Update brings new tools to Moodle

A Moodle update this summer brought about several new features that can be beneficial to students and faculty. Two of them are Activity Completion and Stealth Mode, which give instructors more options when it comes to creating a comprehensive and robust online learning environment for their students. 

ACTIVITY COMPLETION

Ticking an item off a checklist can be incredibly satisfying. In fact, checking an item off a to-do list causes our brains to release dopamine, or the “feel-good” neurotransmitter. This rush of dopamine from completing a task motivates us to keep plugging away at items on the list so we are rewarded with more dopamine. A new feature in Moodle might help students stay motivated to complete tasks, but also keep them on track to complete assignments in their online classes.

Activity Completion shows visual progress

As students progress through their online courses in Moodle, Activity Completion allows them to see the requirements for each assigned activity. For manually checked completion, students can click a button to mark a task as completed. 

A gray line separates each resource and activity. In the gray shaded area, students are shown the assignment that must be completed for that section. The gray line indicates the activity has not been completed. Once the student finishes the necessary steps for the activity, the bar turns green, allowing the student to see what is done and observe their progress in the course. 

From an instructor perspective, Activity Completion can be used to organize the class as well. In Moodle, faculty can set the activity requirements to hide subsequent sections until an activity is completed or if a student hasn’t passed a quiz or assessment without achieving a certain grade. 

Tips for using Activity Completion

While Activity Completion provides visual confirmation that a task has been finished, eLearning and Instructional Support Instructional Designer Nic Bongers said there are some things to avoid, when using the Moodle tool. 

“Stay away from daisy-chaining every activity with Activity Completion and Restricted Access based on Activity Completion. Students learn better when they are able to navigate more freely,” said Bongers. 

STEALTH MODE

With Stealth Mode, course instructors can hide assignments from the main page in the Moodle course, but still make them available to the students through direct links. This allows for embedding activities directly into Pages or Books. 

“With activities shown directly on the course page, students sometimes skip the learning content and jump right to the activity or assessment,” said Bongers. “Using Stealth Mode, instructors can link to graded activities within the learning content so the learner can read something, and then move on to an activity.”

Bongers said Stealth Mode is especially useful when embedding H5P interactive content into Pages, Books and even Forums. 

HOW E-LIS CAN HELP

With new tools, there can be questions. To get technical help with Activity Completion or Stealth Mode, contact the e-LIS help desk. Call (248) 805-1625 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. or Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon. Help tickets can be submitted 24 hours a day through the e-LIS support portal. 

To learn more about enhancing classes with any of the Moodle tools, consult with the Instructional Design team. Workshops are also held throughout the year focusing on Moodle tools. To see a complete schedule, visit our workshop calendar.