ from the names of the sections of that course. Within each course element are one or more section elements that define the sections for which this instructor is requesting Moodle sections. The code attribute is the suffix for the section type and number. Examples: -02 for lecture section 02; L-03 for the third lab section; D-01 for the first distance education section; V-01 for the first video section. The crn attribute is the five-digit Course Reference Number from the official class schedule. The in-list attribute is an optional list of additional instructor emails, separated by spaces. For example, in-list='irabi ahero' would record the primary instructor's desire to add irabi@nmt.edu and ahero@nmt.edu as additional instructors. Similarly, the optional ta-list attribute is a space-separated list of TA email account names. For each group of sections that are to be represented by a single cross-listed parent section inside Moodle, place an xlist element inside the req for that instructor. The desc attribute is the full name of the course. This should have three parts: a list of all the department and course numbers under which it appears; the title of the course; and the semester, because cross-listed groups persist for only a single semester. Examples: CSE 326-IT 326 Software Engineering (Spring 2015); MATE 489-589 Corrosion Seminar (Summer 2012). For each child section, place a child element, with a crn attribute containing the Course Reference Number of the section, inside the xlist element.

4.3. Uploading current courses and sections to Moodle

To update the set of courses and sections in the Moodle server, you will first run the cmssects script. This script extracts course definitions from the adds.xml file and generates an IMS file, which you will then upload to the Moodle server.

Note
It's okay to upload an IMS file that includes definitions for courses and sections that already exist in the server. This will not harm existing courses or sections. Run the cmssects script using this shell command: /fs/tcc/bin/cmssects adds.xml If successful, this script will write an IMS file whose name has this format: lcs_yyyy-mm-ddThh-mm-ssZ.xml If your adds.xml file is not correctly formatted, the script will print an error message that tells you the location of the problem. When the IMS file is generated successfully, upload it to the Moodle server: see Section 5.3, Uploading SIS integration files (p. 12).

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NMT Moodle 1.9 Administrator's Guide

Note
If you prefer, instead of using an adds.xml file, you can use an older, text-based file format to drive the cmssects script. This format is described in the NMT Blackboard 8.0 Administrator's Guide13. To run the cmssects script with such a file, use input redirection: cmssects < filename

4.4. Editing the new section

Once you have uploaded one or more new sections, it is necessary to edit certain properties in the Web interface: By default, Moodle places new courses into the Moodle training category. Aside from the actual training sessions that we provide instructors so they can learn the system, all official courses should be moved into the On-campus courses category. The IMS file generated by cmsenroll does not set up teacher and teaching assistant roles. If the instructor has requested that you copy content from an existing course, you can merge that content with the newly created section.

Procedure 3. Editing the new section after uploading

1. 2. Log in with an account that has administration privileges in the section. This can be either an Administrator or someone with Teacher role in the section. Move the newly created section to the correct category. a. b. c. d. e. f. On the left side under Site Adminstration, click on Courses, then on Add/edit courses. Your browser will display the Course categories page. In the table of categories, click on Moodle training. This will display a table showing all the courses in that category. Click the checkboxes in the Select column corresponding to the courses to be moved. At the bottom of this table, in the pull-down menu labeled Move selected courses to..., select On-campus courses. At the top of the page, pull down the Course Categories menu and select On-campus courses. At the bottom of this page, click Re-sort courses by name. This alphabetizes the course list so that the new course is moved to a logical position.

3.

For the primary instructor, and any additional instructors requested by the primary instructor, given them the Teacher role for the course. For any requested teaching assistants, give them Non-editing teacher role. For this procedure, see Section 7.2, Manual enrollment: Assigning instructors to classes (p. 16).

4.

Refer to the instructor's paper form (created in Section 4.1, Researching section data (p. 5)) to see if the instructor has requested that you reload content from another existing section. If so, follow this procedure. a. Make a backup .zip file of the existing course. See Section 8, Making a course backup (p. 18).

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b.

Merge the content from that .zip file with the new course. See Section 9, Restoring and merging backups (p. 19), following the directions for merging content.

Repeat the procedure for any other sections that you have just created.

5. Daily operations
Certain operations need to be done at least once a day between the first day of classes and the deadline for adding students. Past that deadline, these operations need be done only when new courses are added to the system. Section 5.1, Creating all user accounts on the Moodle server (p. 11): Every day, create Moodle accounts corresponding to every eligible TCC account. Section 5.2, Transferring current enrollments to the Moodle server (p. 12): Every day, for courses that have Moodle sections, extract enrollment information from the Banner database and transfer it to Moodle.

