June 2018 Moodle News

Announcements Moodle News

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Hoonuit Online Training to be Discontinued

The university-wide subscription to Hoonuit web-based training videos (previously called Atomic Learning), will be discontinued at the end of June, 2018.  If your Moodle course contains links to Hoonuit videos, or Hoonuit LTI (External tool) activities, those will no longer work as of the end of this month.

As an alternative, the Digital Media Lab on the 3rd floor of the library has a subscription to lynda.com, a learning platform that contains video instruction in business, software, technology, and creative skills. This subscription must be accessed onsite from the DML computers. Other options for using Lynda are: purchase a direct account from Lynda.com or access from the Boston Public Library at: http://www.bpl.org/ (you must be elegible for an ecard from the Boston Public Library). Youtube also can be a helpful resource in looking for video training.

Reminder: UDrive to be Retired on Monday, July 2, 2018

UDrive, the university’s legacy online file storage and sharing system, will retire on Monday, July 2, 2018 as the product has reached end-of-life and no longer meets campus technology standards. Once UDrive is retired, any files you currently store on UDrive will not be able to be accessed.

  • If you use WebDAV to access UDrive on your computer, the network drive will no longer work.
  • If you link to files hosted on UDrive from your blog, or personal or course website, these links will not work after July 2, 2018.
  • Instructors using UDrive for their Moodle or Blackboard courses will no longer have access to course files stored on UDrive.

For step-by-step instructions and videos for moving files off UDrive, see Download your data from UDrive.

Please note, if you have been using UDrive to deliver course materials:

  • PDFs or other files such as Word or Excel docs can be moved to Secure Online Storage (powered by Box) or Apps at UMass Amherst (powered by Google).
  • Neither Box nor Google Drive are good options for media files.
    • Request Echo360 for your course. If you make recordings with another screencasting application such as Camatasia, or have other multimedia you’d like to share with students, simply request Echo360 for your course and upload your files!
    • Host video on YouTube or Vimeo (make video unlisted or password protected as needed).
  • Neither Box nor Google Drive can serve web pages (i.e., HTML files).
    • Host web pages on people.umass.edu or courses.umass.edu.  For help uploading files to courses.umass.edu via FTP, contact the Instructional Media Lab.

For any questions and to report problems, please contact IT User Services at (413) 545 TECH (8324) or it@umass.edu.

Moodle Tip of the Month: Incompletes & Independent Studies

Did you know that Instructors can grant access to a Moodle course for individual students in order to complete an incomplete or to fulfill requirements for an independent study?

If you need a student to access a closed course from a previous semester, the best solution is not to reopen the course (if you do, all previously enrolled students will have access to the course in their My Courses menu and Moodle Dashboard). Instead, assign the role “Student with Incomplete” to allow individual students access. For details, see Assign Roles to Individuals in Your Moodle Course .

Alternatively, to allow a student to repeat the online component of a class by participating in the current semester’s Moodle course, or to participate in a course as part of an Independent Study, complete the form to Request Contributor Access to Moodle.

What’s new in Moodle?

“Turn editing on” Improved

Thanks to the faculty member who requested a welcome improvement to the Moodle interface for Instructors and Course Designers:  When you click “Turn editing on” or “Turn Editing off,” the page will now refresh to its previous location. No more scrolling back up or down the page to find where you were!

We’re Continuing with Moodle 3.1 for 2018-19

UMass Amherst IT is planning to keep Moodle at UMass Amherst  and Open UMass on Moodle version 3.1 for the 2018-19 academic year.

We may periodically add features and will perform security updates during our regularly scheduled update window (Thursday mornings), but no major upgrade is planned at this time.

Request Moodle and Echo360 Courses for Summer & Fall in SPIRE

Moodle and Echo360 course request is now open in SPIRE for summer and fall 2018. Instructors must request a Moodle course each term they wish to use Moodle for a course. Once your new, empty course is created, you’ll have the option to import previously used content.

For details see:

Moodle Help and Resources for Instructors

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

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