New Moodle assessment features

By Eliot Hoving, on 19 September 2024

The Digital Learning Environments (DLE) team is excited to announce the launch of several new features to support assessment on Moodle: 

• Assessment categorisation  
• Feedback tracker report 
• Mark transfer update 

Assessment categorisation 

Staff can now indicate whether an assessment is summative or formative on Moodle. This will make assessment requirements clearer to students.  This feature will also enable more useful assessment reporting for Departments and Faculties.

Assessment categorisation is available for the following activities, with more to follow: 

• Moodle assignment 

• Moodle quiz 

• Turnitin assignment 

• Moodle workshop 

Staff will be prompted to add an assessment category when creating or editing an assessment.

Categories can also be added in bulk for all assessments on a course using the date management report tool.

Assessments will be automatically listed as summative where staff have mapped their assessments to Portico using the Mark Transfer tool. So staff preparing courses should map their assessments early and then use assessment categorisation to indicate any formative assessments.

You can learn more by reading the Assessment categorisation documentation. 

Feedback tracker report 

The Feedback tracker is a new report on Moodle that shows students the status of their Moodle assessment submissions and feedback on one single page. 

The report will make it easier for students to access feedback. 

It will also give students and staff a clearer view of feedback turnaround. A status is shown for when a student submits on time or late, and whether feedback is returned within UCL’s policy of 20 working days. 

The report will also show whether an assessment is summative or formative based on Assessment categorisation.

Staff can customise the report with the option to add additional information or exclude items.

The following video provides an example of how the Feedback tracker can be accessed, and configured (6 mins 48 seconds).

The DLE team will focus next on early life support for the Feedback tracker. Followed by developing a Department report to allow Departments and Faculties to better monitor feedback turnaround and to improve marking workload planning.  

You can learn more by reading our pre-release blog, and the Feedback tracker documentation. 

Mark transfer update 

Finally, if you wish to transfer marks for Late Summer Assessments from Moodle, it is now possible to do so with the Moodle-Portico Marks Transfer tool. 

This works in a similar way to marks transfer for standard assessments. However, when accessing the dashboard for completing the set up, you choose the Re-assessments page. When transferring marks, they will be sent to the relevant reassessment record in Portico. 

For more information, see the Reassessments How to Guide on the Marks Transfer wiki. 

Should you experience any issues using the tool, please check the FAQs wiki page. 

If you are unable to resolve the issue, you can request support as follows: 

• For any issues with Portico data, contact examboards@ucl.ac.uk 

• For issues with incorrect assessment set up, contact lifecycle@ucl.ac.uk 

• For general questions, feedback or suggestions, contact your Faculty Champion 

Questions and support

For any issues with using these new features, please contact Digital Education via MyServices

Develop your digital skills: Term 1 training courses and more

By Katy O Foster, on 12 September 2024

Term 1 training courses

Develop your digital skills with a training course or workshop from Digital Education.

Our term 1 schedule of courses is now live.

Courses cover everything from mastering Excel to creating accessible social media content and collaboration tools.

In addition, a new booking system makes it easy to view the training calendar and filter courses by category to find what’s available.

New courses for this year

There are over 60 courses scheduled. New courses for this year include:

Mastering Excel

• Intermediate data analysis with Excel *previously Intermediate statistics with Excel
• Advanced data analysis with Excel (campus-based) *previously Advanced statistics with Excel
• Xlookup in Excel 

Data analysis and visualisation

• Power BI Workshop: Visualising, analysing, and communicating business data (campus-based)
• Introduction to data visualisation

Teaching and assessment

• Mentimeter: Beyond a word cloud
• Moodle Advanced Quiz Management
• Moodle Question Bank and Question Analytics
• Moodle Gradebook
• Films, posters and podcasts – practical approaches to alternative assessments

Multimedia content: creating and editing

• Using the MediaPod to make professional quality videos (campus-based)

Programming

• Introduction to Git version control
• Navigating file versions in Git
• Collaboration using Git and GitHub
• Getting started with your first Power Automate tasks

Discover LinkedIn Learning

This term the team will also be running a webinar to take users through the key features of LinkedIn Learning – a learning platform with a vast array of video tutorials which is free for all UCL staff and students to use.

Discover LinkedIn Learning – free online learning for everyone at UCL

Join the mailing list

Due to the new booking system, we have also set up a new mailing list. To receive updates on digital skills training, join our mailing list.

Digital skills support: Office hours

Office hours support will continue this term. Meet one to one with a digital skills trainer to discuss a specific issue: Book your appointment here

Contact us

For any questions on Digital Skills Development at UCL, email isd-digiskills@ucl.ac.uk

Feedback Tracker Report

By Jason R Norton and Eliot Hoving, on 10 September 2024

Next week the Digital Learning Environments team will launch a new Feedback Tracker Report in Moodle. This report will show students the status of their assessments and feedback and is inspired by the manual feedback tracker created by the School of Pharmacy in 2023. 

