Moodle tips

We may combine or correlate the responses in the feedback survey with the responses in the pre-course survey to understand the influence of different factors on course participation. However, in doing any such analysis, we will be using anonymised numeric identifiers and not real names. Further, for reporting purposes we may use anonymised data or quotes from this survey. (You can also look at our privacy policy to learn how we use the data we collect.) While we ask you to complete this survey to meet the completion criteria for the course, your actual responses will not have any bearing on your course completion status.

1. You can download your certificate anytime after the certificate is ready (even months later, as long as you've not unenrolled yourself or the course hasn't been deleted). You just need to log into INASP Moodle and visit the course homepage. You'll then see a link or section to download your certificate, if you've completed the course. If you've forgotten your password for INASP Moodle, you can reset it by clicking the 'Lost password' link on the homepage.
   
2. If you would like your name to appear differently on your certificate, just change your name in your user profile after logging in. See check/edit your profile. Then download your certificate again.
3. If you've changed the interface language on INASP Moodle from English to some other language and you find that there are odd characters in your certificate, please change the interface language back to English. Then download your certificate again. Some languages are not supported fully in the certificate plugin.
   
4. Please do not request any changes in the wording or formatting of the certificate, as these are standardized.
   
5. We do not send out hard copies of certificates to online course participants as this would be very expensive! But feel free to print your certificate yourself.

Related tip: Verification code on the certificate

1. Join the AuthorAID online mentoring scheme as a mentee or mentor: http://www.authoraid.info/en/mentoring/
   
2. Join the AuthorAID mailing list: https://dgroups.org/groups/authoraiddiscussion
   
3. Subscribe to the AuthorAID blog to receive email copies of informative posts and news items, including calls for applications for online courses and grant announcements. Enter your email address in the box on the right side of this page: http://www.authoraid.info/en/news/
4. Follow AuthorAID on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/AuthorAID-at-INASP/123030044377871
5. Follow AuthorAID on Twitter: https://twitter.com/authoraid

AuthorAID is run by INASP, an international development charity in the UK, and we work in the areas of research access, research production, research uptake, and so on, all with a focus on developing countries. If you're interested in INASP's work...

1. Subscribe to INASP newsletters and publications: http://eepurl.com/cBoao
   
2. Follow the INASP blog: http://blog.inasp.info/. You can subscribe via email (see the box on the right).
   
3. Follow INASP on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inasp.info
   
4. Follow INASP on Twitter: https://twitter.com/INASPinfo
5. View INASP videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/INASPinfo/

Whenever you upload a document on a website - whether it is a journal submission system, INASP Moodle, or something else - it's always a good idea to try to download and open that document to make sure it has been uploaded properly. Errors sometimes happen during the uploading stage because of which your document may have been uploaded incompletely or may not have been uploaded at all!

To edit your profile, click your name or photo in the top right hand corner of this site, click "Profile" and then "Edit profile". We recommend that you add a photo of yourself in your profile and write something about yourself in the "description" field. This way you'll contribute to making the course a friendly learning environment When editing your profile, you can also change your personal details (including your password), set your time zone, etc.

Once you have added an entry, you can check or edit it if you'd like to. To do this, you have to first search for your entry by putting your name in the search box in the database. You should then be able to see your entry. To edit your entry, click the icon that looks like this:

1. Go to the activity page.

2. Pay attention to the table at the top which explains the different phases of the activity.

3. See if there's a green check mark next to the phrase "Submit your work" in the "Submission phase" section. If yes, you have successfully submitted your work. You can click the "Submit your work" link to see your submission, and you can edit it before the deadline if you'd like to. If you don't see a green check mark next to "Submit your work", you have not submitted your work.

4. If you have uploaded a document as part of your submission, make sure that it is in a proper file format (eg, an MS Word file). It is always a good idea to download what you have submitted and then to open it to check (a) whether the file opens and (b) if it has the right contents.
   

The completion check mark for an activity that includes a peer assessment phase will appear once the activity is closed. It will NOT appear immediately after the submission and assessment phases.

1. Submission phase: This is the phase in which you have to prepare and submit your work. Read the instructions on the activity page to find out what you should submit.

