The Instructional Media Lab is Moving to the Du Bois Library
The Instructional Media Lab (IML), your home base for Moodle support, is moving from Lederle Lowrise, to the W. E. B. Du Bois Library. For most of you, this will make our offices easier to get to. We look forward to seeing you in our new digs!
Next week will be a short week in the Lab, so if you need an appointment with one of our wonderful consultants, please make arrangements soon.
- Closed Monday, Oct. 12, 2015 for the Columbus Day Holiday.
- Closed Friday, Oct. 16, 2015 and Monday, Oct. 19, 2015 for moving (but we’re available by phone and email).
On Tuesday, Oct. 20, we re-open in our new location on the 7th floor of the Du Bois Library.
Room 765, Du Bois Library
Hours: Open Mondays through Fridays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Phone: 413-545-2823
Email: instruct@umass.edu
Moodle News
Important Changes to Moodle Questionnaire Activity
This summer when the Questionnaire activity was updated, an unexpected change was made to the Questionnaire settings options. If you set up a Questionnaire activity this semester or copied a Questionnaire from a previous semester, please check the settings for allowing students to view all submitted results.
Previously, there was an option to set “Allow students to view ALL submissions” to “Never” (students would only see their own submission). In the upgrade, that option was removed by the developers (without notice). As of today, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015, we have restored the option to select “Never.” Previously, the default setting for “Allow students to view ALL submission” was “Never,” but for a period of time, the default was “After answering the questionnaire.”
Newly created Questionnaires will again have the default setting of “Never” for “Allow students to view ALL submissions,“ but the setting should be checked, especially in Questionnaires created or copied during the window between June and October 2015.
Since we cannot know what individual instructor’s intentions might be for a given activity, we can’t automatically reset the settings for all courses.
Please check the settings for your current Questionnaires to ensure results are released (or not released) as you wish.
New UMass Libraries Course Materials Block
Add the UMass Libraries Course Materials block to your Moodle course to allow your students to link to course materials hosted by the UMass Amherst Libraries. Library Reserves now uses common authentication with Moodle, so you can use a Moodle URL resource to link directly to your Library materials.
When you configure the block, a Digital Reserves account will be automatically generated for your course. You can then request to have Library staff add Digital Reserve items.
To set up the block, see: Add UMass Libraries Course Materials Block and Information For Instructors: FAQ.
International Phonetics Alphabet Filter Added
Linguists sometimes use X-SAMPA to represent the International Phonetic Alphabet using the more limited ASCII character set. This filter treats text marked-up in hyphen/curly-brace combinations as X-SAMPA to be rendered as Unicode IPA. For more see: IPA Filter and X-SAMPA.
Media Collection Activity Pilot
Moodle at UMass Amherst is piloting a new Moodle activity that allows instructors to create a space to add galleries of images, video or audio media, with an option for commenting in context, in an open forum, or only between instructors and individual students.
Collections can be set to allow only the instructor to post media, or for students to contribute galleries. There is also a media Assignment type that allows students to submit gradable galleries, with an option for peer review.
If you’re interested in participating in the Media Collection activity pilot, we can make it available in your course. Contact the Instructional Media Lab at instruct@umass.edu or 413-545-2823.
Other Fixes & Improvements
- Fixed bug that hid or ‘orphaned’ content in Imported courses if the new course had fewer sections than the imported course.
- Minor interface improvements for accessibility.