Please note you can click on any image in this blog post to expand the image.

The initial release will only display the following Moodle activities: 

• Moodle Assignment 

• Turnitin Assignment 

• Moodle quiz 

• Moodle lesson (where graded) 

• Moodle forum (where graded) 

• Moodle Grade items 

Student View 

Students will access the Feedback Tracker Report via the Feedback tracker link on the Moodle dashboard or via their user profile menu – both access options are illustrated. 

Access via the Moodle dashboard 

Access via the user profile menu  

The Feedback Tracker Report gives students a personalised view of their assessments. If a student has adjusted submission times, the adjusted submission times will be shown to them. 

The report displays all courses that a student is enrolled upon, showing all assessments that are not set to be hidden from students.  

If an assessment has been categorised as summative or formative, either manually or by using the Marks Transfer feature, this information will also be displayed. 

For each assessment, the following information is shown: 

• Assessment Name: displayed as a link to the assessment. 

• Submission Date: The date the submission is due. If a student has an extension, their individual submission date will show.   

• Student Submission indicator: 

• • Submitted (green) = student submitted before the assessment due date. 

• • Submitted late (yellow) = student submitted after the assessment due date. 

• • Overdue (red) = student has not submitted, and the assessment due date has passed. 

• Feedback Due date: This date is based upon UCL’s academic policy on Assessment feedback requirement that feedback should be delivered within 20 UCL working days excluding all UCL holidays.  

• Feedback Status Indicator: The Feedback indicator will display:  

• • Released (green) = Feedback has been released within 20 working days from the assessment due date. 

• • Released late (yellow) = Feedback has been released but it took longer than 20 working days from the assessment due date.  

• • Overdue (red) = Feedback has not been released and more than 20 working days has passed from the assessment due date. 

•  Staff can add the following information to their course assessments via the configuration page: 

• • Feedback method – the kind of feedback being returned e.g. written, oral, video, in-class. This helps signpost the different kinds of feedback students are receiving.  

• • Contact – a staff contact point for students. 

• • Additional information – any note relevant to students, for example you could explain that cohort feedback was provided in a Moodle forum post and link to that post.  

Staff View 

Staff will be able to view a course level Feedback Tracker Report by going to the Reports tab for any Moodle course and clicking the Feedback tracker link as illustrated below. From this view, staff will be able to select to view as a course administrator or view as a specific student on that course. Staff will only see assessments for the course that they are accessing. 

Administrator feedback tracker configuration page 

Every course will have its own Feedback Tracker configuration page. From this page course administrators and tutors will have a full unfiltered view of the assessments on the course and will be able to select overrides on features such as visibility. Course administrators will also use this page to add any of the free text fields that are available into the report. 

From this page, Course Administrators can: 

• Hide assessments from the Feedback Tracker Report, these will still appear on the course but won’t appear in the student report. This allows staff to focus student attention on the most important assessments. 

• Indicate where an assessment has received cohort feedback. This will change the feedback status for the assessment to “Released”. 

Future Developments 

The Digital Learning Environment team will continue to work on the Feedback Tracker Report including: 

• Early life support and bug/issue resolution as required. 

• Developing a staff version of the reporting dashboard that will contain additional information. The team will be working on the specification within our next Agile termly increment. 

• Add additional functionality to the feedback tracker report e.g. the ability to bring other non-Moodle assessment information from SITS. 

If you have any questions or feedback, please contact the Digital Education team via MyServices.

Learning Designers. What do they do, and do you need one?

By Antonella Veccia, on 21 August 2024

The landscape of Higher Education has undergone a significant transformation in recent years, with online learning becoming an increasingly popular choice among adults. Recent publications including What do higher education students want from online learning? (2023) or Shaping the Future of Online Learning (2024) have highlighted the need for improvements in several key areas to enhance the quality and effectiveness of online education.

While academics bring essential expertise and deep knowledge of their content areas, transitioning to online learning environments can be challenging. This is where Learning Designers can help, offering specialised skills to optimise students’ online learning experience.

A common misconception about Learning Designers

Learning Designers are sometimes seen as tech-savvy professionals who manage the technical aspects of course delivery, such as uploading materials to platforms, video editing, or even coding. This perspective is understandable given the prominent role that digital technology plays in online learning; however, this perception can prevent academics from fully use the Learning Designers’ expertise.

Learning Designers are educational specialists with expertise in adult learning in online environments. Their primary focus is planning, designing, and strategically using educational technology to support teaching and learning.

Understanding the role of Learning Designers

Given their expertise, Learning Designers recognise that different modes of delivering education require distinct approaches.

While the foundational principles of learning are consistent across face-to-face and online contexts, directly replicating in-person methods online doesn’t work. For example, traditional classrooms benefit from face-to-face interactions, spontaneous discussions, and non-verbal cues. In the absence of these elements, online environments rely on technology to mediate interactions. This shift requires tailored strategies to engage students, maintain motivation, and ensure accessibility and success for all learners, regardless of background or ability.