2. Assessment phase: This is the phase in which you have to evaluate the submissions that have been allocated to you. When the activity moves to the assessment phase, the activity page will contain instructions on how you should carry out the assessments.

Once the above two phases are completed, the course facilitator will close the activity. You will see a completion check mark after the closure phase IF (1) you have submitted your work and (2) you have received at least one assessment. If you have submitted your work but you have not received any assessments, you will not see a completion check mark, but the course moderator will ensure that you get credit for this activity -- as long as you have assessed all the works allocated to you.

Remember: To receive completion credit for a peer assessment activity, you should take part in BOTH the submission and assessment phases.

A peer assessment activity consists of three phases, explained below. The completion check mark for this activity will appear at the end of the third phase. It will NOT appear immediately after the submission and assessment phases.

1. Submission phase: This is the phase in which you have to prepare and submit your work.

2. Assessment phase: This is the phase in which you have to evaluate the submissions that have been allocated to you. You will be provided with a rubric or assessment form for evaluating each submission.

3. Closure: Once the above two phases are completed, the course facilitator will close the activity. You will see a completion check mark after the closure phase IF (1) you have submitted your work and (2) you have received at least one assessment. If you have submitted your work but you've not received any assessments, you will not see a completion check mark, but you will still get credit for this activity as long as you have assessed all the works allocated to you.
   

Also see: Completion credit for a peer assessment activity

Once you see all the pages in a lesson, you will see a check mark inside the box next to the lesson name on the homepage, indicating that you have completed this lesson. If you think you've gone through a lesson but you don't see the check mark, it means you may have skipped one or more pages in between.

Posts made on forums within a course are sent as email copies to people who have subscribed to those forums. You may be subscribed by default to the forums in the courses you are participating in.

If you don't wish to receive the email copies, you can unsubscribe from any or all the forums. Just click the "unsubscribe from this forum" or "unsubscribe from all forums" link in any email copy of a forum post. You can also visit the forum and click "unsubscribe from this forum" in the "forum administration" block on the left.

If you unsubscribe from the forums, please make sure you visit your course regularly to check the forum posts, for there might be a lot of great discussions going on!

If there is a "news forum" in your course, you might not be able to unsubscribe from this forum because important announcements are made here by the course facilitator.

You should NOT:

• Display any kind of bias towards course participants based on their gender, ethnicity, nationality, or anything else
• Write in a harsh or insulting manner to anyone in the course
• Share the contact information of other participants without permission
• Discuss things unrelated to the topic of the course (unless you use a special social forum for informal/off-topic discussion);
• Advertise anything without providing context. This includes posting calls for papers from journals, conferences and other events. You can however provide a link to anything online if it is relevant to an ongoing discussion in the course
  
• Provide links to websites that may have illegal content, such as pirated software, scanned books, and copyrighted journal articles that are not meant to be shared openly. Uploading any such content directly on the forums is also forbidden.
• Create an excessive number of separate threads on the same topic

• Check the forums regularly to see what others have posted
  
• Make sure your posts are relevant
  
• Post your contributions at appropriate times or within deadlines (if any)
• Check what you have written before posting it, especially when expressing a disagreement
  

If you receive enrollment instructions for a particular course, you'll need to follow the instructions carefully. Don't rush through this process. In particular, you have to locate the right course (and the right batch number, if relevant) and enter the enrollment key exactly as given in the instructions. It's a good idea to copy the key from the instructions and paste it in the box where you have to enter it.

After entering the enrollment key, you can "unhide" it to see if it matches the key given to you. Make sure there are no extra spaces or other inessential characters.

If you can't join your course AND you're absolutely sure that you have tried enrolling in the right course with the right enrollment key, you may email the course facilitator to seek help. Please mention in your email the full name of the course you tried to join and the enrollment key you used.

Related: Enrollment deadline

To check whether you have indeed completed the assessments, go to the activity page and scroll down to view the submissions assigned to you. If you see the phrase 'Already graded' under a submission, it means you have assessed that submission. You can click on the 'Re-assess' button in case you'd like to change anything in your assessment.

After you take this quiz, please click inside the solid box next to the title of the quiz above so that you see a check mark. You must do this to receive credit for this quiz activity.