5.1. Creating all user accounts on the Moodle server

You will need to run the cmsaccts script at the beginning of the semester before setting up new sections and enrollments, because the batch enrollment process assumes that every student already has a Moodle account. Run the script again every day (until the deadline for adding courses) just to pick up recently enrolled students. You can run the script again anytime you need to update the student list: in particular, it is a good idea to re-run it just before uploading enrollment data to Moodle. The cmsaccts script queries TCC's LDAP database for a list of all the TCC accounts in selected categories, and generates an IMS file that can be uploaded to the Moodle server to create Moodle accounts with the same login name and password as the corresponding TCC account, so students don't have to remember another login/password pair. Not all TCC account-holders get a Moodle account, only these account types: DistanceEd. Faculty. Graduate. MST. Special. Staff (Payroll). Staff (non-payroll). Undergraduate.

Operation of the script is straightforward.

Procedure 4. Creating all user accounts

1. Consult with the TCC system administrators to be sure that your TCC work account is authorized to run this application. Because Banner contains sensitive data, Kerberos authentication is in place to allow only specific TCC accounts to access it.

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2.

Login to your TCC work account and make sure you have a current Kerberos ticket. Use the klist command to find out if you have a current ticket. If not, use the kinit command and enter your account password. Use this shell command: /fs/tcc/cmsaccts The script will write to a file in the current directory with a name in this format: users_yyyy-mm-ddThh-mm-ssZ.xml where the yyyy-mm-ddThh-mm-ss part is a timestamp as Universal Time.

3.

4.

Upload the users_...xml file into Moodle using the process described in Section 5.3, Uploading SIS integration files (p. 12). This import will produce a huge log of error messages for the accounts that already exist; you may ignore these messages.

5.2. Transferring current enrollments to the Moodle server

The cmsenroll script automates the enrollment of students into sections. Follow this procedure daily, or just after creating one or more new sections.

Warning
The cmsenroll script takes its input from the current enrollment information in the Banner database, using ISD's banweb interface. That interface must be operational. ISD's interface is single-threaded, and may be used by other programs, especially acctmngr. If there is a conflict with another program, you may get error messages about Banner not being able to find Banner IDs; if so, wait a bit and try again.

Procedure 5. Batch creation of courses and sections

1. 2. Build the adds.xml file as described in Section 4.2, Building the adds.xml file (p. 7). Run the cmsenroll script using this shell command: /fs/tcc/bin/cmsenroll adds.xml If successful, this script will write an XML file whose name has this format: enrollments_yyyy-mm-ddTHH-MM-SSZ.xml 3. Import the XML file just created (whose name starts with enrollments_) into Moodle using the procedure described in Section 5.3, Uploading SIS integration files (p. 12).

5.3. Uploading SIS integration files

Once you have generated an IMS file, use this command to upload it to the production server. You may want to wrap this command in a bash script: scp $1 cms@moodle.nmt.edu:/var/moodle/classes.xml

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Note
Security for this account is done through Kerberos. Use your TCC work account and make sure that our systems administrators enable that account. Periodically, the server looks in the destination sftp directory and processes the files it finds there. Currently it looks there about every ten minutes; Moodle manages this policy. To force your upload to be processed immediately (for example, if you have other files to upload): 1. 2. 3. 4. In Administrator role, under Site Administration on the left side, click the Courses link. Under Courses, click Enrollments. In the table of plugins, find the line labeled IMS Enterprise file, and click the Edit link under the Settings column. You are now on the IMS Enterprise file page. Scroll to the bottom and click on perform an IMS Enterprise import right now. The result of your upload will be displayed in a new page: a list of accounts, courses, or enrollments created.

6. Cross-listed courses
Moodle has a general mechanism called meta-courses that is just right for cross-listed courses. A meta-course has no enrollment of its own. Instead, it has child courses and inherits the enrollments of all of them. A course must be designated as a meta-course when it is created. Once created, a course cannot be converted to a meta-course or vice versa. A meta-course has content and other features just like a regular course. Child courses can be added to or removed from a meta-course anytime. When a student is enrolled in a child course, they see both the child course and the meta-course that contains it. Both courses can have their own content; however, the way NMIMT does cross-listing, we would recommend that all the content be in the meta-course, and the child courses are there just to provide the enrolled students. Here are the procedures you will need to manage cross-listed sections. Section 6.1, Creating the metacourse for a cross-listed set (p. 13). Section 6.2, Adding and deleting child courses from a metacourse (p. 14). Section 6.3, Hide the children (p. 15).

