Teaching Strategies

The Online Learning Environment

Acadia University’s Moodle environment supports online learning that occurs at a distance. Each course at Acadia has an associated Moodle site, and each student registered in your courses has access to their sites, making it a good place to coordinate your plans with students. As an instructor, you can access your course site through Moodle. Select the course name to access its course site. Through Moodle, instructors and students can continue to engage with each other in meaningful ways and continue to learn.

Communication With Students In Moodle

There are a few ways to create online discussions in your Moodle course(s) and communicate directly with individual students and/or groups.

• Quickmail: Moodle’s Quickmail block, which can be found on the right-hand side of each course homepage, is a quick way to e-mail your students. Quickmail is connected to your Acadia email, so any emails going out from the Quickmail block will be sent using your Acadia email. You can use the Quickmail block to email all your students at once, contact specific students, or communicate with student groups.
• Announcements Forum: Every Moodle course comes with an Announcements forum at the top of the course. This is a good space to provide regular updates for your students on course happenings (e.g. new information added to your course, newly graded work or feedback available, upcoming events or deadlines, etc.) When you post to this forum, it will notify all students in the course that a new post has been made.
• There are a few types of Forums in Moodle you can create that offer a way to engage in a written back-and-forth between you and your students. This can occur asynchronously on whatever timeline you deem appropriate. Consider using topics that you discuss in the physical classroom to drive conversation and dialogue within discussion forums.
• Chat: Moodle has a built-in chatroom tool called Chat. To add a chatroom to your class, turn editing on, “Add an activity or resource,” and select Chat to create a space for ongoing discussions.
• Microsoft Teams: All faculty and students have access to Teams. This can be used via the web by logging in to Office 365, or through the app. Teams allows you to create “New Teams” which can be set up as classrooms. Once the team has been created, all students will have access to any information shared within that team (real-time audio conversations and lectures, whole-class discussion sessions, etc.).

Content Delivery

Your Moodle course is an excellent place to create a repository of resources and information that supports your classroom goals and the learning of your students. In addition to providing students with your syllabus in Moodle, you can also provide course content by providing your slides, attaching course readings and linking to media (images, podcasts, videos, websites, etc.).

How do I create stable links to library resources in my course?	Instructions on how to create stable links to course resources available within the library can be found here.
How do I interact virtually using video and audio in real time with my students?	Microsoft Teams can be used to conduct class discussions either through video/audio or text-based discussions. More information about how to use Microsoft Teams to teach can be found here.
How do I create a recorded lecture?	You can record video using a built-in webcam on your computer or laptop, a USB-connected webcam, or even your phone. If videos are short and the file size is small (MAX 500 MB/file), they can be uploaded directly to Moodle. For any significant videos, you will need to upload the video to YouTube (create an account if you don’t already have one). When uploading the video, make sure it is marked as unlisted under the settings. Copy the link to the video and paste it in your Moodle course.
How do I deliver a narrated PowerPoint presentation?	Record a screen-capture lecture in PowerPoint. Click here for instructions. Record a Microsoft Teams meeting where you are sharing your PowerPoint presentation and narrating.
How do I add other content to my course?	Ensure that Editing is turned on in your course   Drag and drop files onto the homepage Click on “Add an Activity/Resource” to add files, media, activities, course assessments (assignments, quizzes), and URLs (links to videos, websites, other learning technologies you’re using, etc.)

 

Support requests should be directed to ltid@acadiau.ca.