1. Go to the login page: https://learn.inasp.info/login/index.php
2. Click on the link titled 'Forgotten your username or password?'
3. Under 'Search by email address', put in the email address you used when you created your user account, and click 'Search'. Alternatively, if you remember your username, put that under 'Search by username', and click the 'Search link' next to this box.
   

You will then receive an email with instructions to reset your password.

If you have written blog entries as part of a course, you may want to keep a record of all your entries to read them later on (for example, when you wish to remind yourself of what you learnt in the course). You can look at your own blog entries by going to your profile and clicking Blog entries (under the Miscellaneous heading). Then use the save or print feature in your web browser to save a copy of the page that you see. This page shows a maximum of 10 entries. If you have written more than 10 entries, you will see links to access the other pages with your entries and you can save/print all the pages one by one.

We post announcements of our upcoming online courses on the site news forum. You can subscribe to this forum to receive email alerts whenever we make posts. To subscribe,

• Make sure you are logged into INASP Moodle with your user account. 

• Click the Log in link at the top if you're not logged in. If you don't have an account yet, you can create a new account on the login page.

• After you are logged in, visit the site news forum and click the link called 'Subscribe to this forum' in the menu on the left.

1. To include an image along with your text entry for an activity, you should first resize your image so that it is smaller than 800 pixels in width or 400 KB in file size. You can use an image manipulation tool such as the free Microsoft Photos app for Windows to resize your image.
2. Once you have resized your image, open the submission space on this site (learn@inasp). The submission space is where you submit your work for an activity, as mentioned in the activity instructions.
   
3. Click the Insert or Edit Image button on the editor toolbar.

   
   

4. In the pop-up windows that opens, click Browse Repositories -> Upload a File -> Browse. 
5. Select the image file from your computer or mobile device.

• Read the posts made in the announcements forum.

• If your question is about an activity, read the instructions given for the activity.

• See the calendar block on the course homepage to note important deadlines. We do not offer deadline extensions, as explained in the learning agreement (you can find this in the course induction section).

• If you'd like to leave the course, see this: Unenrolling from the course
  

If your doubt or query persists after you've done the above, please make a post on the technical queries forum.

If you use the Moodle Mobile app on your mobile device to access a course, you may see a percentage completion figure under your course on the app homepage (after you've logged in). This figure may be inaccurate in some cases -- this is a shortcoming of the Moodle app and not something we at INASP can control. Please do not use this figure to determine your progress in the course. You may as well ignore it. What is important is to check the completion criteria for the course and any other information given in the course on how to track your progress.

1. Submission phase: This is the phase in which you have to prepare and submit your work.

2. Assessment phase: The system will randomly allocate some of your course colleagues' submissions to you, and you have to evaluate these using an assessment form.

3. Closure: Once the above two phases are completed, the course moderator will close the activity. You can then view the assessments you have received from your course colleagues.

Related: Completion credit for a peer assessment activity

To record and attach an audio clip from the text editor on this site:

1. Note that the maximum length for an audio clip you can record on this site is 3 minutes.
   
2. Have your script ready at hand. Make sure you can narrate this script within 3 minutes. Adjust the length of the script if necessary.
3. Once you have resized your image, open the submission space on this site (learn@inasp). The submission space is where you submit your work for an activity, as mentioned in the activity instructions.
   
4. Click on the Record Audio icon in the toolbar of the text editor.

   

5. A pop-up appears. Click Start Recording.
6. Your browser may ask you if you want to permit learn.inasp.info to record using your microphone. Click Allow.
   
7. The recording starts along with a countdown timer. Record your script, making sure to complete your recording within 3 minutes. Do not close the recording pop-up.
   
8. Click Stop Recording once you have finished your narration.
9. Click Attach Recording.
10. The recording appears in the text editor as a tiny audio player. Do not try to move this item, as it can get deleted. If you are not happy with your recording, you can delete it and repeat the above steps.
    

Once a course comes to an end, you will have access to the course materials for at least one month after the end date. While our courses are usually not deleted from this site, we cannot guarantee that our courses will be indefinitely available. We strongly recommend that you save the course materials once the course you have taken comes to an end. Instructions are given below.

• For learning resources such as lessons, guided readings, or tutorials, you will find instructions in the course on how to save or download these resources.

• For quizzes and peer assessment activities, see this: Printing/saving quiz reviews and peer assessments

• For saving a forum discussion, use the print or save feature in your web browser.

