The more learning management systems (LMS) are used for assessments, the more the stakes in the system grow and the more security becomes a serious issue. Iframes are an html technology that is frequently used to share learning objects within institutional systems such as LMS but they can represent a security issue. At Sussex we are […]
Read this post →Category Archives: moodle development
25.11.2014
Reducing paperwork: Electronic Submission of Written Coursework
Giving teachers more time for teaching and students more time for learning Life just improved for our tutors and our first year students. Sussex University has introduced the policy and technology for online submission of essays and return of feedback, removing administrative tasks and making time for value-added activities such as teaching and learning. This […]
Read this post →9.6.2014
Where is my feedback?
Tutors give feedback to formal assessments via our student administrative system. Up until March this year the students accessed this feedback through the same system. Now we have now added a new view of the data through our learning system (Moodle). Why did we bother? We feel assessments are core to students’ learning. They’re often the motivation […]
Read this post →27.5.2014
A new Moodle home page: “I am studying towards a degree, not a group of related courses”
At Sussex University we have taken steps to reconceptualise our learning space from the point of view of the students. Students understand their educational journey to be one towards accreditation in a degree programme, but in the past our online space only reflected the compartmentalised courses (modules *) that made up their studies. As of March 2014 […]
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 →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 →12.9.2012
Moodle usability – interviews from 2010 (#1)
In 2010, Graham MacAllister, founder of Player Research, interviewed a number of staff members here at Sussex and videoed them interacting with our old version of Moodle. These videos – and Graham’s subsequent report – were very helpful to us in deciding on the priorities and approaches to adopt in taking forward the work that […]
Read this post →