Humboldt State University Help Desk FAQ

There is no way to change your email in Moodle. You can change your preferred email address in WebReg, this will forward all of your email that goes to your HSU address to your preferred address.

The instructor can turn on the option to enable students to email other each other.

Please visit the "Faculty Support Guide" and click on "Click here to learn about what's new in Moodle 1.8" book. Within that book, click on "Quickmail" and follow the instructions and screen shots to lead you through changing the roles for students.

Follow this link to be taken directly to the Quickmail instructions and screen shots:

http://learn.humboldt.edu/mod/book/view.php?id=25871&chapterid=4993

We installed this patch to fix this bug on March 20th. When in the assignment view/grading area, be sure to uncheck the box that says 'Send email notification' and save preferences.
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6591

When an instructor clicks on a file a student has submitted to a Moodle assignment to view it, an email is being sent to the student saying feedback was posted. When you go to view the feedback, there is a " - " where the grade should be. Some interpret this to mean they received a 0 - please be aware that this is a bug, and the instructor has not yet graded your assignment.

We have received many complaints here at HSU in regards to Moodle sending an email every time an assignment grade is updated.

Other universities have also requested this to be made an optional setting. This was originally placed as a feature request in the Moodle community a year ago, and a possible fix for this issue was just released in November. We are investigating this fix and if it meets the standards of the Lead Developer, it could possibly be released in mid to late Spring. Please check back here for updates on the progress of this feature request.

To see more about this feature request:
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6591

NOTE: The only other alternative is to turn off the assignment email function all together, for every Moodle course. We plan to do a survey next semester on some other Moodle procedures, and will insert this question into it. If you have an opinion on this, please keep an eye out for the survey we will be conducting in early Spring. A link to the survey will be posted here.

Known issues which can cause delays for e-mails:

• High Spam Volume

A common cause for email delays is due to high spam volumes. The processing of this spam by our campus firewalls causes the delay. Please check www.humboldt.edu/~systat for updates on when this is occurring (latest effected dates were 10/22, 10/23, and 11/08)

• Using an off-campus e-mail address

When forwarding your e-mail to an off campus location e-mails can be delayed by your ISP. E-mails are subject to delays caused by internet traffic, ISP server load and other issues outside of HSU admin control.
Example: It is possible that an ISP has added the university e-mail domain (@humboldt.edu) onto their blacklist. This will result in all e-mail sent from the campus domain to be undelivered or delayed for further inspection. ISP scripts or bots will blacklist an e-mail domain due to excessive spam. The campus admins do their best to ensure the campus domain is removed blacklists.

• Scheduled maintenance

During scheduled maintenance e-mails will not be sent right away. They will be entered into a queue and be sent once maintenance is complete.

• Unscheduled outages

During outages e-mails will not be sent right away. They will be entered into a queue and be sent once the servers come back online.

If an e-mail was sent from a HSU server such as moodle, webmail, or other on-site service and their destination is also within the campus network then there should only be a minimal delay.

This student changed their profile setting to disable email, which is why you are having the problem.
The student must have purposefully changed this setting in their profile, as the default is to have it enabled.
I would advise the student to re-enable email from the "edit profile" area. (They can access this by clicking on their name wherever they see it on Moodle). From here there is a dropdown that says "This email address is disabled" which they can change to "this email address is enabled." The student will need to ensure all the required fields (with a * next to them) are filled out in the profile, then click "update profile" to change the setting.

If you are receiving an email every time someone posts to a forum in Moodle, you can turn this off by unsubscribing, but only if the instructor has turned on this option.

First, log into Moodle and open the course that contains the forum.  Then, click on the name of the forum.  On the upper right hand side of the page, click the link "Unsubscribe to this forum". This will only work if the students are allowed to be unsubscribed to the forum.  An instructor can do so in the settings of the forum by making sure that "Force everyone to be subscribed?" is set to "No".

This is generally a Eudora E-mail Client problem. You can find a well documented explanation and fix here:
http://windharp.de/software/utf8iso.htm

If you uploaded the file to the file manager with the same name as a previous file then the file WILL be overwritten.
However, due to the way in which Microsoft Windows temporarily stores online files the file will appear to you to have gone unchanged. Everyone else can see the updated file, but you will not until you clear your temporary files.  To test this you can either clear the browser cache and delete temporary internet files, or try accessing the file on a different computer.
Click here for information on how to empty your temporary internet files

To upload multiple documents, simply zip them together and upload them as one file. Once the Zip file is uploaded, click the "unzip" action in your file directory.

To learn how to upload a file, please see the materials in our Faculty Guide located here:

http://learn.humboldt.edu/mod/book/view.php?id=25883

There are two ways to add ONCORES readings to your Moodle Course. You can choose to post one link in your Moodle course that takes students to a list of all your ONCORES readings (master list), or you can post individual links for each reading in different topic areas of your course. First we will address how to add a link to your "Master" reading list, as this is needed in your course no matter which approach you take. When this Master list contains your current course CRN, it is updated automatically with any new readings.  Individually linked readings do not need their CRN updated.

How to link to your ONCOREs Master list

1.Turn Editing on with the button in the upper right hand corner. Choose the topic area you want to place the reading link in. From the “Add a Resource” dropdown box, choose “link to file or website”

2. From here, you will be directed to a new page. Give the link a title like "ONCORES Readings"

3. Go to the "link to a file or website" section of the page. Copy the following link into the "location" box: http://oncores.humboldt.edu/cgi-bin/oncores.cgi?crn=00000 then replace the "00000" at the end of the address with the CRN of your course.