6.1. Creating the metacourse for a cross-listed set

When you get a request for the creation of a set of cross-listed sections, it will include Course Reference Numbers for all the child sections under the various departments and course numbers. The instructor must also supply an overall course title for the set.

Procedure 6. Creating a cross-listed parent meta-course

1. Create the child sections normally using the procedure described in Section 4, Processing an instructor request (p. 4).

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2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Login as an administrator. On the left-hand side under Site Administration, click on the Courses link. Under Courses, click on Add/edit courses. You are now on the Course categories page. Click on the On-campus courses link. Near the bottom of this page, click the Add a new course button. In the Full name field, enter the overall name for the course, followed by the semester and year in parentheses. Example: Nondestructive Evaluation and Structual Health Monitoring (Fall 2008). Invent a Short name for the course. It doesn't matter what you type here, but it must be unique among all Moodle courses. Example: CSE 441-589-IT 441 (Fall 2011). Near the bottom of the General section of this page, find the pull-down menu labeled Is this a meta course? and set to Yes.

10. Near the bottom of the page, under Availability, make sure that the Availability pulldown is set to This course is available to students. 11. Click on Save changes. 12. You are now on the Child courses page. The right-hand column shows all the regular (non-meta) courses. For each child course that is part of the cross-linked set, select the course name there by clicking on it, and then click the Add button to move that course to the left-hand column. 13. You will want to check that all the Teacher roles have been assigned using the procedure described in Section 7.2, Manual enrollment: Assigning instructors to classes (p. 16). Teachers designated in any of the child courses are automatically teachers in the meta-course, but you can add or subtract roles from the meta-course just like any other course. Students enrolled in any child course will see two links on their start page, one for the child course, and one for the metacourse. Advise instructors to post the content on the metacourse and tell their students to go there rather into the child course.

6.2. Adding and deleting child courses from a metacourse

The relation between a meta course and its child courses can be changed anytime, even in mid-semester. (This is unlike Blackboard where child sections in cross-listed sets, once created, cannot be added or removed.) Follow this procedure to add or delete child courses from a meta-course.

Procedure 7. Adding and removing child courses from a cross-listed parent meta-course
1. 2. 3. 4. Login as an administrator. Click on the name of the meta-course in the listing of courses. On the left-hand side of the page, under Administration, click on Child courses. To add a child course to the meta-course, find the child course's name in the right-hand column, click to select that course, then click the Add button between the columns. That course will disappear from the right-hand column and reappear in the left-hand column. To remove a child course, just reverse this procedure: select the course in the left-hand column by clicking on it, then click the Remove button and the course will move back to the right-hand column.

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6.3. Hide the children

Most instructors of cross-listed courses will want the students in all the child sections to go directly to the meta (parent) section. Once you have set up the meta-course and added all the child courses to it, use this procedure to hide the child sections from the students.

Procedure 8. Concealing child courses of a cross-listed set

1. 2. 3. 4. Login as an administrator. Under Site Administration on the left side, click on Courses, then the link Add/edit courses under that link. In the Course categories table, click On-campus courses (or other category) to get a list of all the courses in that category. In the table of courses, find the child courses of this cross-listed set. In the Edit column, each course that is available is displayed with an open eye icon so that it displays the closed eye icon. icon. To make a course unavailable, click that

Make sure that the parent meta-course displays the open eye icon. Once this process is complete, when students connect, they will see only the parent meta-course and not the child section in which they are enrolled. Instructors may reverse this process if they wish to place content in both the parent and child sections. Their procedure is documented in the NMT Moodle Instructor's Guide14.

7. Manual operations through the Web interface

Here are some of the common procedures that require use of Moodle's web interface.

7.1. Manual class creation

Use this procedure to create training classes or other courses outside the normal procedures described in Section 4, Processing an instructor request (p. 4).

Procedure 9. Manual class creation

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Login as an administrator. Under Site Administration on the left side, click the Courses link. Click the Add/edit courses link. This brings up the Course categories page. Select a category by clicking on that category's link in the table under the Course categories column. For our standard category structure, see Section 2.1, Category (p. 2). You are now on the Add/edit courses page. A short distance down the page, find and click the Add a new course button. You are on the Edit course settings page. Edit these fields appropriately: Full name: For example, Smith's training course. Short name: For example, Smith for Smith's training class.

