Message-ID: <4790935.1182532581747.JavaMail.joeescobar@joe-escobars-computer.local> Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2007 19:05:19 -0800 (PST) From: lovejm Subject: Problems with internal mail in online classes Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----=_Part_99_2170432.1182532581747" GWItemID: 45C9C07F.LCC-Mail.MC_PO3.100.1346735.1.3311.1 ------=_Part_99_2170432.1182532581747 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit David, Meredith, Joe, and colleagues: I would like to touch base with you briefly about some concerns I am having about the reliability of Moodle's internal mail ("Messages") system. I have had reports this term from my online students who have said they have not received a message I have sent them within Moodle; or who report that they received the Moodle message in their Moodle Message area, but not in their personal email accounts (despite their configuring their email accounts to receive Moodle mail). (This has happened to me several times over the past few terms, too: Someone sends me a message in Moodle, but it never shows up in my personal email account.) My biggest worry here is the former problem: i.e., that Moodle-sent messages sometimes don't even make it to the recipient *within* Moodle. That is a scary situation for both students and instructors. Below this email to you, I have pasted in an exchange between a student and me in which the student did not receive a message I sent her (back in January) about her essay draft. (This student needed to see my response to her paper in order to revise her essay, but she apparently never got it the first time, though she *did* receive it when I re-sent it the day before yesterday.) This problem--lost messages in Moodle--does not seem to happen often, but it has happened at least once every term I've taught a Moodle class, and I think it's something that should be looked into. I use the Moodle Messages system extensively to give private feedback to my students on their work, and if the system is not reliable, students end up missing out on my feedback (and sometimes grading) of their work. WebCT's internal mail system was 100% reliable, in my experience, and I would hope that we can do what is possible to ensure that Moodle's is, too. (Sorry for the shameless plug for a now-defunct system. . . . ) One issue that compounds the difficulty here is the oddly non-intuitive nature of the Moodle "Messages" area. In order for students to see a message I have sent them, many must click on "Message History" in order to open it for the first time. (Not all browsers create this "added hoop to jump through," but many do.) Also, in order for students to re-open a message from me or a classmate that they have already seen, unless they have added the sender to their "List of Contacts," they must go through a complicated series of steps that I think must be confusing for many students. This series of steps includes: - Clicking on the person's name in the "Participants" area. - Clicking on "Send Message." - Clicking on "Message History." None of these steps appears to have anything to do with "viewing an already received email." I know there is probably nothing that can be done about these design problems (short of contacting the Moodle developers), but I worry about it because it makes private communication with students so complicated. One thing that might facilitate students' viewing (and re-viewing) emails from their instructor, at least, would be to configure the Messages area so that students "already automatically" have their instructor's name in their "List of Contacts." Is this possible? (Or maybe it's already the case--I'm not sure what students see in their "Messages" area when they open it up for the first time.) In any case, I truly feel that an internal mail system should self-explanatory and easy for students to use. Thank you so much for your consideration of these issues. Below is my email exchange with the student who didn't get an earlier Moodle-sent message from me. Thanks again, Jennifer Love ** Tuesday, 6 February 2007 Michelle Woodall [04:41 PM]: I didn't receive the first letter of response that you sent me, but I did receive the one that you just posted. I don't know if it's too late to rewrite my paper with the suggestions that you gave me or if I should just keep it the way it is. Anyways let me know and thanks for the feedback. Jennifer Love [07:03 PM]: Subject: Revising Your Essay! -- Michelle, Thanks for your note. I am very sorry that my first response to your essay did not reach you--I wonder what happened? (I assume it was a glitch in Moodle. I definitely have a record in Moodle of having sent you the message, so I really do not know what happened.) It's important that you know that I send each student, by Moodle mail, an in-depth response to every essay that they write (draft and revision). So, if, on a future occasion, you don't receive a message from me about your paper within a week of submitting it to the forum, please email me and say, "Ms. Love, I didn't get your response to my essay." I will email it to you again. It's very important that you have my responses so you know how I'm responding to your essay! As for your First Essay, you should *definitely* revise it again in response to my feedback. I will give you until this weekend to revise it--I hope that's enough time. Just submit it to the same forum ("Revised First Essays") when you're done. Thanks, Michelle. I will look toward seeing your "newly revised" essay in the forum by this weekend. Jennifer Love Jennifer M. Love, Ph.D. Instructor of Writing Division of Language, Literature, and Communication Lane Community College 4000 E. 30th Ave. Eugene, OR 97405 Email: lovejm@lanecc.edu Office phone/msg.: 541.463.3393 Homepage: http://teach.lanecc.edu/kenz/llc/staffpage.html?userid=48 ------=_Part_99_2170432.1182532581747--