4. In the “Window” section of your “adding a resource” page, there are settings that need to be changed for optimal accessibility compliance.
Be sure that advanced features are showing by clicking the “Show Advanced Features” button. Once you click this button, the next time you log-in to Moodle from that
computer it will remember and forever show the Advanced features.

5. Change the dropdown box called “window” from “New window” to “Same window”

6. Check the box adjacent to “Keep page navigation visible on the same page.”

7. Now you can scroll down the page, and select “save changes”

8. NOTE: At the beginning of each semester you will need to edit this link and change the CRN to the current semester's CRN. Please see the FAQ on this for help.

How to Link individual ONCOREs readings in Moodle

1. Turn editing on with the upper right hand corner button. Choose the topic area you want to place the reading link in. From the “Add a Resource” dropdown box, choose “link to file or website”

2. From here, you will be directed to a new page. Give the link a title such as "ONCORES Readings"

3. Go to the "link to a file or website" section of the page. Copy the following link into the "location" box: http://oncores.humboldt.edu/cgi-bin/oncores.cgi?crn=00000 then replace the "00000" at the end of the address with the CRN of your course.

4. In the “Window” section of your “adding a resource” page, there are settings that need to be changed for optimal accessibility compliance. Be sure that advanced features are showing by clicking the “Show Advanced Features” button. Once you click this button, the next time you log-in to Moodle from that computer it will remember and forever show the Advanced features.

5. Change the dropdown box called “window” from “New window” to “Same window”

6. Check the box adjacent to “Keep page navigation visible on the same page.”

7. Now you can scroll down the page, and select “save changes”

8. You should not enter a summary. Instead, skip to the section of the page called “link to a file or website” which is directly below the summary.

9. Copy the address in the “link to a file or website” box. Take care to ensure that you don’t include two sets of “http://” at the beginning of the address. Moodle automatically puts one in the box, and if you just copy and paste, without erasing the automatic “http://” your link will not work properly.

10. In the “Window” section of your “adding a resource” page, there are settings that need to be changed for optimal accessibility compliance. Be sure that advanced features are showing by clicking the “Show Advanced Features” button. Once you click this button, the next time you log-in to Moodle from that computer it will remember and forever show the Advanced features.

11. Change the dropdown box called “window” from “New window” to “Same window”

12. Check the box adjacent to “Keep page navigation visible on the same page.”

13. Now you can scroll down the page, and select “save changes”

14. Now, your reading will be available to students. 

1. Open the file in Gallery that you intend to link to Moodle. This is done by clicking the link that says "No thumbnail"
2. Copy the URL of the file. This is done differently depending on the browser you are using.
Mozilla Firefox 2.0: Right click on the "Download" link and select "Copy File Location"
Internet Explorer 7.0: Right click on the "Download" link and select "Properties" Now highlight and copy the link displayed in the Address sub-section. (Control+C to copy)
Safari: Right click on the "Download" link and select "Copy File Address"
3. Now open Moodle and navigate to the location you would like to place the file. This could be in a Moodle web page, a book, or a label.
4. Write a name for the file, then highlight the name and select the chain link icon in the html editor.
5. Paste the file address into the URL field at the top. (Control + V will paste)
6. Click "Ok"
7. Click "Save changes"

The "advanced upload of files" assignment type does not permit re-submission after grading -
once the assignment is submitted for grading, the upload form is no longer provided to the student.

This is a known issue, which will be fixed in a later version of Moodle. There are tentative plans to upgrade for Fall 2008; definite plans will be posted here as they come.

http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-9657

If you have already uploaded all of your files to gallery then you only need to perform steps 7 and 8 to link the files into Moodle.

1. Login to your gallery page
2. Select "Add Items" from the menu on the left hand side
3. Use the file "Browse..." button to select a file to upload
4. (Optional) Give the file a short caption
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for multiple files. Use the "More Upload Boxes..." link if you need them.
6.  Press "Add Items"
7.  Click on the file you intend to link to moodle
   1. Mozilla Firefox 2.0:
      Right click on the image and select "Copy Image Location"
      Internet Explorer 7.0:
      Right click on the image and select "Properties" Now highlight and copy the link displayed in the Address sub-section. (Control+C to copy)
      Safari:
      Right click on the image and select "Copy Image Address"
8. The image address will now be in your clipboard. This is the address you will be adding to Moodle.
   Now open Moodle and navigate to the location you would like to place the file.
9. In the HTML editor select the "add image" icon of a picture frame
10. Paste the image address into the URL field at the top. (Control + V will paste)
11. Give the image a web accessible alternate text.
12. Click "Ok"
13. Click "Save changes"

Coming Fall 2008: Gallery Button How-To instructions found at this link.

Mozilla Firefox 2.0+:
1. On the menu bar click "Tools"
2. Select "Clear Private Data..."
3. Check the boxes next to "Cookies, Cache and Authenticated Sessions"
(see bottom of page for detailed descriptions)
4. Click "Clear Private Data Now"

Internet Explorer 7.0:
1. On the menu bar click "Tools"
2. Select "Internet Options"
3. In the general tab under the heading Browsing history press "Delete..."
4. Now press "Delete files..." and confirm
5. Now press "Delete cookies..." and confirm
6. Now press "Close"

Safari:
Hold down : Open Apple + Shift + R

What does clearing my cookies accomplish?
Cookies are small data files stored on your computer which come from the websites you browse. Cookies can provide the websites you visit with little bits of information such as what website you came from, the date you last accessed the site, what language your browser is using, what browser version you are using etc. Cookies have become extremely common on the internet, especially among advertising agencies. High traffic websites often sign contracts with web advertisers to record information about the users browsing their sites. Cookies are also used as a way for websites to confirm the identity of a user. It is a good idea to clear your browser cookies on a regular basis. When browser cookies are cleared then the next time you visit a site a new cookie will be created.