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 There are quite a number of other fields, but you can leave them for the instructor to set up. However, it is probably a good idea to scroll down to the Availability section and set Availability to This course is not available to students. The instructor can open the course later, when it is ready for students. Click on Save changes. You are now on the Assign roles page. Assign a teacher role using Step 5 (p. 16) of the procedure in Section 7.2, Manual enrollment: Assigning instructors to classes (p. 16).

7.2. Manual enrollment: Assigning instructors to classes

Once you have created the users and courses and enrolled users into courses using the batch procedures described above, use this procedure to connect instructors with courses.

Procedure 10. Assigning an instructor to a class

1. 2. 3. 4. Login as an administrator. Under Site Administration, click on Courses, then click on Add/edit courses. Click on the course's category, e.g., On-campus courses. This brings up a table showing all the courses. To the right of each course name is a row of icons. Click the Assign roles icon for the desired course. This brings up a table showing all the roles, and how many are enrolled in each role for this class. In the table of roles, click on Teacher. This brings up a page with two listboxes separated by Add and Remove buttons. 6. Scroll the right-hand list (potential users) to find the instructor's name. Then click that name to highlight it, and click on the Add button. The name will be moved to the left-hand list.

5.

It is not necessary to click any more buttons. The role assignment is instantaneous. The above procedure also allows you to assign other roles in the course. For our standard roles, see Section 2.3, Role (p. 3).

7.3. Creating and editing course categories

To view or modify the category structure, login as an administrator and follow this procedure.

Procedure 11. Maintaining the category structure

1. 2. On the left side under Site Administration, click on the Courses link. Under Courses, click on Add/edit courses. You will see a table of all the currently defined course categories.

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The first column shows the category name, and the second column shows how many courses are currently in that category. To delete a category, click the icon. (closed

Categories that show the (open eye) icon are visible to all users. Categories that show the eye) icon are hidden from all but administrators. Use the up- and down-arrow icons to move a category up or down in the list.

To make an existing category A a subcategory of some other existing category B, pull down the Move category to: on the line for category A and select category B. At this writing (summer 2011), we don't think there is a need for a multi-level category structure. To create a new category, enter its name in the field at the top of the page next to the Add new category button, then click that button.

7.4. Assigning system roles

Use this procedure to designate which accounts have Administrator privilege.

Procedure 12. Assigning system roles

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Login as an administrator. On the left side under Site Administration, click the Users link. Under Users, click the Permissions link. Under Permissions, click the Assign system roles link. In the table of roles, click the Administrator link. To add someone to the Administrator role, find their account in the right-hand window, click to highlight it, then click the Add button. Their name will disappear from the right-hand window and appear in the list of admin users on the left-hand side. To remove this privilege from an account, highlight the name in the left-hand window and click Remove. There is no Save or other button; as soon as the name moves from one window to the other, the change has taken place.

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Warning
Any role you assign on this page applies to that user everywhere in the system. For example, if you assign a Teacher role to a user, they are automatically a teacher in every course. To assign a role in only one class, use the procedure described in Section 7.2, Manual enrollment: Assigning instructors to classes (p. 16).

7.5. Creating a new role

This procedure describes how to create a new role. In this example, we will create a role called Help Desk with limited abilities.

Procedure 13. Creating a new role

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Login as an administrator. On the left-hand side, click on Users, then on the Permissions link under that, then on the Define roles link under that. Under the role table, find and click the Add a new role button. You are now on the Add a new role page. In the Name field enter the role's name, e.g., User Consultant. In the Short name field, enter the short role name, e.g., UC. In the Description area, enter a description of the role. In the large table labeled Permissions, use the radiobuttons to add roles in the Allow column. If you need to know what a permission allows, click on the name of the permission in this list. For the User Consultant role, we added these permissions: Always see full names of users. Assign roles to users. This allows a UC to associate teachers, non-editing teachers (graders) or students with a course, or to remove them. Edit user profile. 7. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Add a new role.

8. Making a course backup

At any time, any course can be saved as a .zip file. Good times to do this include: After the end of every semester, back up every course onto archival media such as DVDs. If you are about to do something possibly dangerous to a course, back it up first, just in case. Teachers can make their own backups from the course page by clicking on the Backup link on the left side under Administration. The procedure for making a course backup is covered in the NMT Moodle Instructor's Guide15.

