Agenda

1. Agenda Time Zones > Over-ridden grades < Journal VS Online text assignments > Multiple-answer question types < Restricting quizzes to the classroom > Sandbox cleanup < Online documentation >

2. Time Zones • There are 24 time zones in the world. • The standard for world-wide time is coordinated universal time, which is abbreviated UTC. UTC was formerly known as Greenwich mean time (GMT). It is sometimes referred to as “Zulu time”, “universal time” and “world time”. • GMT was based upon the time at the zero degree meridian that crossed through Greenwich, England. • Official UTC time is designated in 24 hour notation, like military time, and has a “Z” directly after the time. So “09:30 UTC” can also be shown as “09:30Z”. This is the source of the term “Zulu time”. • To convert UTC (or GMT) time into your local time, you add or subtract hours from it. Central Standard Time (CST) is also known as “UTC-6”, which means it is six hours less than UTC time (or Greenwich time). To convert UTC into CST, you subtract 6 hours. Thailand is in the UTC+7 time zone, which means they add 7 hours to UTC to get their local time.

3. Time Zones

4. Time Zones • Daylight Savings Time (DST) is a method of getting more useful daylight hours during the summer. Clocks are set ahead one hour in the Spring, and then set back in Fall. • Benjamin Franklin first suggested Daylight Savings Time in 1784. It was not until World War I, in 1916, that DST was adopted by several European countries. • Not all countries observe Daylight Savings Time. A majority of the world’s population does not use DST because Africa and Asia generally do not observe it. • Hawaii and most of Arizona do not observe DST. • Equatorial countries typically do not observe DST because the difference in daylight hours in the summer and winter is not that great. • Areas that observe DST adjust their time zone during the duration of DST. • Most areas, but not all, adjust by one hour. Changing from UTC-6 to UTC-5, for example. Some areas change by as much as two hours. • Not all areas start DST at the same time.

5. Time Zones • The TSTC Moodle server is hosted by a company called Remote-Learner, and the server is physically located in a different time zone than Texas. • The server’s time zone is set to “America/Chicago”, so it has the same time as Texas and does not match its physical location. This is now the default time zone for new users. • Moodle adjusts time zones for areas that observe DST automatically. • You can set what time zone you use by editing your profile. • If you choose the UTC-6 time zone, it will always be 6 hours off from Greenwich time and will not change for DST. This was the original default setting and many people still have it selected. • All times in Moodle are stored in UTC time, and then converted to match your time zone.

6. Over-ridden Grades • Grades that are automatically calculated or graded can be overridden. • This means that a manual grade has been assigned, and this manual grade "over rides" the automatic grade. • This only applies to automatic grades, such as quizzes and assignments that are graded, not manual grade items where you simply put a grade in. • Overridden grades show up as a tan grade box instead of the normal grey box. • The over-ridden grade will not change until another manual grade is put in or the grade is set back to be automatic.

7. Over-ridden Grades • To “undo” an over-ridden grade, you must go to the settings for that grade and turn off the over-ride. • First, turn editing on in the grade book. • Next, click the edit handfor the grade that isover-ridden. • Uncheck the box titled “Overridden”. • Save the settings.

8. Journal VS Online Text • Both the journal and online text assignments allow students to see a question and type in their answer. There are some differences, however, and the journal assignment is being discontinued in newer versions of Moodle. • The Journal is better at handling back-and-forth dialog with the student. The online text assignment is designed for a one-time student entry, and a one-time instructor feedback. • The journal can be set to have a grade (it has a default of no grade assigned), but that grade is not added to the grade book. The online text assignment is standard graded item and is automatically added to the grade book. • The journal allows for all student entries to be viewed and graded on a single page at the same time. The online text assignment can be graded on a single page, but to view the submitted text you have to open each one in a pop-up window. • The journal only has the ability to restrict the number of days it is open to the students, and you can not prevent altering of the entry by the student after you have given it a “grade”. The online text assignment can control the time and date of when it turns on and off, and you can prevent late submissions and resubmitting. • We recommend not using the journal, and replacing all journal assignments with online text.

9. Multiple Answer Questions • Multiple answer questions can are a good method of assessing a student’s knowledge of a topic. However, these questions can assign point values to each answer chosen and if not set up properly, students will get full credit for the question by simply selecting all the answers. Multiple answer questions are multiple choice question type, but more than one answer is configured as correct. • To have these types of questions grade correctly, there are certain things you should check and configure: • Each answer (choice) in the question can be given a grade. The default grade for each choice is “none”. Selecting an answer with “none” as the grade will not affect the grading for that question. So if you award points for two answers and leave the other answers at “none”, then if the student selects ALL answers, they will get the question correct. • All answer grades are in percentages, and all correct answer grades should add up to 100%. • You must give a negative grade to incorrect answers. If you give a “-100%” grade to all wrong answers, then choosing any wrong answer will give them no points for including any wrong selection. Giving partial negative grades for incorrect answers will deduct from points gained through correct selections, giving partial points for the question. • A negative total grade for a question will result in no points for the question.

10. Restricting Quizzes to the Classroom • Quizzes by default are available to students from any location. This allows them to take them from home with their textbook and notes. This is easily remedied by utilizing some often overlooked settings for quizzes. • Quizzes have a “Security” section in their settings. In this section, there are three settings that can be used to secure the quiz. • Browser Security: This opens the quiz in a full-screen window to try and prevent the student from using other sources on their computer to look up the answers. This is not fool-proof, and should not be counted on to prevent cheating. • Require password: This requires the student to type in a password, possibly supplied in-class only, right before the quiz, in order to take the quiz. • Require network address: This requires the computer that the student is using to take the quiz have an IP address that is listed in the setting. You can easily add a range of addresses that only apply to a single class room.

11. Restricting Quizzes to the Classroom • Restricting quizzes to computers in a given IP address range is the best method of making sure quizzes are taken in the class room. Address entries in this setting can be in 4 forms, and multiple entries can be added if they are separated with a comma. • A full IP address: put in the full, specific IP address for one computerexample: 123.12.34.56 • A partial address: put in the first part of an IP address and every computer that has an IP address that starts with that entry will be allowedexample: 123.12.34. • A range of addresses: put in the first address of the range, a dash, and then the last number of the last IP addressexample: 123.12.34.10-50 • CIDR notation: put in a standard network/subnet mask entry to cover an entire IP networkexample: 123.12.34.0/24

12. Sandbox Cleanup • Sandboxes are used for development, and many were created during the first stages of the conversion to Moodle. They are continually made as instructors develop new courses. • Many sandboxes have not been used for a long time, but are still taking up space on the server. • Please take a personal inventory of courses and send me the names of any sandbox courses you are no longer using so I can delete them. • Please help spread the word to other faculty to do the same.

13. Online Documentation • The online Moodle documentation on the • http://resources.tstc.edu • web site is being redone. It follows a standardized format and allows documents to be flagged for out-of-date, inappropriate, helpful and lacking information. • It has been renamed “Moodle Documentation”. • Much of the documentation is available without logging in. • The documents are being put into a format that is searchable, by title and content. • The names reflect the type of information as well as its topic. • We welcome you to create documentation to be added to this repository.