What does clearing my temporary internet files accomplish?
Temporary Internet files usually include cache files. Temporary internet files are cached by your operating system where as web cache is a temporary file cached by the web browser. Both of these files are stored on your hard drive when you visit a website. Most browsers store some of the content of each website you view within these files so the next time you visit the site it will only load the files that have changed. Quite often however the cached files will become outdated and requires a browser refresh. Browser refreshing will update the current page you are viewing with the latest information. However, websites that require you to login will create an instance called a web session.

What does clearing my session accomplish?
Web sessions will cache the files you access from the time you login to the time you logout of a system. The next time you login these same cached files are accessed first then look for changes on the Moodle server. Since this is stored locally (on your computer) it is possible to login to a system like Moodle and make changes to it's settings but not see any result. This is caused because the web session you are viewing is out of sync with the information that is on the Moodle server. Everyone else accessing Moodle will see the changes right away because this is new data being added to the server. Logging out of the system and logging back in should remedy the issue by creating a new web session.

If there is an _ or a . in the file name, this can cause the link to break.
You will need to rename your files. You can do so by entering the control panel and clicking the files link. From here, scroll down until you see the file listed. To the right there will be a "rename" link.
Click this, rename the file and remove the _ and . Save changes, and the link will be updated to work.

If you uploaded the file to the file manager with the same name as a previous file then the file WILL be overwritten. The new file is displaying for everyone else but you. Due to the way in which Microsoft Windows temporarily stores online files the file will appear to have gone unchanged. To test this you can either clear the browser cache and delete temporary internet files, reboot your computer or try accessing the file on a different computer.

To do this go to your course.
Turn editing on.
Then click the menu "Add an activity"
then select "Upload a single file"
Fill out the information.
If you want it graded then select what points you want for it otherwise select no grade.
Then click save changes.
Once things have been uploaded go the to activity you just added and click the link on the right hand side "View # submitted assignments" to see what students have uploaded.
If you want them to upload several file you can use "Advanced uploading of files" and instead of "Upload a single file" and you can specify how many files each student can upload.

This error is coming up because the file is still linked to your main course
page. In order to remove it from the file directory, the file must first
be deleted from the main course page - ie. if it's in course information,
you need to delete it from the course information topic area - once it's
deleted from there, then you can then delete it from the file directory.

For a Mac
You will need to download and install a converter.
It can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/29lkb7.
This will convert all .docx, .docm, .pptx, .ppsx, .potx documents into files that be opened by a Mac.

For a PC
You will need to download and install a compatibility pack for Microsoft Office.
It can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/y5c5an.
This will allow all pre-2007 Office versions to open .docx, .docm, .pptx, .ppsx, .potx.

This is a known issue when the forum is set to either Visible Groups or Separate Groups mode. A work around for this issue is to add yourself, the instructor, as a member of each group.
Note: This only fixes the Instructor replying to Student's post issue and will not fix the issues of Why are students unable to reply to my forum posts?

This bug has been fixed in version 1.9.1, which we plan to upgrade to in the Summer of 2009.
The Moodle tracker for this issue is here.

There is currently a known issue regarding forum posts and group mode. Currently if a forum is set to Visible or Seperate group mode then students will be unable to reply to forum posts. This bug is fixed in version 1.9.1, which we plan to upgrade to in Summer of 2009.
This problem has been tested and effects single simple forums as well as general use forums.

Direct link to bug in moodle tracker:
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-11541

If you are receiving an email every time someone posts to a forum in Moodle, you can turn this off by unsubscribing, but only if the instructor has turned on this option.

First, log into Moodle and open the course that contains the forum.  Then, click on the name of the forum.  On the upper right hand side of the page, click the link "Unsubscribe to this forum". This will only work if the students are allowed to be unsubscribed to the forum.  An instructor can do so in the settings of the forum by making sure that "Force everyone to be subscribed?" is set to "No".

You will need to go to your profile.
Then click Edit Profile
Click Show Advanced
Then set "Forum tracking" to Yes.

Students cannot access courses which are hidden.

To make your course available to students, follow these steps:

From the Course Menu:

1. Click the Control Panel link in the Course Menu.
2. Click the Edit course settings option.
3. Scroll down until you find the Availability section. From the drop down box choose "This course is available to students"
4. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save changes.

If you want to preserve the student information of a Moodle course so that you may access it in the future, or have a class that is only taught every other year, then you will need to make a backup of your course and save it to your computer.

1. Enter the course you wish to backup and go to the control panel
2. Select the "Backup" link; this will take you to a new page.
3. You can leave all the options on the settings page checked. Scroll to the bottom and click continue.
4. The backup is at the first stage of processing. When it is ready, you will be able to scroll down to the bottom and select continue, which will take you to a new page. This page will tell you that the backup has been completed successfully.
5. Now you are on the second stage of processing the backup. Scroll down to the bottom and click continue again.
6. Here you will see your newly created backup, which is located in your file directory in a folder called backupdata. Click on the name of the backup file - NOTE: there may be multiple backups ensure you are clicking on the one you've just created by checking the date to the right of the name.
7. A new window will open upon clicking the name of the backup. When the download window opens, choose "save to disk", then locate where you want to save the file.

Now your Course has been copied to your computer.