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9. Restoring and merging backups

With the .zip file you created in Section 8, Making a course backup (p. 18), you can either create a new copy of that course or merge its content with an existing course.

Procedure 14. How to restore or merge a course backup

1. 2. 3. Login as a user with Administrator or Teacher role. Enter the course to be restored, or some other course. If the backup .zip file is not already in the course's Files area, upload it there. a. b. c. d. e. On the left side under Administration, click Files. If there is not already a folder named backupdata, click on Make a folder and create one. Click on backupdata to go into that folder. Click Upload a file, then Browse, and use your browser's popup to navigate to the .zip file. Find the line for the desired .zip file, and click on the Restore link on that line. You will see a message showing you the name of the file, and asking Do you want to continue? Click Yes. You will see a page showing details on what is in this backup. Click Continue. On the top of this page, click the pull-down menu labeled Restore to:, and make one of these three choices: New course: To create a whole new course from the backup. You must be an Administrator to do this. Existing course, deleting it first. Warning: This will delete all content from the existing course! Existing course, adding data to it. 4. 5. 6. From the Category: pull-down menu, select the category where you want the course to be. If you are creating a new course, edit the Short name: and Full name: course to reflect the new course name, and change the Course start date. The section labeled Include: has two columns of checkboxes that control what material will be extracted from the backup. The left-hand column controls types of content, and the right-hand column controls whether user data for that type of content is included. You can click All or None at the top of each column to set or clear all the checkboxes in that column. At the bottom of the page, click Continue. Click Restore this course now!. When the process completes, click Continue.

f.

7. 8.

10. Operations at the end of a semester

Once grades are in for a semester, hide all the completed courses, and move them to the Inactive category. 1. 2. 3. Log in as a user with Administrator role. Under Site Administration on the left side, click Courses. Under Courses, click Add/edit courses.

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4.

You are now in the Course categories page. Make sure that the On-campus courses category is visible (showing the (open eye) icon) and all the other categories are hidden (showing the (closed eye) icon. To hide a category, click on the open eye icon; to make a category visible, click on the closed eye icon.

5. 6.

In the table of course categories, click on On-campus courses. For each entry in the table, check the checkbox in the right-hand Select column. Also, for courses that are visible (showing the (closed eye) icon. (open eye) icon), click that icon to display the

7.

When you have selected and hidden all the courses, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and in the Move selected courses to... pull-down, select Inactive.

Warning
Be sure you work through all the pages of the category. All categories other than On-campus courses and Distance education should be invisible to everyone but administrators.

11. Outline for a Moodle training course

The author has developed two sequences for training instructors in the use of Moodle. These procedures are only suggestions, and assume familiarity with this Administrator's Guide and also with the NMT Moodle Instructor's Guide16. Section 11.1, One-on-one instruction (p. 20). Section 11.2, Classroom instruction (p. 21).

11.1. One-on-one instruction

The author prefers to train faculty one-on-one, with the instructor's hands on the keyboard and mouse. Generally it goes something like this. 1. 2. Arrange to meet the instructor at their office and allow about an hour for the initial session. Before the meeting, find their TCC login and create a training site for them named something like Flaca Baca's Training Site. Print a hardcopy of the NMT Moodle Instructor's Guide17 to bring to the meeting. Walk them through logging in and going to their training course. Walk them through the Settings menu. Ignore most of this, but linger over a few items: the Format pull-down (encourage the topic structure as more flexible); Number of weeks/topics; and the Availability section that the instructor will use to open the live course when it is ready. Get them to Turn editing on. Next ask them to start a syllabus using the Add a resource... pull-down in the Topic outline (or Weekly outline) block at the top.

3. 4.

5.

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Valid choices here could be Compose a web page or Compose a text page if they want to build one for scratch, or Link to a file or web site if they want to use a PDF or other file that they've already built. 6. In the first topic (or week) block, first mention that course notes are generally posted by using the Add a resource... pulldown. Then walk them through the process of adding an activity. If they are going to grade homework offline, use the Offline activity choice. If they plan to accept electronic submissions, demonstrate the Upload a single file and Advanced uploading of files choices. Next show them how to designate other instructors and TAs, if they have any, using the Assign roles link under Administration. To keep the first session under an hour or so, the gradebook is probably the last thing you will have time to cover. Ask them how their grade weighting works: how credit is divided among homework, quizzes, and exams. Show them how to set up category weights for that scheme. Discuss how the uncategorised category weight should be set to zero, and ungraded items left in that category, so that ungraded items do not affect the course grade that the student sees. 9. If there is time, demonstrate the grading cycle. First have them add a test student to the course. Then walk them through the creation of an offline activity or two in each of their categories, then manual entry of grades. When grades are entered for the test student, go back to the top course page and go to Administration Grades Choose an action... Grader report to show how the grades appear.