• If you have received a certificate for the course, remember where you have saved it on your computer!

If you've submitted your work as part of a peer assessment activity, visit the activity page after the assessment phase to read the assessments you've received. When you visit the activity page, you can view your assessments by clicking the link to your submission. This link appears before the links to the assessments you have given to others. Once you click the link to your submission, you will see a page with a list of all the assessments you have received. Make sure you read all your assessments closely, and make notes on how you can improve your work.

To convert a time from a different time zone to your time zone, use a converter such as this one: https://time.is/compare/. Also, make note of any live session on your digital calendar (e.g., Google Calendar) so that you receive a notification before the session starts.

The default time zone on this site is West Africa Time (WAT). In your online course, there may be events that are time-based (such as live sessions) and activities that have deadlines (such as writing activities). For such events and activities, your Dashboard on this site and the time alerts on activity pages show times in WAT by default.

To see mentions of times in your local time zone, edit your profile and change the time zone in the Timezone field. We also suggest you add reminders in your calendar about upcoming events and deadlines. If you would like to compare WAT with your local time, use this link.

If you complete an online course on INASP Moodle, you may receive a digital badge. To download this badge, login to INASP Moodle (http://moodle.inasp.info) and visit the "My badges" page: http://moodle.inasp.info/badges/mybadges.php

Click the badge to view the full details. You can copy the link to this web page from the address bar of your web browser and share the link in your CV or any online profile.

You can also display this digital badge on a badge portfolio. To do this, follow the steps given in this tutorial.

Finally, read this Wikipedia page if you'd like to learn more about digital badges.

If the submission is in DOC or DOCX format, please use Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer to open the document. LibreOffice is free and open source software, so it's a good choice if you don't have Word. If you are not able to open a submitted document with such software, or if you open the document and find it to be blank, please do the following: (1) complete a dummy assessment for this submission (eg, write 'could not open document' in each aspect of the assessment form), and (2) report the issue on the Technical Support / Technical Queries Forum.

You can see the profiles of your fellow course participants by clicking on their names in the forums, in the participants list, the online users block, etc. So write something about yourself in your profile so others can get to know you  When you edit your profile, you can set your email address to be visible to your course colleagues, to everyone on INASP Moodle, or to no-one. We recommend that you use the first setting so that your course colleagues can get in touch with you to discuss collaboration or interesting opportunities.

The basic smiley is arguably the most popular emoticon, but emoticons can also be useful to convey other feelings. You can make an emoticon just by typing the relevant characters in your text editor. No special formatting is needed! For example if you type a colon : followed by the symbol ) you won't immediately see a smiley but when you save your post you'll see it has appeared on the page like this: .

To receive email copies of posts made on this forum, click on 'Subscribe to this forum' in the 'Forum administration' menu (the gear icon on the right side). You can unsubscribe at any time. Alternatively, you can subscribe to specific discussion topics within a forum.

There's a small chance that none of the people who have been allocated your work completed the assessment. This is an unfortunate outcome (but hopefully rare). If you don't see a "grade for submission" when in fact you have submitted your work, we will award you credit for the activity as long as you have assessed the submissions allocated to you. We will be looking at the course logs to determine who has done what. So don't worry!

An activity that involves peer assessment has a number of sequential phases. Immediately after the deadline for the submission phase, the submissions are randomly allocated by the system for assessment. It's not possible to plug in a late submission after the activity enters the assessment phase. Then, right after the assessment phase, the activity is closed and everyone can view their assessments. Again, it's not possible to plug in late assessments once the activity is closed. Because of the way this activity works, we cannot extend the deadline for either the submission or assessment phase. So please do not ask for extensions!

Related tip: phases of a peer assessment activity

In a large online course such as this one, it's not feasible for a small group of teachers or facilitators to provide personalised feedback on each participant's work. Peer assessment is the only practical way to provide participants with feedback on their work.

A survey of participants who took part in a peer assessment activity in one of our previous courses indicated that...

• Most participants found the different aspects of the peer assessment activity to be a useful learning experience.
  
• Some participants were happy with the feedback they got from their peer assessors, but some were disappointed.
• Getting overly brief assessments without useful or practical suggestions was the most common cause for disappointment.