Login to Moodle.
Select the course you wish to alter.
Select the “Control Panel” tab.
Select “Edit course settings”
Enter the name you wish the course to have in the “Full Name” box.
Scroll to the Bottom of this page, and select “save changes”

In order to create a successful link to a PDF or word file in your Moodle course, you will need to use the “link to file or website” resource. Any links created with the chain link icon to these types of files creates a file that is connected to your course ID. Eventually this will result in faulty links. Although these links will operate at first, in subsequent semesters they will break, therefore it is more efficient to use the resource for adding a link initially.

If you have already reset your password in WebReg and you still have problems logging into Moodle, then it is likely that you are listed as a recent student in the system, when you should be listed as a current student. This is especially the case when one has already graduated but is back for more classes. In order to correct this problem you will need to contact the AIR center to have them change your status in the system to a current student.

There are two ways to add ONCORES readings to your Moodle Course. You can choose to post one link in your Moodle course that takes students to a list of all your ONCORES readings (master list), or you can post individual links for each reading in different topic areas of your course. First we will address how to add a link to your "Master" reading list, as this is needed in your course no matter which approach you take. When this Master list contains your current course CRN, it is updated automatically with any new readings.  Individually linked readings do not need their CRN updated.

How to link to your ONCOREs Master list

1.Turn Editing on with the button in the upper right hand corner. Choose the topic area you want to place the reading link in. From the “Add a Resource” dropdown box, choose “link to file or website”

2. From here, you will be directed to a new page. Give the link a title like "ONCORES Readings"

3. Go to the "link to a file or website" section of the page. Copy the following link into the "location" box: http://oncores.humboldt.edu/cgi-bin/oncores.cgi?crn=00000 then replace the "00000" at the end of the address with the CRN of your course.

4. In the “Window” section of your “adding a resource” page, there are settings that need to be changed for optimal accessibility compliance.
Be sure that advanced features are showing by clicking the “Show Advanced Features” button. Once you click this button, the next time you log-in to Moodle from that
computer it will remember and forever show the Advanced features.

5. Change the dropdown box called “window” from “New window” to “Same window”

6. Check the box adjacent to “Keep page navigation visible on the same page.”

7. Now you can scroll down the page, and select “save changes”

8. NOTE: At the beginning of each semester you will need to edit this link and change the CRN to the current semester's CRN. Please see the FAQ on this for help.

How to Link individual ONCOREs readings in Moodle

1. Turn editing on with the upper right hand corner button. Choose the topic area you want to place the reading link in. From the “Add a Resource” dropdown box, choose “link to file or website”

2. From here, you will be directed to a new page. Give the link a title such as "ONCORES Readings"

3. Go to the "link to a file or website" section of the page. Copy the following link into the "location" box: http://oncores.humboldt.edu/cgi-bin/oncores.cgi?crn=00000 then replace the "00000" at the end of the address with the CRN of your course.

4. In the “Window” section of your “adding a resource” page, there are settings that need to be changed for optimal accessibility compliance. Be sure that advanced features are showing by clicking the “Show Advanced Features” button. Once you click this button, the next time you log-in to Moodle from that computer it will remember and forever show the Advanced features.

5. Change the dropdown box called “window” from “New window” to “Same window”

6. Check the box adjacent to “Keep page navigation visible on the same page.”

7. Now you can scroll down the page, and select “save changes”

8. You should not enter a summary. Instead, skip to the section of the page called “link to a file or website” which is directly below the summary.

9. Copy the address in the “link to a file or website” box. Take care to ensure that you don’t include two sets of “http://” at the beginning of the address. Moodle automatically puts one in the box, and if you just copy and paste, without erasing the automatic “http://” your link will not work properly.

10. In the “Window” section of your “adding a resource” page, there are settings that need to be changed for optimal accessibility compliance. Be sure that advanced features are showing by clicking the “Show Advanced Features” button. Once you click this button, the next time you log-in to Moodle from that computer it will remember and forever show the Advanced features.

11. Change the dropdown box called “window” from “New window” to “Same window”

12. Check the box adjacent to “Keep page navigation visible on the same page.”

13. Now you can scroll down the page, and select “save changes”

14. Now, your reading will be available to students. 

Our current procedure is to create all courses in the catalog and populate them with enrollments 3 weeks before the start of classes. For Spring 09, that would be November 24th. If you want to update your course sooner, please work on an older version of the course and then request to have it copied over using the form at humboldt.edu/~moodle.

Feature requests can be found on Trac. To add a new feature request send an e-mail to mdlsos@humboldt.edu

http://edtech.humboldt.edu/trac/report/25

If you have already uploaded all of your files to gallery then you only need to perform steps 7 and 8 to link the files into Moodle.

1. Login to your gallery page
2. Select "Add Items" from the menu on the left hand side
3. Use the file "Browse..." button to select a file to upload
4. (Optional) Give the file a short caption
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for multiple files. Use the "More Upload Boxes..." link if you need them.
6.  Press "Add Items"
7.  Click on the file you intend to link to moodle
   1. Mozilla Firefox 2.0:
      Right click on the image and select "Copy Image Location"
      Internet Explorer 7.0:
      Right click on the image and select "Properties" Now highlight and copy the link displayed in the Address sub-section. (Control+C to copy)
      Safari:
      Right click on the image and select "Copy Image Address"
8. The image address will now be in your clipboard. This is the address you will be adding to Moodle.
   Now open Moodle and navigate to the location you would like to place the file.
9. In the HTML editor select the "add image" icon of a picture frame
10. Paste the image address into the URL field at the top. (Control + V will paste)
11. Give the image a web accessible alternate text.
12. Click "Ok"
13. Click "Save changes"

Coming Fall 2008: Gallery Button How-To instructions found at this link.

