Is Your Moodle Course Ready for Spring 2018?

With Spring 2018 classes set to begin on Monday, Jan. 22, we have some information to help make sure you are ready for the start of the semester:

  • Most Moodle courses open to students on Friday, Jan. 19;
  • Make sure your TAs have access to Moodle;
  • How to request your Spring 20178 on-campus Moodle courses;
  • How to reuse a previous Moodle course;
  • How to give access to a closed course for a student with an Incomplete;
  • Where to get help with Moodle.

Moodle Courses Open on Friday, Jan. 19

Most Spring 2018 Moodle courses will be available to students on Friday, Jan. 19, starting at approximately 12 p.m. If you are not ready for students to see your course, you can hide individual elements of the course or hide the entire course.

Please note: If you request your Spring 2018 Moodle course after courses are opened on Friday, Jan. 19, you will have to release the course to students yourself.

For details on hiding or releasing courses, see: Moodle Important Settings.

TA Access to Moodle

Your TA must be listed in SPIRE as a Teaching Assistant in order to have access to your Moodle course. By default, TAs automatically receive access to Moodle in the role of Non-Editing Teacher, which allows them to access student resources and activities, and read and grade student submissions. For more details on this process, see: Access to Moodle for Teaching Assistants.

Request Your Spring 2018 Moodle Course in SPIRE

To request Moodle for your Spring 2018 on-campus course(s), log in to SPIRE with your IT Account NetID and password. In the Menu, go to Faculty Home > Moodle Course Request. You will go through a series of screens that will gather information about your course. For more details, see: Request a Moodle Course Through Spire.

Note: On-campus courses for the College of Nursing will not be listed as eligible for Moodle in SPIRE. (Instructors teaching in this college require approval to use Moodle.)

Reuse an Existing Moodle Course

You’ll need to request a new Moodle course each semester you teach a class. Once a new empty Moodle course has been created, you can use the Moodle Import feature to move content from the course you would like to reuse into the new course shell. For step-by-step instructions, see: Reuse a Moodle Course Using Import.

You can import a course you taught in a previous semester that is still on the Moodle server, or a course belonging to another instructor if you have their permission to copy it.

Provide Access to a Closed Course for a Student with an Incomplete

Fall 2017 Moodle courses will be closed to students on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018, starting at approximately 12 p.m.

You can provide continued access to a closed course for a student working on an Incomplete without reopening the course to all students by assigning the “Student with Incomplete” role to particular students in the closed course. For step-by-step instructions, see: Assign Roles to Individuals in your Moodle Course.

Moodle Help and Resources for Instructors

To learn more about Moodle or to get help, you can:

  • 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.
Skip to toolbar