7. 8.

11.2. Classroom instruction

Here is a suggested outline for training a group of instructors. 1. 2. Look up the TCC account names for each instructor and create training accounts for each of them. Arrange a class meeting time that is convenient for them. Create a new user named something like Flaca Baca, username flaca, to use as a class example. Create a training course for this user named something like Flaca Baca's Training Course.

Warning
Do not try to demonstrate Moodle features if you are logged in as a user with Administrator role! Most functions will work, but you will not be able to enter any grades. If you try, you will get the (rather misleading) message, No users were found with permissions to submit this assignment. This is apparently a safety feature, lest site administrators tamper with grades. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
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To demonstrate the gradebook, you'll need at least one student in the class. Add yourself (as a different account) or someone who won't mind. Bring hardcopies of the NMT Moodle Instructor's Guide18 to class. In class, demonstrate how to log in as your test user and go to the training course. Walk them through the Settings menu. Explain the difference between topics format and weekly format. Make sure everyone knows about the Availability pull-down menu. Add a student to the course using Assign roles. Pick yourself or someone who won't mind. Add a syllabus using the built-in HTML editor in the course block.

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9.

Go to a topic block and add a PDF, a PowerPoint, and a web link.

10. Add a homework assignment as an offline activity. Show how to enter grades using the test student you added before class. 11. Add a quiz as an offline activity. Enter a grade for your test student. 12. Go to the gradebook. Create categories for homeworks and quizzes. Move the sample homework and quiz to their respective categories. 13. Add a new column called Course average to the gradebook. Show how to set it up as 70% assignments, 30% quizzes. Check that the formula correctly computes the weighted average for the test student's two scores. That will generally eat an hour, or more if you don't have some to roam around and help stuck students. If there is more time, mention the forums, the chat room, and other features.

12. Appendix I: Department codes

As of the 2006-2007 NMIMT catalog, these are all the current department codes. ACCT ART BA BCS BIOL CE CHE CHEM CS CSE ECON EDUC EE EM EMGT ENGL ENVE ERTH ES FA FIN FREN GEOC GEOL Accounting Art History Business Administration Business Computer Systems Biology Civil Engineering Chemical Engineering (ChE in the catalog; CH E in the Banner schedule) Chemistry Computer Science (through Fall 2008) Computer Science & Engineering (starting Spring 2009) Economics Education Electrical Engineering Engineering Mechanics Engineering Management English Environmental Engineering Earth Science Engineering Science Fine Arts Finance French Geochemistry Geology

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GEOP GERM HIST HUMA HYD IT MATE MATH ME MENG METE MGT MKT MS MUS OPT PETR PHIL PHYS PR PS PSY SPAN ST SVC TC

Geophysics German History Humanities Hydrology Information Technology Materials Engineering Mathematics Mineral Engineering Mechanical Engineering Metallurgical Engineering Management Marketing Military Science Music Optical Science and Engineering Petroleum Engineering Philosophy Physics Physical Recreation Political Science Psychology Spanish Science Teaching Service Technical Communication

13. Configuration change log

This section records changes to Moodle's overall configuration made since it went into production in the summer of 2009. Place each change in a separate subsection below, with a date of the form YYYY-MM-DD at the beginning of the subsection title, and add new sections at the top so that the change log is displayed in reverse chronological order.

13.1. 2012-02-08: Change to the Advising Center role

Users in the Advising Center could not see the user profile in meta-courses. This makes it harder for them to send mail to students out of Moodle. Change made by Dylan Etscorn. 1. Login as an admin.

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2. 3. 4. 5.

Under Site Administration, click on Users, then Permissions, then on Define roles. In the table of roles, find the row for Advising center, and click on the Edit icon.

In the gigantic table of permissions, scroll down to the Course section and find the row of radiobuttons labeled View courses. Click the second radiobutton (which is in the Allow column). Scroll to the end of the page and click Save changes.