Mozilla Firefox 2.0+:
1. On the menu bar click "Tools"
2. Select "Clear Private Data..."
3. Check the boxes next to "Cookies, Cache and Authenticated Sessions"
(see bottom of page for detailed descriptions)
4. Click "Clear Private Data Now"

Internet Explorer 7.0:
1. On the menu bar click "Tools"
2. Select "Internet Options"
3. In the general tab under the heading Browsing history press "Delete..."
4. Now press "Delete files..." and confirm
5. Now press "Delete cookies..." and confirm
6. Now press "Close"

Safari:
Hold down : Open Apple + Shift + R

What does clearing my cookies accomplish?
Cookies are small data files stored on your computer which come from the websites you browse. Cookies can provide the websites you visit with little bits of information such as what website you came from, the date you last accessed the site, what language your browser is using, what browser version you are using etc. Cookies have become extremely common on the internet, especially among advertising agencies. High traffic websites often sign contracts with web advertisers to record information about the users browsing their sites. Cookies are also used as a way for websites to confirm the identity of a user. It is a good idea to clear your browser cookies on a regular basis. When browser cookies are cleared then the next time you visit a site a new cookie will be created.

What does clearing my temporary internet files accomplish?
Temporary Internet files usually include cache files. Temporary internet files are cached by your operating system where as web cache is a temporary file cached by the web browser. Both of these files are stored on your hard drive when you visit a website. Most browsers store some of the content of each website you view within these files so the next time you visit the site it will only load the files that have changed. Quite often however the cached files will become outdated and requires a browser refresh. Browser refreshing will update the current page you are viewing with the latest information. However, websites that require you to login will create an instance called a web session.

What does clearing my session accomplish?
Web sessions will cache the files you access from the time you login to the time you logout of a system. The next time you login these same cached files are accessed first then look for changes on the Moodle server. Since this is stored locally (on your computer) it is possible to login to a system like Moodle and make changes to it's settings but not see any result. This is caused because the web session you are viewing is out of sync with the information that is on the Moodle server. Everyone else accessing Moodle will see the changes right away because this is new data being added to the server. Logging out of the system and logging back in should remedy the issue by creating a new web session.

Using Accent marks in Short Answer questions on a Macintosh laptop without a number pad: You have to turn numlock on an off when you switch from accented characters to non-accented characters, and then find the tiny little number keys on the keyboard--not the number keys on the top.
The number keys to use with numlock are on the right side of the keyboard--not the number keys on the top.
You have to switch back from numlock when you go from accented character s to regular characters. So como esta needs to be typed as c162mo est160o to show the accents.
Accents: To write an accented letter or diacritical mark on-line, turn NUMLOCK on, hold down the ALT key and type the key code on the math pad (not the upper row keys). Key codes in Spanish for the PC are:
á 160 ñ 164 ú 163
é 130 ó 162 ¿ 168
í 161 ü 129 ­¡ 173

Announcements can be handled two ways:
1) Appearing in the top content area as a section of text
2) Created in a discussion forum with students subscribed so they receive an email every time a post is made

To add an announcement in the top content area:

1. Turn editing on.
2. Click on the "Add a resource" drop down box inside the first topic area; then select "Insert a label".
3. Type what you wish to announce in the text box. Choose the size, font and style desired.
4. Under Visible to users select Hide if you do not want to show the announcement or Show if you wish to show it.
5. Click Save changes.

To Modify:

1. Click on the Turn editing on link in the Course menu section.
2. Click on the update icon (pen/paper), which will allow you to edit the label.
3. Don't forget to save!

To add an announcement in a forum:
INFORMATION FORTHCOMING

The Course Availability feature allows you to make your course available to students.

By default, courses are available to students when created. An unavailable course is not visible to students but is visible to teachers. This feature allows faculty to develop a course or test a course site without students having access. However, students who enroll in a course through Web Reg are automatically added to the course in Moodle, and they are automatically able to access it unless otherwise specified. This will assist you in changing this setting.

From the Course Menu:

1. Click the Control Panel link in the Course Menu section.
2. Click the Edit course settings option.
3. Scroll down until you find the Availability section. From the drop down box change the selection from "This course is available to students" to "This course is not available to students."
4. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save changes.

More Information

Q: I can see my course in gray, but my students complain that they can't find my course. Should I call Moodle Support?
A: No. Make your course available using the procedure detailed above.

Instructors: contact the Courseware Development Center at 826-3633; mdlsos@humboldt.edu, or see the Moodle open hours times in the FTSC on the Moodle log-in page.

Students: contact the HELP Desk at 826-HELP, e-mail them at help@humboldt.edu, or stop by their office on the bottom floor of the Library next to the Digital Literacy Closet.

This feature does not work on Internet Explorer and Safari on the Mac; or on Opera for the Mac and PC. You can enter text using standard WebForms, or use a supported browser, such as Netscape 7 or Firefox. We recommend Firefox: http://www.getfirefox.com.

It is likely that your web browser is blocking a pop-up window from appearing. Check for a yellow or white bar stretching across the screen at the top of the browser viewing window.

In Firefox there will be an 'Options...' button where you can Allow pop-ups for this site.

In IE navigate to Tools-> Internet Options -> Privacy (tab) -> Sites. Now type the address of the site and click allow.

In order to have your course documents copied from one semester to the next, a course copy request form must be submitted.  This form is located at:

http://www.humboldt.edu/~moodle/forms/copycourse.html

What is the load time displayed at the bottom of the page?
Exactly what time and what day was this occurring?
What were you doing when it was running slowly?
The best times to use Moodle are from 6:00am - 10:00am.

You can access old course information until November from learn2.humboldt.edu - in order to maintain Moodle's efficiency, we are not bringing over course content to 1.8 that isn't being used for development for a coming semester. We will archive all old courses so that when you are ready to develop for the course in the future, we can activate it for you.

