This blog post comes on the back of the Moodle moot conference we attended in Edinburgh this month. As in most conferences we received many comments from the Moodle community such as this one by Mark Andrews, University of Cambridge: “Sussex University seems to have sorted out all the problems we have with Moodle“ Well […]
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30.4.2014
Recommendations for Moodle use based on three case studies of University teaching
I have been doing a Doctorate in Education part time. At the Moodlemoot 2014 I used my results to make recommendations for users and in some cases developers using Moodle. In summary: Use multiple choice questions, but follow it up with a reflective or discursive task relating to the knowledge it is testing Use peer review […]
Read this post →10.12.2013
Easy-to-use integration of a library reading list system into Moodle
The library uses a system which allows tutors to create lists of reading resources which simultaneously inform the students what they should be reading and the library of what books and articles they need to purchase. The system is called Talis Aspire and is a market leader in UK University libraries. The system allows flexibility in the […]
Read this post →21.10.2013
Making Moodle more engaging by rethinking the display of content
As many of our regular readers will know, a common theme in this blog has been how it is hard to create Moodle pages that look like the rest of the internet. Many Moodle pages look lists. When we are developing we often ask the question “What would Facebook do?” – or more generally “What […]
Read this post →10.10.2013
New names for the Moodle label and page mods
When you create a Moodle course you can add two generic types of learning material. One provides non-interactive content, and the other provides tools for student interaction. Moodle calls these two material types: “resources” and “activities”. Tutors create the material types through Moodle modules/mods, the names of which reflect what they do – so the […]
Read this post →17.9.2013
Grademark and Turnitin integration with Moodle
We have been using Turnitin for formative use for some time. This allows students, researchers and tutors to make textual comparisons between their own work and texts found on the Turnitin database. They can use this to establish that they have cited and referenced their work correctly. We currently do not have an academic policy […]
Read this post →6.9.2013
Making the Moodle assignment module easy to use
Over the last year we have made a few changes to the assignment tool in Moodle to improve the student and tutors’ experience. We tried to simplify assignments by removing the confusing (or never intentionally used) options and adding in a few features our tutors did need including a ‘release the feedback’ button. For tutors […]
Read this post →27.2.2013
E-learning team presentation at Moodle Moot Dublin 2013
In case our Moodlemoot Dublin abstract has left you salivating but you have found that our presentation wasn’t recorded, we thought we’d give a quick overview. Sussex University is a research-led Higher Education institution using a customised Moodle install called Study Direct. We have 1,500 editing tutors, 15,000 students, 2,099 2012/13 Moodle courses and 13,500 unique hits per […]
Read this post →15.1.2013
Improving Moodle import. Part 3: The application
We have developed a new import tool for importing materials from one course to another. The advantages over the Moodle import are: it is easy to use it is reliable it is fast it only imports questions used in the quiz while maintaining question category structures that are used it shares many similarities with our […]
Read this post →8.1.2013
Brighton UX conference 2012
I am relatively new to user experience. My colleague, Stuart, is a keen advocate and a lot of what he says makes undeniable sense. I have therefore started to dip my toe into this new world. I began by reading The Elements of User Experience by Jesse James Garrett. His name made him sound like […]
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