Hello Lane faculty,

As the most senior member of the faculty webmaster team, I thought I'd take this opportunity to welcome you to Fall Term and inform you about some changes you can expect to see regarding Moodle this year.  If you do not currently use Moodle for your students and courses or do not intend to use this learning management software, feel free to stop reading this email and delete it now.  I'm sure you may have many other emails to attend to ;-)

A bit of history to get us started. 
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We have experienced unprecedented growth at Lane with our use of the learning management software Moodle. Lane's IT Department has been the sole support for all aspects of Moodle, technical, faculty, and student, since the start of Summer Term 2007. Current and ongoing budget challenges have resulted in a loss of jobs, a number of these within the IT Department. Creative solutions for software support are demanded if we want to increase course offerings and work with changing technological needs. In order for IT to provide an entire support package for Moodle at a level that is necessary for a "mission critical" software application, the IT Department has decided to outsource Moodle, beginning Fall Term 2007.

What to expect Fall Term 2007 
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We have upgraded to the latest version of Moodle, 1.9 and a company called Remote Learner is housing Lane's new server.  (www.remote-learner.net)  There will be some changes from version 1.6 which we had been using last year.  Look for Moodle introduction workshops and "what's new" presentations offered by your faculty webmasters during Fall inservice, Thursday and Friday, September 20 & 21.

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I need to get started RIGHT NOW.  What do I do?
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For Fall 2007, the Moodle Administrator will backup and restore your
courses for you.  Please email moodleadmin@lanecc.edu with your
requests, and include the following information:

- The CRN, term and course number of the course you want backed up
(e.g., HST 201, 30492, Winter 2007)
- The CRN and course number (e.g., HST 201, 20458) of the course you
want the above course to be restored TO in Fall 2007

More information on Faculty Support
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Faculty support will be available in the following ways. 
* Attend an inservice workshop or presentation, September 20 & 21
* There are a variety of online help sites:
* Humboldt State University Faculty Guide to Moodle. http://www.humboldt.edu/~moodle/instructor/  You many login as a guest. Please remember this is designed for HSU and disregard their login procedures for their courses. This is for general information only. They may offer features that Lane does not support, but the guide is full of good information and tutorial style assistance.
* Remote Learner has an overview of Moodle in a "course" located  at http://moodle1.lanecc.edu/fall2007/course/view.php?id=2 or use the link provided at https://teach.lanecc.edu/moodle 
* MoodleDocs - http://docs.moodle.org/en/         Teacher documentation, good tutorials. Also has a good search feature to help you zero in on the topic of your choice. You may login as a guest.
* Moodle.org - http://moodle.org/   From the folks that created Moodle. Everything you never really wanted to know but were afraid to ask. Good statistics and community forums. You will need to create an account to participate in forums. Click on FREE SUPPORT under main menu in the upper left corner.

Help at LCC:
* Email online@lanecc.edu for how-to Moodle answers.
* Get help from your own colleagues by asking and answering questions in the Moodle Class for Instructors. 
* Attend a Moodle workshop offered by the faculty webmasters during Fall, Winter, and Spring Terms throughout the academic year. 
* Instructors needing continual help will be able to access the Moodle experts at Remote Learner.

Faculty webmasters will continue to serve as consultants for faculty pedagogical questions related to Moodle, such as "to accomplish a particular learning outcome, should I use a Moodle forum or assignment?".

LCC's student help desk SHeD@lanecc.edu will continue to offer Moodle support for students.

More to come 
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Your Faculty Webmasters are here to help interested LCC faculty make effective use of the web and related technologies as part of the teaching-learning process. Within this role, we are prepared to work as inform ation resources, facilitators, consultants, advocates, troubleshooters, liaisons, advisers, and leaders. And the why? Because we have a passion for teaching and a knack with technology!

Your faculty webmasters for Fall Term are Meredith Keene-Wilson and Will Sarvis, as I will be on sabbatical.  I'll be back Winter Term 2008.  If you have any technology questions, contact your faculty webmasters first, at fwm@lanecc.edu and stay informed by bookmarking our website at https://teach.lanecc.edu



Joe Escobar 
History Instructor 
Faculty Webmaster