To send email, students can click the Control Panel link at the top of the course page, in the Control Panel, they click the "Send an email to your course" link, and check the names of the people in the course they want to send an email to.

Then they can enter a subject, a message, and click the "Send Email" button to send the email.

To disable Javascript using
Mozilla Firefox 2.0:
1.) Click Tools from the menu bar.
2.) Then select Options
3.) The options window will pop-up. Select the Content Tab (Globe Icon).
4.) Uncheck the box which reads "Enable Javascript"
5.) Press Ok at the bottom of the page.
Internet Explorer 7.0:
1.) Click Tools from the menu bar.
2.) Then select Internet Options
3.) The Internet Options window will pop-up. Select the Security Tab and the Internet icon (Globe Icon).
4.) Now click on the Custom level ... button.
5.) Scroll down to the Active scripting heading and select disable.
6.) Press Ok at the bottom of the page.
7.) Finally press Apply then Ok.

This problem occurs due to the web browser caching the web page. To remedy this problem first try refreshing the page. If that does not work try logging out of Moodle and back in.

Click here for more information

The Credit/No Credit designation in assignments does NOT work, and will cause major problems in your gradebook. Do NOT use credit/no credit; instead, assign 1 point to the assignment. If you do not want this point to affect the overall score, then there are two options:

1. If you have a weighted grade system, create a category for Credit/No Credit and give it a 0 weight.

2. If you have a point based system, then you will need to exclude all the students from grading for that assignment.

There is a known bug with using No Grade for an assignment. Using No Grade sometimes breaks categories in the grade book. One affect of this is assignments not staying in set categories, another is assignments not being visible when they should be in the grade book. To fix this set the assignments with No Grade to 1 point. Then go into the grade book and create a new category named Hidden. Add the 1 point assignments to this hidden section. Then go into Set Weights and set the weight for Hidden to 0 and click the check box for the category Hidden to be hidden. Now all the assignments in the grade book can be set to category .

In order for a list of students to appear in the gradebook, there must be either a graded event or an assignment already created in the course. Otherwise, you will see an error message that says "No grades returned." To see how to do set up an assignment, the faculty guide activity manual on assignments provides more information. The manual is located here:

http://learn.humboldt.edu/mod/book/view.php?id=25893

If you've created a graded event in the gradebook that isn't working right, it is most likely due to a special character being in the name, like a # or : - In order to fix this, first delete the event, and add a new one that does not have any characters in the name.

Another issue could be you are using No Grade for an assignment. Using No Grade will break categories in the grade book. One affect of this is assignments not staying in set categories, another is assignments not being visible when they should be in the grade book. To fix this set the assignments with No Grade to 1 point. Then go into the grade book and create a new category named Hidden. Add the 1 point assignments to this hidden section. Then go into Set Weights and set the weight for Hidden to 0 and click the check box for the category Hidden to be hidden. Now all the assignments in the grade book can be set to category .

This bug was fixed in our August upgrade to 1.8.6

This is a known bug with the Gradebook. When you are in edit grades and try to sort the list of users the process of sorting will take you to view grades and when you return to edit grades the list remains sorted by the last name. There is a fix for this bug that we will be testing and will hopefully be able to release this fix this summer. Please check back here for updates when we plan to fix this issue.

There is a known bug right now that is associated with quizzes. If you have the settings to display the questions set to anything less than unlimited (ie 5 questions per page), and you allow each attempt to build on the last (so that when the student takes the quiz again, their previous answers are there) then the quiz is only going to score THE QUESTIONS THEY CHANGED OR ANSWERED FOR THE FIRST TIME. This means if they got a 5/10 the first attempt, took it again and changed two answers so that they got two more points their second attempt, they will only be given a score of 2/10 that second attempt.

Unfortunately there is nothing that can fix this issue if you have already administered a quiz in this way. You will have to manually add up the scores and re-score the quiz in the gradebook.

The Moodle community is working to fix this issue and it appears to be resolved in version 1.8.4. We hope to upgrade and fix this issue this summer.

Link to the issue tracker on moodle.org:
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-10581

Link to community discussion and updates on moodle.org:
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=76503

We installed this patch to fix this bug on March 20th. When in the assignment view/grading area, be sure to uncheck the box that says 'Send email notification' and save preferences.
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6591

When an instructor clicks on a file a student has submitted to a Moodle assignment to view it, an email is being sent to the student saying feedback was posted. When you go to view the feedback, there is a " - " where the grade should be. Some interpret this to mean they received a 0 - please be aware that this is a bug, and the instructor has not yet graded your assignment.

We have received many complaints here at HSU in regards to Moodle sending an email every time an assignment grade is updated.

Other universities have also requested this to be made an optional setting. This was originally placed as a feature request in the Moodle community a year ago, and a possible fix for this issue was just released in November. We are investigating this fix and if it meets the standards of the Lead Developer, it could possibly be released in mid to late Spring. Please check back here for updates on the progress of this feature request.

To see more about this feature request:
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6591

NOTE: The only other alternative is to turn off the assignment email function all together, for every Moodle course. We plan to do a survey next semester on some other Moodle procedures, and will insert this question into it. If you have an opinion on this, please keep an eye out for the survey we will be conducting in early Spring. A link to the survey will be posted here.

When you drop an X number of lowest scores in the Gradebook, and an extra credit assignment is the lowest number within the category, the extra credit score is dropped.