13.2. 2012-01-26: Clarify role descriptions

The different grader-like roles were confusing instructors. We made these changes: 1. Reordered the roles to group the grader-like roles together. The new order is: Administrator, Course creator, Teacher, Non-editing teacher, Grader, Advising Center, Student, Guest, Authenticated user, User consultant. 2. Edited the description of Non-editing teacher to read: Non-editing teachers can teach in courses and grade students, but may not alter activities. They may see the gradebook but cannot "external grade" columns, that is, columns added using the "Add grade item" action in the gradebook. 3. Edited the description of Grade to read: Can grade assignments added to blocks. Cannot see the gradebook. Here is the procedure. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Login as an admin. Under Site Administration, click on Users, then Permissions, then Define roles. In the Edit column of the role table, click on the and icons to move roles up or down in the table. Also in the Edit column, click on the Edit icon to edit the description of the role.

Edit the text in the Description area, then scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save changes.

13.3. 2012-01-20: Allow teachers to assign more roles

We now allow teachers to assign the new roles (Advising Center and Grader). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Login as an administrator. Under Site Administration, click on Users. Under Users, click on Permissions. Under Permissions, click on Define roles. At the top of the page, click the tab Allow role assignments. You see a table of checkboxes. In the row labeled Teacher, click the checkboxes in the columns for Advising center and Grader. Click Save changes.

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13.4. 2011-09-08: Create the Grader role

Lynda Ballou of the NMT Math Department wanted her graders to be able to grade assignments, but not be able to see exam grades. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Start the procedure described in Section 7.5, Creating a new role (p. 18), down to the point where you click Add a new role. Set the Name to Grader; enter this also in the Short name field. Under Description, enter Can grade assignments. Cannot see the grader report. Scroll down to the Courses section and set the Allow radiobutton for the View courses permission. In that same section, set the Allow radiobutton for the View grades of other users permission. Scroll down to the Assignment section and set the Allow radiobutton for the Grade assignment permission. Click Save changes at the bottom of the page.

If someone with this role clicks the Grades link in the course page, they get a page that says No reports accessible.

13.5. 2011-07-01: Create the Advising center role

In the spring of 2011, Brian Borchers of the Math Department and Elaine DeBrine-Howell of the Advising Resource Center (ARC) launched a project to monitor the very early progress of entering students in critical courses such as Math 103 and 104. In this project, instructors may elect to grant ARC personnel read-only access to their gradebooks. None of the standard Moodle roles allow this access. The teacher role can change anything in the course; the non-editing teacher role can edit assignment grades; and no other role can see the gradebook. Hence, in order to reassure instructors that ARC personnel cannot change anything, on this date we created a new Advising center role that can see the course gradebook but change nothing. The procedure is based on the one described in Section 7.5, Creating a new role (p. 18); it starts with the Add a new role button. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Set the Name to Advising center. Set the Short name to Advising. Under Description, describe the new role. In the large table of Permissions, scroll down to the Gradebook section, and set the Allow radiobutton for the View the grader report permission. Scroll down to the Course section and set the Allow radiobutton for these permissions: View blog entries. View courses. This permission makes a user with this role a member of the course, so that their name appears in the Participants table. View participants. View grades of other users. Always see full names of users. 6. Scroll to the bottom of this page and click Add a new role.

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The Advising Resource Center may request additional permissions to monitor other signs of student progress, such as forum posts.

13.6. 2009-08-03: Disable email self-registration and name-munging

As originally configured, Moodle allows self-registration. This was disabled because we will create accounts automatically.

Procedure 15. Disable email self-registration

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Login as admin. Under Site Administration, click on Users. Under Users, click on Authentication. In the table row for Email-based self-registration, click the so it is now a closed-eye icon. Click on Save Changes. open-eye icon in the Enable column

Also disabled at this time: the name-munging options for import. By default, Moodle has an option that re-capitalizes personal names. However, this would change a name like ter Horst to Ter Horst. Your author imagines that this option is handy to clean up after people who self-register and don't bother to capitalize their name correctly. However, since we get our names from Banner, we don't want this feature.

Procedure 16. Disable name-munging

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Login as admin. Under Site Administration, click on Courses. Under Courses, click on Enrollments. In the table row labeled IMS Enterprise file, in the Settings column, click the Edit link. Scroll down to the checkbox labeled Change personal names to Title Case: and uncheck it. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Save changes.

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