Message-ID: <14566826.1182531698467.JavaMail.joeescobar@joe-escobars-computer.local> Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 22:12:58 -0700 (PDT) From: moodleadmin Subject: Re: Moodle: students added to class lists (and other announcements) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----=_Part_24_10619016.1182531698462" GWItemID: 4512ABFA.LCC-Mail.MC_PO3.100.1346735.1.187E.1 ------=_Part_24_10619016.1182531698462 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Michael, It looks to me like your WR 123 (CRN 23411), in the Fall instance of Moodle at , is still the stock, blank course template we use when we create all our new courses. I assume that means you want to copy over the content from a different, previous course, in which case you can find information on how to do that at and in my previous email messages. If you don't like the look of the new default theme that we have in place for Fall, you can change your course back to one of the standard Moodle themes, as I mentioned in an earlier message (see below). The first message below is about the course theme, and includes instructions for changing it (in case I missed your email address when I sent it--that's happened to a couple of instructors, and I apologize if that's what happened to you). Just in case, I've also added the general announcement I sent out when we first made the Moodle instance for Fall 2006 available a couple of weeks ago. If there is something indeed wrong with the appearance of a course that you're trying to backup, then you'll probably want to talk to one of the faculty webmasters (you can email online@lanecc.edu); I really only handle back-end server stuff like course creation, student enrollments, and so forth. David ---- Dear Instructors, Just a quick note to bring some things to your attention: First, a reminder: the Moodle server will be unavailable between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM today. We are moving everything to new hardware, and in order to make sure that everything gets copied over correctly, we need to take the service down. We apologize for the inconvenience. Second: if everything goes well with the server switchover, we will start enrolling students in your courses tonight. Remember that if you don't want students to actually see your course yet, you can keep it invisible; they won't even see that they're enrolled until it's made accessible to students. Finally, a note: if you've logged in after about 11:15 this morning, you'll have seen that the main Moodle site has a different look and feel, courtesy of the faculty webmasters, who designed a more LCC-specific theme. The new theme, called "formal_LCC," is the default theme for the site, so unless you've specifically designated a different theme for your courses, that's what will show up. If you want to, you're of course welcome to change the theme for your courses: - Log in and click on your course. - In the Administration block on the left-hand side, click Settings. - On the course settings screen, scroll all the way down to the bottom. Under "Force theme," select the theme you want to use. Note that if you change the theme from the default, your students can no longer choose their own themes for your course, which normally they're allowed to do. David ---- Dear faculty, The Fall 2006 instance of Moodle is now ready at . After you log in with your L-# and PIN, you should see a list of the courses that are assigned to you in Banner. As I mentioned earlier, the courses as they are don't have any content, and if you already have a course developed in an earlier instance of Moodle, you can replace the course 'shell' with your backed-up course. For more information on how to do that, see the various documentation at (there's also a video there that addresses this topic), or send email to online@lanecc.edu. A couple of caveats and things to note: - When you log in, use only the first six characters of your ExpressLane PIN. If you are having difficulty logging in, call the Help Desk for assistance. If they can't help you get logged in, they will refer the matter to me, and I can make sure that your account is properly set up. Please give them your name and L-# when you talk to them. - In some cases, it's possible that the list of courses may be incomplete. If this happens, it's most likely because the process for assigning your L-# to that course in Banner has not been completed for some reason. If that happens, please send email to moodleadmin@lanecc.edu with information about you and the course (your L-#, and the CRN and if possible the course number of the course). Resolving the problem may in some cases require you (or us) to check with the person responsible for submitting course requests in your department. - Version: for various reasons, we have moved to Moodle 1.6; Moodle 1.5 is the version we used for Summer 2006. If you don't see a feature that you are used to, please send email to online@lanecc.edu to ask about it. After you log in, you may want to edit your profile (just click on your name where it says "Your are logged in as..." in the upper right-hand corner, and then click the "Edit profile" tab). Here's why: - In some cases, we may not have been able to get your email address, either because you don't have one entered in Banner, or because it didn't make it into our data stream due to the vagaries of the import process. In these cases, we've set a fake address (your L-number@emailnotset.lanecc.edu). - The City and Description fields are set to stock values, mostly for privacy considerations. You are welcome to change these fields however you like. - In some cases, the Country field may not be set correctly. If you have any questions, please don't hestitate to contact us. For questions about using Moodle (general usage, features, and so forth), please email online@lanecc.edu. For problems logging in, please call the Help Desk at Ext. 4444. For problems arising with the server (including classes that are not listed, an inability to edit your courses, or students not showing up in your class lists), please email moodleadmin@lanecc.edu. One last note: the transition to Moodle has been a major project (actually, it still IS a major project), resting on some very hard work by a number of different people. You--the instructors who are using it--are an important part of that team. We value your feedback and your input, and view this term as being the start of implementing the new site, not the end. (Let me also reiterate that the appearance of the site will change as we get closer to the start of the school year. Among other things, we will add a link to a new FAQ for students, which addresses some of the most common problems that students tend to have. We are in the process of writing that document and will link to it as soon as it's ready.) Beyond that, however, if you have any thoughts or suggestions about improving the site and how it works, we encourage you to contact us. Here's to a smooth Fall term! David Walton =============================================== David Walton Moodle System Administrator Lane Community College Email support: moodleadmin@lanecc.edu Voice: 463-3367 =============================================== ------=_Part_24_10619016.1182531698462--