Tech Teaching Tips

A more complete list of resources is available on the Faculty Moodle Resource site.

Participants Can Join Zoom Breakout Rooms on Their Own

Zoom breakout rooms are great, but assigning participants to different rooms during a session can be time-consuming. In the newest upgrade of Zoom (version 5.3.0), participants can now join breakout rooms on their own without being assigned to a breakout session. Click the link below for instructions on how to upgrade, allow students to join breakout rooms, and special directions for students using mobile devices. Participants can join Zoom Breakout Rooms on their own

“Search Forums” in Moodle Forums

If you use Moodle Forums, you may want to isolate a specific student’s posts in order to provide feedback or a grade. The new “Search Forums” feature lets you easily isolate a student’s posts AND you can refine the search so that you only see posts submitted prior to the deadline. Click the link below to learn how to Search Forums http://go.augsburg.edu/viewposts

How to Hold Class When Class is Cancelled

Weather and other emergencies that cancel class can disrupt the teaching plan you originally devised in your syllabus. Fortunately, Augsburg has a number of e-learning tools that allow you to transform your in-class lesson(s) into an online (asynchronous) equivalent. Check out the link below for suggestions about how to re-imagine a lesson plan with relatively short notice so you won’t have to reorganize to catch up. How to Hold Class When Class is Cancelled

TechTalks: The Basics of Excel

Excel is a powerful platform with many productivity-enhancing features. The trouble is that most of us use only a small percentage of the features available because finding and learning them takes time. Plan to invest 15 minutes to attend this online TechTalk led by LFC Nathan Lind to learn a few quick tips and tricks that will help you take better advantage of what Excel has to offer. Recording of the TechTalk: The Basics of Excel

TechTalks: Tips on Using Gmail

Gmail is a powerful platform with many productivity-enhancing features. The trouble is that most of us use only a small percentage of the features available because finding and learning them takes time. Plan to invest 15 minutes to attend this online Tech Talk led by LFC Nathan Lind to learn a few quick tips and tricks that will help you take better advantage of what Gmail has to offer beyond the basics of sending and receiving messages. Recording of the TechTalk: Tips on Using Gmail

Search Moodle Forums

“If you use Moodle Forums, you may want to isolate a specific student’s posts in order to provide feedback or a grade. The new “”Search Forums”” feature lets you easily isolate a student’s posts AND you can refine the search so that you only see posts submitted prior to the deadline. See link below to learn more.” http://go.augsburg.edu/viewposts

Managing Multiple Google Accounts

Faculty, have you ever shared a Google doc with permissions set to “Anyone at Augsburg University with the link can view,” but still had students complain they cannot access the link? Almost always the problem is that students are in the wrong Google account (a personal one rather than their Augsburg account). For help with switching accounts, see Managing Multiple Google Accounts.

Adding Images to Moodle

While images are not crucial to a good Moodle site, they can help focus students’ attention, break up blocks of text, and support your course content. It is easy to add images to a Moodle label, page, or any Moodle resource or activity using the content editor toolbar. [NOTE: We recommend you use the Firefox browser when adding images as it seems to work best with Moodle image insertion.]

Moodle Gradebook Help for Students and Faculty

Students, you can access your Moodle gradebook by clicking on your profile picture (upper right corner) and then selecting your course from the list. Faculty, want help setting up your gradebook? Contact your LFC or the E-Learning Specialist. access your Moodle gradebook

Get Your Moodle Course Ready for Spring Semester

Getting your Spring Moodle courses ready? You can quickly and easily import content from previous semesters using the Faculty Course Archive block <http://go.augsburg.edu/courserestor>. Save time changing due dates for assignments by using the “”Dates Report”” <http://go.augsburg.edu/datesreport> in the Administration Block. Building new content? Don’t forget that you can speed things up by easily duplicating <http://go.augsburg.edu/mooduplicate> any Moodle activity or resource. Check out the Faculty Moodle Resource <http://go.augsburg.edu/fmr> for more timely tips.

Evaluating Oral Presentations

Instructors, if you use a rubric for evaluating oral presentations, consider converting this into a Moodle rubric or grading guide to help streamline your grading process. You can record your feedback on a laptop during the presentation. Upon clicking “Save,” Moodle adds up the score, enters the grade into the gradebook, and alerts the student to check for your comments. For more on creating a Moodle rubric, see http://go.augsburg.edu/rubric. For grading guides, see http://go.augsburg.edu/markingguide.

Inserting Zeros in Gradebook

By default, only non-empty grades in the Moodle Gradebook are aggregated; the others are ignored. This means that if instructors want students to have an accurate understanding of their progress in a course, a value must be inserted into the points window. If students have not submitted an assignment, instructors need to insert a 0 (rather than leaving the place blank) to affect the final grade. Here is a quick way to add zeros for all students who haven’t already received a grade for an activity. http://go.augsburg.edu/bulkzero

Miscellaneous Tech Tips

Moodle Time-Saving Strategies Import the Moodle Template, a blueprint that includes resources useful to students Import a Previous Course in Moodle with the Faculty Archive Block Use CLEAN design (Consistent, Linking, Engaging, Accessible Navigation) for a more streamlined look for your Moodle course Set moodle forums to “digest” to reduce clutter in your email inbox Secure your Zoom Room Tips for iPad Users: Download and install SwiftKey. It replaces the standard Apple keyboard with a smart alternative that uses both Artificial Intelligence algorithms and your personal typing history to more accurately predict your typing preferences. In general, research suggests it can reduce as many as 50% of your keystrokes. You will soon find that SwiftKey will anticipate entire sentences making it possible to write lengthy text passages with only a few keystrokes. (Note that this utility also works on Android devices and is free.) In iOS 9, the keyboard just got a lot more useful. When trying to insert and highlight text, just touch the keyboard with two fingers and the keyboard transforms into a trackpad. This is much more accurate and flexible than the “bubble.”