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Moodle Q&A: Import grades from Excel into Moodle

Question mark signQuestion: I prefer to enter grades using Excel. How can I import grades into Moodle using Excel?

Answer: Importing grades from an Excel document into Moodle is easy, if you follow some very specific, non-intuitive, steps. Importing grades from Excel is useful if you prefer to use Excel for grade calculations or if you use Scantrons and have a spreadsheet of scores that you want to quickly copy and paste into Moodle.

Summary of steps:

  1. Add the grade items in Moodle
  2. Export the gradebook to a TXT file
  3. Enter the grades (or copy and paste from Scantron spreadsheet)
  4. Import the TXT file back into Moodle

The first step is to add the items you want to grade to the Moodle gradebook. The import will not work unless the items have been added to the gradebook in Moodle first. To do that, change views to Simple View.

Simple View

At the bottom of the page, click on “Add grade item.”

add grade item

Give that item a name and set the maximum points. You can either add all the graded items you’ll need for the semester — or wait and add them as you need them.

grade item detail

Now that your gradebook is setup in Moodle, you are ready to continue. Follow the directions at the bottom of this page to learn how to export and import your grades. (Wesleyan University)

Note for instructors using Scantrons: You won’t be able to import the spreadsheet with your Scantron results. Instead, you’ll need to copy a column of grades then paste that into the correct column on the spreadsheet you exported from Moodle.

Read other Moodle questions from faculty.

Modified image by Flickr user srsphotoCreative Commons licensed BY-NC 2.0

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Answer student questions with a virtual coffee shop

Coffee Shop SignGuest Post by Victoria Shropshire – English Instructor

Forums can be used in a variety of ways in any course, but at their heart, they encourage and increase writing.  At a University where writing across the curriculum is one of our most pressing goals, why not embrace a technology that is easy to use and (in my experience) increases student engagement as well?

Forums are also a great way to engage students and give them time to Think before Class. Or (gasp) Think before they Speak!  Forums can help facilitate original posts and peer review.  Continue reading »

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Moodle Q&A: forum emails, resubmit assignments, remove from gradebook

Question MarkIn this Moodle Q&A post, Elon faculty ask how their students can stop receiving an email every time someone posts in a forum. We also cover how to give a student a chance to resubmit a file after they’ve submitted something.

In a previous post, we walked through enrolling yourself in your course as a student to experience Moodle from a student perspective. Now, we’ll cover how to remove yourself as a student from the course.

In this post, we answer questions about:

Read other Moodle questions from faculty. Continue reading »

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Moodle Q&A: act like a student, folder views, links, and passwords

question markIn this Moodle Q&A post, Elon faculty ask how to experience their course exactly as a student (gradebook and all), how to reduce the amount of information displayed on their course page, and more.

Elon faculty have a lot of questions about Moodle. That’s a good thing. It proves Elon faculty are using Moodle and testing its limits. This post includes some questions (and answers) we received from faculty about Moodle.

In this post, we answer questions about:

Continue reading »

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UPDATE: Easily add current, course-relevant news to your Moodle courses

News TickerUPDATE: This post was updated on 9/12/2012 after Twitter changed its widget creator.

Ideas for using Twitter in higher education are easy to find. One simple way to use Twitter is to embed a widget into your Moodle course. Embedding Twitter into Moodle is an easy way to add current, course-relevant news and opinions to your course. Twitter is full of companies, news organizations, non-profits, professional associations, activists, politicians, celebrities and more – nearly every discipline can find something of value on Twitter. It’s easy, and you don’t even need a Twitter account (though you’ll have more options if you do) and all you need is a Twitter account. This post includes ideas for using Twitter in Moodle and step-by-step instructions for adding a Twitter widget to your Moodle course.

Continue reading »

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Need email? Three things to get your Moodle course ready for Fall

Fall leavesFall is here! There are three important steps to get every Moodle course ready for the fall. The following steps will make it easier for you to email your students and verify all your students have access to your Moodle course. This post includes steps to:

  1. Add the Quickmail block to your courses so you can email students
  2. Enroll and remove students in your Moodle course
  3. Make your Moodle course available to students

1) Add the Quickmail block

Quickmail allows you to communicate with your students via email.

1A) Make sure editing is on (click on the “Turn editing on” button or link).

1B) Look for the “Add a block” tool at the bottom on the left side of the screen.

1C) Click on the dropdown menu and select “Quickmail.”

Quickmail menu

1D) Wait a few moments and the Quickmail block will appear above “Add a block.”

Quickmail is added

1E) If you want to move it, click on the blue plus sign in the Quickmail block, then click in the pink rectangle where you want to put the block.

2) Check your roster

OnTrack contains the official roster, so reconcile your Moodle roster with OnTrack.

2A) On the left under Course Administration, click on Users, then click on “Enrolled users.”  This will show the current roster in your course.

Enrolled users

2B) If you need to remove someone, click on the red X on the far right beside the name of the person you want to remove.

2C) If you want to add someone, click on the “Enroll User” button at the top right.

2D) Type their username or last name in the search box, hit “Enter” on your keyboard. This will bring up a list of those who match this criteria.

2E) Click on the “Enroll” button beside their name.

2F) Repeat for any additional users you want to add to the course.

2G) Click on the “Finish Enrolling Users” button at the bottom of the Enroll Users box. The students should now appear in your course.

3) Make your course available

Students can not see your course until you make it available to them.

3A) On the left under Course Administration, click on “Edit Settings.”

Edit settings

3B) Scroll down until you see “Availability.”

3C) Select “This course is available to students”  in the drop down box.

Availability

3D) Scroll to the bottom and click on “Save changes.”

For more Moodle resources, including training dates and tutorials, click on the “Home” link at the top of your Moodle page.

Moodle Home

Image by Flickr user Christopher Chan / Creative Commons licensed BY-NC-NC 2.0

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Real-time conversations with Moodle Chat: Part 2

Emoticon imageI’ve always enjoyed using forms of instant messaging because it’s quick, non-invasive, and informal. Moodle chat is a type of instant messaging and is especially well-suited for short messages, unrehearsed exchanges, office hours, meetings, question and answer sessions and test-preparation. Earlier this year we posted information about using chat for synchronous communication, ideas to incorporate it into teaching, and how to enable it.  In further exploring the Moodle chat feature there are two things you might find useful. Continue reading »

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