Learning Designers can play a pivotal role in this process as they are skilled at tailoring the learning experience to meet the needs, challenges and motivations of adult learners and can combine pedagogy and technology to effectively support desired learning outcomes.

Technology meets pedagogy

Learning Designers typically work across different academic subjects but are not subject matter experts. Instead, they partner with academics to translate their expertise into engaging online courses.

Platforms like Moodle, for example, exemplify the potential of technology to support a learner-centred approach, allowing instructional strategies that combine passive and active learning. A passive learning activity might involve students watching a pre-recorded lecture or reading an article, where they absorb information independently. This can be complemented by an active learning component, such as summarising the content of the article, or participating in a discussion forum where students are encouraged to contribute their thoughts and engage in peer-to-peer dialogue.

However, academic presence remains a critical component of online courses. Tutors provide essential guidance, offer timely and constructive feedback, and support students in navigating the course material.

This integrated approach is linked to improved educational outcomes and a more engaging learning experience.

Designing for synchronous and asynchronous learning

Flexibility is crucial when designing online courses, particularly for adult learners who often require adaptable learning schedules or may join from different time zones.

Learning Designers focus on creating a seamless blend of synchronous and asynchronous components to maintain learner engagement while providing flexibility. They achieve this by assessing (in collaboration with academics) which activities are best suited for asynchronous delivery or synchronous interaction.

Moreover, Learning Designers can assist and address common challenges typically affecting synchronous sessions—such as students feeling unprepared or overwhelmed—by designing robust asynchronous activities that build the necessary knowledge and skills beforehand and by ensuring that activities build on each other and clearly align to the intended outcomes.

This careful blending of synchronous and asynchronous elements, coupled with well-designed support mechanisms like clear instructions, timely feedback, and additional resources, ensures that learners are equipped to actively participate and succeed in both activities.

Learning design is a collaborative endeavour

At UCL, we know that a great online course requires a carefully crafted experience that considers every aspect of the learner’s journey. That’s why Learning Designers work together with a team of experts.

We partner with academics to translate their expertise into engaging content and ensure learning outcomes are met. We work closely with Learning Technologists to select and implement digital tools, providing a seamless technical experience for staff and students. We liaise with multimedia developers and graphic designers when the course requires the production of assets such as video, animations, or interactive simulations.

This multi-faceted approach ensures that online courses are relevant, pedagogically sound, technically robust, accessible, and aesthetically appealing.

Ready to enhance your online course? Contact us to discover how our Learning Designers can help you create an engaging and effective learning experience.

Digital Education move to MyServices

By Tom Walters, on 21 August 2024

Dear colleagues,

As many of you know, a new platform called MyServices was released on 5th August to replace Remedyforce. This system will be used for all IT queries at UCL including Digital Education queries.

This post will summarise some recent changes and how you should raise a request that is related to Digital Education.

As part of the move, any emails that are sent to digi-ed@ucl.ac.uk or lecturecast@ucl.ac.uk will get a bounceback email and not go through to our MyServices queue. You should now go to the MyServices platform directly to raise a support ticket: myservices.ucl.ac.uk/self-service

From the home page above you can search for a specific form or the service you require such as Moodle, which results in this view:

If you then click on Moodle, you get a list of our forms and knowledge articles, where you can choose the one you need. This is not an exhaustive list and is a work in progress, so please select the Staff Query Form if you are not sure which form to use. We have forms for all our services such as Lecturecast, Wiseflow etc. Please search for the service you need to find the relevant related forms. Please note that the icon for the forms is a “telephone”, while the icon for the knowledge articles in the bottom screenshot is an “owl”.

We are all adapting to MyServices together and hope that everyone continues to have a smooth transition. For further information on MyServices please see this Sharepoint: https://liveuclac.sharepoint.com/sites/ESM

As always, we are here to help and please do not hesitate to raise a request or issue with us when needed.

Kind regards,
Digital Education Support

Portico mappings and Lecturecast sections for 2024/25 available in Moodle

By Tom Walters, on 8 August 2024

Dear colleagues,

Hope you have had a relaxing summer so far and are enjoying the weather while it’s in our favour.

As the new academic year approaches, you can get your Moodle resources ready for the incoming cohort with the help of our Moodle guide to prepare for 2024/25. Please also ensure not to delete content on last year’s courses and only make edits on a separate 2024/25 version of a course.

Portico mappings and Lecturecast sections are now available for the new 2024/25 academic year. For further advice and guidance on these please check the Portico enrolments miniguide and Lecturecast sections KBA. Please note that the Lecturecast Scheduler only shows 4 months from the current date. This means that if you wish to schedule the whole of term 1, you can do so from 20th August in order to include 20th December 2024.

We hope things run smoothly, but if you have any difficulties please refer to the Moodle Resource Centre. If you cannot find an answer, then please send us details via the Moodle Query form.

We wish you all the best with your preparations for our new students, and hope that you enjoy the rest of your summer.

Kind regards,
Tom
Digital Education team