Content
Guidelines
Compactness
Students do not like to scroll and scroll. The course should be as compact as possible.
Text Resources
As much text as possible should be copy/pasted directly into Moodle Books or Pages. This is only possible with certain resources that allow copy/paste, like OpenStax or fully open source literature. The benefit of having the content directly in Moodle is that the student's time on the activity can be tracked. Once the student clicks on an external URL, the dedication time is not reliable.
Rhythm of Activities
Each course should have a rhythm of activity that is the same week to week. The types of activities for a course should not be very different, with the exception of capstone projects. For example, In English the read the book, then write the summary. In Math they click on the URLs, do the work, then turn in a screenshot. Course Authors can set up a what ever unique activities they desire, but the pattern should repeat from week to week.
Question Bank
Question Bank
The Question Bank may be accessed through any course using the "more" menu item. By default, when you add a question to the bank, the question is stored under the course name category.
There are system level categories for organizing questions, which may be accessed through any editing the course.
- More>question bank>categories
System Level Categories
Moodle provides system level question categories that may be customized. The categories have been already been defined for Studia Nova. These categories will store questions that are re-used in many different courses. The main purpose of organizing questions in the system-level question bank categories are to present the questions to the students over and over through multiple classes to drive home key concepts.
- As users build classes, questions may be added to or used from the system level question bank.
- All questions in these categories must have a numbering system that allows for easy reference to the topic covered.
- All questions will have a very description name for easy reference when picking the question for a quiz
- Questions that driven home key concepts should be organized in the system level categories
Videos Content Questions
External videos from Youtube and other sources are best managed by creating a question from the video. Creating a question out of a video is an easy way to track if the student watched the video and gained some knowledge.
- Select a Fill-in-the-Blank question type
- Embed the video link in the Question content area, default the video to start automatically for younger learners
- Create the Fill-in-the-blank question under the video
Videos that are re-used over and over, such as math videos and other content, should be stores in the System Level Categories
Fill in the Blank Questions
Fill in the Blank questions are easier to create than multiple choice. A summary statement of key knowledge is written, they the user selects drop down menu type or typed fill-in-the-blank. The FIB forces the student to read the summary statement and think about how to complete, so at least some of the content is read in detail.
Adding Questions to a Quiz
Questions are presented to the student only through a quiz. Create a quiz activity and then add questions from the question bank to the quiz. Users can also create a question directly from the quiz activity, which will by default be added the course category.
English
English courses mainly rely on open-source literature with audio files. Many courses have been created from Lit2Go resources. Students are highly encourages to listen to the audio while reading along. This method produces large gains in reading comprehension and vocabulary rather quickly.
Daily Books
A daily, or sometimes weekly, amount of reading is contained in a Moodle book activity, see more-on-books. Individual Lit2Go chapters are pages in the book. Most of the time, there are be multiple Moodle books for each work of literature. The purpose of the Moodle book is to pace the student to read one hour a day, so the Moodle books have about an hour's work of reading of the work of literature selected.
Diaries
At the end of the daily reading, the student is asked to make a Moodle diary entry (see more-on-diary), summarizing the main ideas of the chapters that were read. There is one diary activity per work of literature, but there is one entry in the diary for each Moodle book.
It is not reasonable to expect the student to scroll back up to the diary activity and make a new entry when done with their reading, they need to see the activity to write the summary directly after completing the book activity.
The URL of the diary activity is copied and added as a URL activity after each book to prompt the user to make a new diary entry. The URL opens each student's own diary for the work of literature.
Optionally, the link to the diary can be added to the Moodle book itself and the end of the reading.
Essays
Essays integrate ideas and concepts. Developing an essay is a multi-step process. There are two essays per semester of English.
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IXL Based Math
Most math classes make use of the IXL.com online resource for daily practice. In general, full courses may be completed in the year if the student complletes three skills per day.
As of 2023, IXL does not provide any direct integration with Moodle. As students complete their skills, they are asked to turn in a screenshot using the assignment activity. The assignment activity must be configured to NOT accept files, the students paste/drag their screenshot into the text area. When grading the activity, the grade checks the screenshot shows the titles and the score.
The screenshot method is not full-proof. Students can use "inspect element" and directly change the HTML code on the screen to improve their score. The student is made aware that their IXL account will be cross-checked. Teachers can view all student accounts on IXL platform.
IXL skills are either added a URLs, with pop-up (under Appearance) being the most convenient.
Standard pop-up window size should be 1000 width by 750 height
Alternatively, the links can be added to the Assignment in the description text box and links. The assignment can display the description box on the course page. The advantage of this approach is less scrolling and a more compact course. The disadvantage is that the IXL window can not be controlled.
If students are not logged into IXL with their own credentials, their work will not be saved. If they turned in a screenshot and the work is not saves, when the student's account is spot-checked, the work will not show, the teacher may assigne a zero in this case.