To work around this issue, create a special category for Extra Credit, and place any extra credit assignments within that category. The "Drop x lowest" will then only apply to the graded assignments. For information on how to set up categories, see this part of the Faculty Guide:
http://learn.humboldt.edu/mod/book/view.php?id=25895&chapterid=4141

This is a bug that we have reported to the maintainers of the Moodle Gradebook, and there appears to be a fix for it that we are investigating. please check back here for more information as it is becomes available.

Moodle tracker for this bug: http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-12842

To view the gradebook by groups or send email sorted by groups, you first need to set the group mode of the course.
1. Navigate to Control Panel -> Edit course settings -> Group Mode
2. Set the group mode to either Visible Groups or Separate groups. In regards to the gradebook either mode will be sufficient.
If you do not have groups created yet then you will need to do so now.
1. Navigate to Control Panel -> Groups
2. Press "Create Groups"
3. Give the group a name
4. Press "Create Group"
5. Press "Add/Remove Users"
On the right will be all the users in your course.
6. Select a user and highlight the appropriate group
7. Press the left arrow to move the user into the group
Repeat steps 6 and 7 until the groups have been populated
Now that the groups are created navigate back to your gradebook
1. From the course homepage click the Gradebook Tab
You should now see a groups drop down menu in the top left corner just below the "My HSU" tab.
2. Select the desired group from the drop down menu.
Only the group members should be displayed for this 'group view' of the gradebook.

If you have groups turned on, you may only see a few students in the gradebook.

To fix this:

1. Go into the groups area through the control panel, and add yourself as a member to each group.

2. Go into the control panel of the course and click on course settings. In the Group area, change group mode from "No" to "Visible." Save changes.

You will now see your Gradebook organized by group. You can change which group you are viewing with the "Visible groups" dropdown in the upper left hand corner.

This is an unfortunate bug that happened in the update for 1.8. This will be resolved when we upgrade to 1.9 in either Winter or Summer of 2009.

Yes. To re-order the assignments in your gradebook you must re-order them on your course homepage. Graded activities are displayed Top to Bottom on your homepage but Left to Right within the gradebook.

Unfortunately, you cannot re-order graded-events in the grade book. Graded events are displayed Newest to Oldest and Left to Right. As of September of 07 Graded events will be displayed before any activities.

Most graded activities and resources cannot be given a decimal score. When editing a grade all decimal values will be ignored. One exception to this rule are quizzes. You can specify how many decimal places to store within the settings of the quiz. Also, graded events which are created directly in the gradebook can be given decimal values. These events are not linked to any activity or resource.
This feature has been requested at moodle.org, so check back here for updates periodically on when this feature will be possible in Moodle.

Suggested solutions:

1.) Create graded events for each assignment and set the assignment to receive no-grade. Graded events are the most basic type of gradebook entry. They are not linked to any assignment so they can receive decimal grades.
Example:

1. Create an assignment. For this example I will use a advanced upload assignment type.
2. Set the assignment to receive 'No Grade.'
3. Go into the gradebook and select the 'manage graded events' tab.
   
   * If the tab is not visible then you can turn advanced features on within the 'set preferences' tab
4. At the top type in a new event name and press 'Create graded event.'
5. Give the event a grade value
6. If you have setup a special category you can move the event into that category
7. Click Save changes

Limitations: In order to grade this event you will need to manually add the grades into the gradebook via the 'Edit Grades' tab. You will not be able to add grades to the upload assignment activity. This solution circumvents the automated gradebook functionality.

If a category in the gradebook has an apostrophe, it will prevent you from assigning a weight to the category. So, no ' in the name.

This is a known and isolated issue with Moodle that has since been fixed and will not be continuining in further semesters. To fix it for now, however, click on the "Control panel" tab in your moodle course. Click "Course settings" and in the "short name" area, simple change the "08" to "09".

If there is a "nothing to display" error in the assignment grading area, then be sure that "ALL" is selected in the alphabet search menu at the top of the page.

There is a known issue with Internet Explorer that can cause a problem in going from the browse/upload screen to the file directory, essentially locking you out of uploading the file.  To solve this, you will need to download the Firefox browser.  There is a free download available at www.getfirefox.com

When creating a lesson in Moodle, a dropdown box called "link to an activity" is available. Upon initial creation of the Lesson, the dropdown will NOT be populated with your class' activities. To remedy this problem, save the lesson. Then re-open it (by clicking the update button). The list will then be populated, and you should be able to link to other activities.

For more information on this issue, you can visit:

http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-12781

 This bug was fixed in our August upgrade to 1.8.6

There is a bug that is causing the calendar to always display all courses in the monthly detailed calendar view, preventing you from displaying the events for just a single course. We will update this page with any developments in fixing this bug.

There is a known bug with using No Grade for an assignment. Using No Grade sometimes breaks categories in the grade book. One affect of this is assignments not staying in set categories, another is assignments not being visible when they should be in the grade book. To fix this set the assignments with No Grade to 1 point. Then go into the grade book and create a new category named Hidden. Add the 1 point assignments to this hidden section. Then go into Set Weights and set the weight for Hidden to 0 and click the check box for the category Hidden to be hidden. Now all the assignments in the grade book can be set to category .

This bug was fixed in our August upgrade to 1.8.6

This is a known issue with Moodle. When you click the link, Moodle then checks all of the custom Scales site-wide to make them available for administrators. This huge search throughout the database results in the slow page.

This is a known issue when the forum is set to either Visible Groups or Separate Groups mode. A work around for this issue is to add yourself, the instructor, as a member of each group.
Note: This only fixes the Instructor replying to Student's post issue and will not fix the issues of Why are students unable to reply to my forum posts?

This bug has been fixed in version 1.9.1, which we plan to upgrade to in the Summer of 2009.
The Moodle tracker for this issue is here.

