Here's a tip contributed by our client Karen Shackleford.

Multiple choice questions are probably the most frequently used question type in quizzes. One of the issues is that the answer in the choices presented to the candidate.

Karen suggests using "None of the above" as the final choice in the question and also that quizzes using questions constructed in this way should contain questions where the answer (key) is present and also where it isn't (Sneaky, or what!).

If you use this suggestion make sure the "Shuffle the choices?" checkbox is not ticked when you set up the question.

Thanks, Karen!

If you would like to see your tip here email us on tips@howtomoodle.com

Not really had chance to blog about this since we put it on the website last week, but have been delighted with the repsonse so far.

Full details over at: http://www.howtomoodle.com/seminars

Places are limited and there's an early bird discount.

Here's a simple way to generate a complete template for your bulk user CSV file.

In a 1.9 series Moodle site, log in as an administrator and find the following location on the site administration menu:

Users > Accounts > Bulk user actions.

Select a user in the "Available" column (any account will do) and click the "Add to selection" button. With this user in the "Selected" column move down the page to the "With selected users..." drop-down, select "Download" and click the "Go" button.

Next click the "Download in text format" link and save the CSV file generated.

You now have a complete CSV file ready for populating with user details (you'll still need need to add a "password" column, and don't forget to remove the details of the user you selected earlier to generate the file).

If you've added bespoke User Profile fields to your site these are also included with the correct field names.

 

Just a quick "thanks" for everyone who's been in touch with feedback about the tips on this blog. The Moodle Tips item was the most clicked item on our recent email newsletter! www.howtomoodle.com/newsletter

If you have any tips you'd like to see here email me at tips@howtomoodle.com

Following on from my recent post on this I've been asked about information that appears in users' profiles that's not in the list on the User policies page.

The chances are that this is a bespoke field set up with User profile fields. (Login in as an administrator - Site administration > Users > Accounts > User profile fields.

Open the field for editing and change the "Who is this field visible to?" to suit your needs.

When participants with "student" level access view each others user profiles they see most of the information entered. As this could include a
range of contact, address and access information there may be concerns about privacy and compliance with data protection legislation.

The good news if you're concerned about this is that the site administrator can configure the site so that some of the relevant fields are hidden from other students (the course facilitators will still see the information when they view the user's profile).

Navigate to the following setting from the Site Administration block: Users > Permissions > User policies: Hide user fields, click the required fields and save.

When you're using group enrolment keys users are normally given a prompt if they enter the wrong enrolment key on attemptng to enter a course. The issue is that the enrolment key prompt refers to the course enrolment key not a group enrolment key. This can cause confusion and a fair amount of frustration too.

If you're not using course enrolment keys, or you are and can live without a prompt, you may find it useful to disable the enrolment key prompt option at:

Site Administration > Course > Enrolments > Internal Enrolment - Edit.

Set "enrol_manual_showhint" to "No".

(You'll need to be logged in a as an administrator to change this).

 

 

Most people are aware that the Short Answer question type allows checking of submissions on a case sensitive basis. The short answer element in the Embedded Answer (Cloze) question type can incorporate case sensitive matching too!

Simply use "SHORTANSWER_C", or "SAC" instead of "SHORTANSWER" or "SA" when constructing your question.

Keeping your site home page free of clutter is important to make the best use of the space available. An example of this is sign up instructions which are not needed when the user has logged in. We use role overrides to achieve this simply and with no software hacks. When the user logs in the instructions disappear!

1. Create your sign up instructions using a HTML block and position above the Login block.
2. Turn editing on for the front page and locate the "Assign roles" icon for the HTML block and click it.
3. Click the "Override permissions" tab and then click the link for the Student role.
4. Click the "Prevent" radio button for the "View block" capability and save.
5. Repeat for each role other than Guest and Administrator.

There's a great new feature in the latest weekly version of Moodle (and
in the forthcoming 1.9.6 release) that enables course designers to
easily embed videos for YouTube.

With older versions it's necessary to paste in the code from YouTube
which can be daunting and students who attempt this have the code
stripped out on saving e.g. a forum post to safeguard against the
potential security risks associated with introducing code in this way.

From now on it's easy for all users to embed YouTube video by using the
in-built multimedia plugin.

1. The first step is for the site administrator to upgrade your site.
2. Enable the YouTube option.
3. Find the YouTube video you want embed and copy the URL.
4. Find the place where you want to embed the video and open it for editing.
5. The following works with the HTML editor enabled, type in some text
and select it.
6. Click on the Insert Web Link icon on the toolbar.
7. Paste in the URL from YouTube into the URL field in the pop up and
click "OK"
8. The text you typed in should now be a link.
9. Save the page and the video is safely and neatly embedded.

That's it!