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LMS Evaluation and Introduction
LMS Evaluation and Introduction
Welcome to Week 5 of the research between the Desire2Learn and Moodle Learning Management Systems. Due to the large number of screenshots for this demo, please click on the labeled thumbnails to view the full sized images.
The following LMS tasks have been covered for this week:
Create a Customized Course Homepage
Create "Start Here" Information
Add "Start Here" Link to the News Widget
Customize the Navbar
Post Audio Message in the News Tool
D2L LMS Evaluation
D2L LMS Evaluation
Create a Customized Course Homepage
Create a Customized Course Homepage
An inviting and easy to understand course homepage is critical to help students succeed, as well as to reduce stress for those new to online courses.
In D2L, to create a homepage, click "Course Admin" in the Navbar, and then "Homepages" (Home 1). Click the arrow beside the current homepage and then choose copy (Home 2).
Name the new homepage, check the box to include the header, make sure that the layout is set to basic, and that the widgets are as shown in the screenshot. Then click "Save and Close" (Home 3).
Back at the list of homages, click the drop-down underneath "Active Homepage", choose the new page that was created, and then click Apply (Home 4).
Create "Start Here" Information
Create "Start Here" Information
Information dedicated to help students have successful beginnings in the course can greatly alleviate frustration.
In the content section of the course, create a new module and name it "Start Here". Then click the "New" drop-down and choose "Create a File". From here you can create the HTML page that contains the content for students to begin the course.
Add "Start Here" Link to the News Widget
Add "Start Here" Link to the News Widget
The "Start Here" page is in the content section of the course, but it is also a good idea to link to that page from the news section widget. Linking will allow the ability to update the content in one location.
On the home page, click the arrow beside "News" and then choose "New News Item" (Start 1).
Add a headline, enter in some content, and then select that text and choose the "Insert Quicklink" button (Start 2).
Click on the "Content" option to navigate to and choose the "Start Here" page that was created in the previous step (Start 3).
Now a link is added to the news widget on the homepage.
Customize the Navbar
Customize the Navbar
A cluttered navbar can cause confusion, especially if there are unused menu items.
To remove those items, click on "Course Admin" and then "Tools" (Navbar 1).
Scroll down the list and click the toggle to disable unused menu items (Navbar 2).
Post Audio Message in the News Tool
Post Audio Message in the News Tool
In addition to pages, audio messages can be recorded and published directly into news items on the homepage.
Please view the video demonstration below on how to record and publish audio to a news item.
Moodle LMS Evaluation
Moodle LMS Evaluation
Create a Customized Homepage and "Start Here" Information
Create a Customized Homepage and "Start Here" Information
As with the HTML templates from Week 4, course homepages are another area where the design of Moodle differs significantly from D2L. There are no separate sections to edit for homepages and course content, all are combined and work together in one environment. In fact, the homepage and "Start Here" items in this review are combined into one step for the same reason.
Please view the video demonstration below on how to customize the layout and look of a Moodle course, as well as add the "Getting Started" content.
Customize the Navbar
Customize the Navbar
Since all course content exist and work together in one environment, there is no need for a navbar menu in order to navigation to different resources. Course content is available in sections that can be viewed on one page and organized as needed.
There is a Breadcrumb trail menu, but that updates automatically depending on the course content that is viewed.
Post Audio Message
Post Audio Message
Moodle's core multimedia plugin can handle multiple types of audio and video. However, there is no ability to record directly into a course resource without the installation of a third party plugin.
In this example, a label is created in order to embed an audio file directly into the "Get Started" section of the course.
To do so, add a label resource, and then click the "Media" button on the HTML editor (Audio 1).
Choose the "Audio" tab, browse for and upload the file, and then click "Insert Media" (Audio 2).
The integrated multimedia plugin sees the file and shows an embedded player in the course (Audio 3).
LMS Weekly Recommendation
LMS Weekly Recommendation
Create a Customized Course Homepage
Create a Customized Course Homepage
D2L and Moodle are designed to provide introductory content differently. D2L does a great job with providing the ability to create customized homepages separate from the course content. Moodle focuses on also providing a customized Dashboard for the user account, yet combines all course information onto one page. Both can be utilized well for the students, yet both also suffer from the same weakness: the instructors. Proper course design by instructors is crucial for effective introductory information.
Create "Start Here" Information
Create "Start Here" Information
Creating "Start Here" information utilizes the same tools that were introduced in Week 1. Both D2L and Moodle perform this well.
Add "Start Here" Link
Add "Start Here" Link
Because of the synergy of Moodle, course content does not have to be linked elsewhere in order to have one location for editing content. Linking course items in D2L is not difficult, yet easy to forget.
Customize the Navbar
Customize the Navbar
Again, due to the nature of Moodle's design, course menus are not required to navigate content. However, course blocks with general links to content can be added if needed. For D2L, editing the Navbar is quite easy and intuitive.
Post Audio Message
Post Audio Message
It is quite convenient for D2L to implement an audio recording feature directly into the news item editor. That is not a core feature of Moodle, but it can be easily added via a third party plugin. However, the core multimedia plugin of Moodle can automatically embed and play multiple forms of video and audio content.
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