Can you ‘Think like a data analyst’?

By Caroline Norris, on 13 March 2025

This summer, as part of the ExtendED Learning programme, the Digital Skills Development team is offering an exciting opportunity for taught students to get a glimpse into the world of a data analyst.

Storytelling through data: Think like a data analyst is a two-day workshop in which students will uncover and communicate the stories held within data. They will learn the basics of data analysis and visualisation using Microsoft Power BI and tell the compelling story of their data by using ‘Pechakucha’ presentation techniques and designing impactful infographics with the online tool Canva.  They will undertake a data analysis group project, investigating real-world data and presenting their findings as a team.

This opportunity is specifically offered to postgraduate taught and undergraduate students as part of the wider ExtendED Learning programme to provide additional opportunities to develop skills beyond the curriculum.

For full details and to book, view this event on our Events calendar.

Digital accessibility materials are now available on Getting Started with Moodle

By Kerry, on 11 March 2025

Digital accessibility materials are now available on Getting Started with Moodle!

The Digital Learning Environments and Digital Accessibility teams decided to embed skills in digital accessibility for Moodle as part of Digital Education Support’s training for new staff members who need to design and/or create Moodle courses. Materials include a section which has been added to encourage staff to begin to consider why accessibility matters for course design and creation on Moodle from both a legal and moral standpoint.

As part of this section, we have added 4 interviews with UCL students with lived experience of accessibility challenges with Moodle (with captions/transcripts) and academic case studies from 3 of our accessibility champions.

Screen shot of students being interviewed about their SoRAs and digital accessibility challenges.

More practical advice is embedded in another section on content creation, tools and resources. There is also a handy checklist for creating accessible content, advice for STEM subjects and guidance on using third party tools or external resources.

As digital education specialists, we know a fair amount about the importance of digital accessibility to promote inclusive teaching, learning and assessment already. However, we have learnt a lot ourselves from this project, especially from the inspiring students and staff we interviewed. So please do share with any colleagues you feel would benefit!

Kerry, Ben and Georgia

Join the discussion with UCL Moodle’s new Forum activity block

By Eliot Hoving, on 6 March 2025

The Digital Learning Environments team are delighted to announce the release of the Forum activity block on UCL Moodle. The new feature will go live on UCL Moodle on the 20th March 2025.

The Forum activity block gives you an overview of what people are talking about across your courses, along with the most popular discussion from the last 7 days.  

The block will only show standard Moodle forums and will not include posts from alternative forum plugins such as Advanced forums.  

Students and staff can see the block on the home page of Moodle when they log in. 

If you have any feedback or questions about the Forum activity block, please contact the Digital Education team via My Services. 

Global deactivation of Portico Mappings

By Pauline Harding, on 26 February 2025

Global deactivation of Portico Mappings

Portico mappings on Moodle pages were globally deactivated on 26th February 2025.

Enrolled students will retain access to their Moodle courses.

How will this impact students on my course?

• Students who are already enrolled on a Moodle course WILL continue to have access to that Moodle course.
• Students who join a Module on Portico WILL NOT be automatically enrolled onto the corresponding Moodle course.  Students can still be manually enrolled.
• Students who leave the module on Portico WILL NOT be automatically unenrolled.

Moodle and Portico mappings

If Portico mappings are active on a Moodle course, student enrolments on that course are automatically updated overnight to mirror the student registrations held in Portico.  Consequently, students who change courses or withdraw from their studies are automatically enrolled (or unenrolled) from the Moodle course when their Portico record is changed, and according to their Portico status code.  This is desirable when students change/drop modules within the first few weeks of term, however, if students are automatically unenrolled after they have been awarded grades, these grades become inaccessible, which can be very problematic.

Note: the ‘inaccessible’ grades, submissions and logged activity are not deleted.  These can be accessed again if the student is re-enrolled manually, with the option ‘Recover users old grades if possible’ ticked, however while a student is no longer enrolled on a course, there is no way to view their content.

Why deactivate Portico mappings?

To reduce the likelihood of the problem of ‘inaccessible/missing grades’ from occurring, Portico mappings have been globally deactivated on all Moodle courses.

Information on the global deactivation of Portico mappings is also available on the wiki guide – Deactivating Portico enrolments.

Can I re-activate Portico mappings on my courses?

Doing so may inadvertently enrol (or unenrol) students whose data is not accurate in Portico.  Before making any changes, please contact us via MyServices.

The Digital Education team are unable to manually unenrol students from Moodle courses while they remain registered against the course item in Portico.

Moodle update: Changes to Non-Editing Tutor permissions in Moodle assignment

By Eliot Hoving, on 19 February 2025

We are writing to inform you about an important update to our Moodle default settings. These changes are being made to align Moodle more consistently with UCL practices.

What is changing?

Users with Non-Editing Tutor roles will now be able to manage grades in Moodle assignments. This will allow them to set the marking workflow state on a Moodle assignment submission to Not marked, In marking, Marking completed, In review, Ready for release, and Released.

Previously they could only set the marking workflow state to Not marked, In marking, Marking completed.

Note. Non-Editing Tutors will now be able to release grades and feedback if they select the “Released” status.

Why are we making these changes?

Based on feedback from our users.

When will this take effect?

13th March 2025.

How will this benefit you?

Greater flexibility for marking teams.

Need help?

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Digital Education team via My Services.

New Marking Block on UCL Moodle

By Eliot Hoving, on 30 January 2025

The UCL Moodle team are delighted to announce a new Marking block for staff on the Moodle dashboard.

Previously, the My Feedback block on the Moodle dashboard was only accessible to students, providing them with a summary of up to five recent assessments with available feedback.

The latest update introduces a staff Marking block, allowing staff to see up to five summative assessments across Moodle that require marking. This new feature aims to streamline the marking process by making it easier for staff to access and manage their pending marking.

The Marking block includes Turnitin assignments, Moodle assignments, and Quiz assessments that are categorised as summative on Moodle. These assessments are from courses that have started and not yet ended, with an additional three-month extension to accommodate late summer assessments.

Assessments are organized by their due dates, ensuring that the most relevant marking is prominently displayed. To keep the information current, only assessments with due dates within the past two months or the upcoming month will be shown.

This update is part of the ongoing digital assessment workstream of the UCL Moodle team. It follows on from our recent Feedback tracker feature. If you have questions or would like to feedback on early UCL Moodle prototypes please contact the UCL Moodle team via the MyServices portal.