How to reduce complexity for teachers in Moodle

How to reduce complexity for teachers in Moodle

by Ralf Hilgenstock -
Number of replies: 7
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators

One of the main challenges for teachers is the mass of options they have in courses.  Its not possible to train all teachers how to use Moodle.  Over long time I've seen that most teachers start with a few features , try it with their classes and  try more advanved functionalities after they made some experience.

In the first phase of their work with Moodle they should be in a situation that they feel comfortable with the tools. Its critical when they feel they understand only a few features but see all the time  several other options they don't know or don't understand.

The powerful Moodle role system gives admins the process to support teachers here by creating different teacher roles.

In a project group for schools we created four  different teacher roles:

Teacher S (S=small)
Teacher M (M= medium)
Teacher L (Teacher = large)
Teacher XL (XL= extra large)

What is the difference between these roles? Teacher S has only basic access to activities and ressources. Teacher S also has minimal access to course administration and user enrolment processes.
Teacher M has some more features, Teacher L more and Teacher XL is the standard teacher role from Moodle.

Teachers get the Teacher S role in all courses as basic. By using 'switch role to' teachers can temporary move to a more advanced role.  If they want to get the advanced role permanently in the course they can add this permissions from participants list.

Its a key factor that teacher can switch role by themself. We made the experience that it creates some trouble if they have to ask an admin or manager to get a more advanced role or to give them access advanced roles only they are trained by platform staff.  Teachers can learn to use Moodle from different sources.

How to prepare such roles and permissions? Admins can create new roles based on existing roles.  We started with the Teacher S role, created a new role based on existing teacher role, reduced the permissions and safed it. Then we created the Teacher M and Teacher L roles based on the next lower role and added permissions. As next we renamed Teacher role to Teacher XL and set the permissions for role assignments and role switches that each teacher could every teacher role.

What are the main criteria for the permissions?

  • Which ressources can be used?
  • Which activities can be used?
  • Can the teacher use backup, restore, import in course administration?
  • Which enrolment methods are available?
We also discussed that it would be sensefull to create teacher roles for different topics, i.e. language teachers or science teachers. They could get different permissions for quiz questions, filters or editor features. In the moment this is not possible because we don't have seperated roles for this functionalities.

Everyone should decide whether it makes sense to have two, three or four teacher roles.  Its  a question of communication. It should be easy to understand that each role has different permissions  and what the differences are.
Average of ratings: Useful (6)
In reply to Ralf Hilgenstock

Re: How to reduce complexity for teachers in Moodle

by Mary Cooch -
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Thanks for posting this Ralf. I especially like the fact that teachers can switch roles to try a more 'advanced' role to see if they like it. Because one of my concerns about this practice (discussed at other times by other people) of restricting the teacher role so they don't see everything and therefore do not have too much to confuse them - one of my concerns is that: how will a teacher know what other good things there are if they don't know what else is available to them? So with the option of allowing teachers to switch to a different role they can see this - I like the idea.
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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: How to reduce complexity for teachers in Moodle

by Joseph Rézeau -
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Totally agree with Ralf and Mary here. We were discussing this often discussed topic this week at the Francophone MoodleMoot in Rennes.
When I used to use Moodle at my university before I retired I would probably have asked my admin for an XXL teacher role.wink
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In reply to Ralf Hilgenstock

Re: How to reduce complexity for teachers in Moodle

by Eoin Campbell -
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This looks like a great idea to me, many thanks. I recently came across the ABC to VLE Learning Design approach which uses an "App Wheel" of concentric circles to classify activities according to learning type, both inside and outside the LMS. This would be a great way to visually communicate to the Teacher the facilities available at each level in your approach too, I think. Jessica Gramp of UCL has made the source materials available for editing (PowerPoint/Excel), so it might be possible to adapt it. The full wheel is pretty complicated, but below is a simplified Moodle-only version from a workshop Mark Glynn in DCU gave recently.

Moodle App Wheel


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In reply to Eoin Campbell

Re: How to reduce complexity for teachers in Moodle

by Ralf Hilgenstock -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators

Great idea. In the source material are information about the areas.

Can you explain the meaning of the different inner circles.

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In reply to Ralf Hilgenstock

Re: How to reduce complexity for teachers in Moodle

by Jon Bolton -
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Inner circle is core Moodle. Outer circle is 3rd party plugins and other integrations.
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Ralf Hilgenstock

Re: How to reduce complexity for teachers in Moodle

by Eoin Campbell -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

In the full, more complicated, app wheel, I think the classification of the circles is as follows.

  • The innermost circle contains activities and resources provided within the Moodle LMS, such as Assignments, Forums, Files, etc. 
  • The 2nd circle contains resources outside the LMS, but provided and supported by the college, e.g. Office 365. 
  • The 3rd circle contains resources that are approved for use, but outside the college, and not provided or supported by them (e.g. YouTube).
  • Finally, there are outside resources that are not approved for use, whether for policy or other reasons (e.g. GDPR compliance, cost, etc.)

The simpler DCU Moodle-only app wheel diagram does differentiate between Core and contributed plugins as Jon says, but I don't see any real benefit for Lecturers in making this distinction.

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In reply to Ralf Hilgenstock

Re: How to reduce complexity for teachers in Moodle

by Surendra Gupta -
Hi,

I like the idea you have highlighted. You can surely manage these things through roles and permissions. while editing the role you can allow and disallow different capabilities for the teacher.
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