This bug was fixed in our August upgrade to 1.8.6

This is a known bug with the Gradebook. When you are in edit grades and try to sort the list of users the process of sorting will take you to view grades and when you return to edit grades the list remains sorted by the last name. There is a fix for this bug that we will be testing and will hopefully be able to release this fix this summer. Please check back here for updates when we plan to fix this issue.

There is a known bug right now that is associated with quizzes. If you have the settings to display the questions set to anything less than unlimited (ie 5 questions per page), and you allow each attempt to build on the last (so that when the student takes the quiz again, their previous answers are there) then the quiz is only going to score THE QUESTIONS THEY CHANGED OR ANSWERED FOR THE FIRST TIME. This means if they got a 5/10 the first attempt, took it again and changed two answers so that they got two more points their second attempt, they will only be given a score of 2/10 that second attempt.

Unfortunately there is nothing that can fix this issue if you have already administered a quiz in this way. You will have to manually add up the scores and re-score the quiz in the gradebook.

The Moodle community is working to fix this issue and it appears to be resolved in version 1.8.4. We hope to upgrade and fix this issue this summer.

Link to the issue tracker on moodle.org:
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-10581

Link to community discussion and updates on moodle.org:
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=76503

This is a known issue due to incorrect course data being supplied to Moodle from Banner. You can remove courses from your MYSHU page by entering them, accessing the control panel, then the "Assign Roles" link.  Click "Instructor" then select your name and the "Remove" link.

There is currently a known issue regarding forum posts and group mode. Currently if a forum is set to Visible or Seperate group mode then students will be unable to reply to forum posts. This bug is fixed in version 1.9.1, which we plan to upgrade to in Summer of 2009.
This problem has been tested and effects single simple forums as well as general use forums.

Direct link to bug in moodle tracker:
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-11541

Most graded activities and resources cannot be given a decimal score. When editing a grade all decimal values will be ignored. One exception to this rule are quizzes. You can specify how many decimal places to store within the settings of the quiz. Also, graded events which are created directly in the gradebook can be given decimal values. These events are not linked to any activity or resource.
This feature has been requested at moodle.org, so check back here for updates periodically on when this feature will be possible in Moodle.

Suggested solutions:

1.) Create graded events for each assignment and set the assignment to receive no-grade. Graded events are the most basic type of gradebook entry. They are not linked to any assignment so they can receive decimal grades.
Example:

1. Create an assignment. For this example I will use a advanced upload assignment type.
2. Set the assignment to receive 'No Grade.'
3. Go into the gradebook and select the 'manage graded events' tab.
   
   * If the tab is not visible then you can turn advanced features on within the 'set preferences' tab
4. At the top type in a new event name and press 'Create graded event.'
5. Give the event a grade value
6. If you have setup a special category you can move the event into that category
7. Click Save changes

Limitations: In order to grade this event you will need to manually add the grades into the gradebook via the 'Edit Grades' tab. You will not be able to add grades to the upload assignment activity. This solution circumvents the automated gradebook functionality.

If a student runs into technical difficulties and is prevented from finishing a quiz, it is possible for you to clear the student's attempt, so that she can take the quiz again.

1. Go to the Quiz that was attempted .
2. Click on "Results"
3. Check the check box that is next to the attempt you wish to clear.
4. With the drop down box that says "With selected" at the end of the list of attempted quizzes, pull it down and choose "Delete".

To allow someone to see your course who does not have an HSU account, you will change some of your Course Settings.
To allow guest access, complete the following steps:
1) Enter the Control Panel
2) Click the Course Settings link
3) Scroll to the bottom where the Availability area is
4) Change the Guest Access setting dropdown to "Allow guests without the key" 
5) Save Changes
Let your guests know that they will need to click the "Log in as a Guest" button on the Moodle login page. If you give them the direct URL to your course, this will then take them there directly. If not, they will have to do a search for your course.

To allow guest to access a course with an enrollment key, Course enrollable must be set to yes, guest access must be stet to allow guests who have the key, and a key must be specified.

To add a TA to your course, please complete the following steps -

1) Enter the Control Panel
2) Click the Assign Roles link
3) Click the "Instructor Assistant" link (if you want them to only be able to edit grades, click "Non-editing Instructor")
4) Type in their name in the bottom right field, then click "Search"
5) Click on their name, then click the left arrow.

*NOTE: If your course has been crosslisted with another section, you will need to enter one of the sub-sections that appears in grey on your MyHSU page, then follow the instructions above.
**NOTE: If you do not want your TA to have full instructor access, click the "Student" link instead of the Instructor Assistant link.

In order to manually add someone to a course that has been crosslisted, you must go into one of the hidden subcourses and add them from within there. They will then have access to the crosslisted course.

The person trying to enroll themselves into the course will have to enroll themselves into one of the child courses for the metacourse.

To add an instructor to your course, please complete the following steps:
1) Enter the Control Panel
2) Click the Assign Roles link
3) Click the "Instructor" link
4) Type in their name in the bottom right field, then click "Search"
5) Click on their name, then click the left arrow.
*NOTE: If your course has been crosslisted with another section, you will need to enter one of the sub-sections that appears in grey on your MyHSU page, then follow the instructions above.

To add a student to your course, please complete the following steps*:
1) Enter the Control Panel
2) Click the Assign Roles link
3) Click the "Student" link
4) Type in their name in the bottom right field, then click "Search"
5) Click on their name, then click the left arrow.
*NOTE: If your course has been crosslisted with another section, you will need to enter one of the sub-sections that appears in grey on your MyHSU page, then follow the instructions above.