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Languages@Warwick user guide

Version 7.

Languages@Warwick has been improved in order to

harmonise better with Warwick’s new branding

provide a better user experience on any device

The responsive design theme (Snap) was developed by Moodlerooms after

carrying out research into student experience of Moodle. At first sight it will

seem very different but this guide will help you get familiar with the user

interface more quickly.

Contents Access. .............................................................................................................................................. 2

Preparing your course. ...................................................................................................................... 4

Editing section content. ..................................................................................................................... 6

Helping students to keep track. ......................................................................................................... 8

Video management in Languages@Warwick. .................................................................................... 9

Managing your media in Languages@Warwick. ............................................................................... 10

Mahara e-portfolio. ......................................................................................................................... 12

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Access. Our site is now connected to Warwick’s membership records so that you can log on directly

using single sign on (SSO). Staff and students will no longer have to remember a separate

password for Languages@Warwick.

Figure 1 Landing page Languages@Warwick

When you click Log in you will be taken to Warwick’s single sign on page:

Figure 2 Single Sign On page

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Insert your usual IT services user name and password.

If you are already signed in to Warwick’s web then you will just be taken straight in to your

Languages@Warwick account. If you do not have a user account at Warwick, your log in

details will have been provided separately.

External users:

LLL course participants who are not from Warwick and those who use our courses but do

not have a Warwick user name from IT services will need to follow the emailed instructions

to access and use the link in the text on the landing page. (see Fig.1).

One you are logged in you will see your profile picture at the top right hand corner.

Figure 3 Logged in

This part of the screen is now more important.

The menu expands to reveal your profile and quick access to all your courses.

You exit the menu by clicking on the cross (top right again)

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Figure 4 Menu screen

Preparing your course.

If you are the tutor on a course you will see the turn editing on button in the top right

corner. The lines are very important as when you click them they open into the admin

menu. From there you can access all the editing functions.

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Figure 5 Admin menu

Your course areas will still have the content that was in them last year but it may seem quite

different. Each course in Snap has a course image as the background to the course name.

Most of our courses already have this as part of a welcome section but it is not in the

correct place for the new theme and so it needs to be moved or replaced. You will find

many suitable images (landscape) on flickr commons which you can use. Please observe the

licence on the image. For more information on using Creative Commons images see this

guide for language teachers. We can help you if you get in touch, email

techsupport.language@warwick.ac.uk .

When you have chosen a suitable image here is how you insert it to display as the course

header:

Open the admin menu

Go to course administration>edit settings

Upload your chosen image file to the area marked course summary files.

Save

This will then be the image that heads your course page and all the links to the course

sections are overlaid. There is more information about this here.

Admin menu expands

from the lines by your

profile picture.

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As you can see the Languages@Warwick display is no longer 3 columns. Content from the

sides of you page can now be found if you click course tools (the last entry on the course

sections list).

Figure 6 Course tools

The course tools area gives quick access to things that are useful throughout the course

such as your calendar, reporting, activities, mahara access. (N.B. You may want to remove

some of the content that has automatically been moved here because it was previously in

the margins of your course page).

Editing section content.

Click on one of the sections of your course from the course content list.

Here is an example:

Section

summary

Resources

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The section summary should have a brief text, video or image for the week’s theme. The

resources will display icons according to the resource type. It is very important that you use

the recommended display options for your resources:

Resource type Preferred setting in display options Word doc, .pdf Force download Hyperlink (URL) in pop-up Audio file In pop-up

You can move files by using drag and drop picking it up using the cross arrow symbol, or

click on the symbol to get a list of possible locations and choose from the list:

Figure 7 Edit your resources

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Helping students to keep track. The most common complaints students make about the Moodle experience are:

Too much scrolling

Difficult to keep track of what has been done

Snap helps us to address both of these. The scrolling is reduced because you only look at one section

at a time, using the course content links to jump to this week’s content, which is also flagged by the

system as “current”.

A tick system displays automatically and personalises the student’s course progress if you enable

tracking in your course.

To enable tracking in your course you need to:

Go to admin menu

Go to course admin>edit settings

Scroll down to course completion

Expand the completion tracking and set to yes

Figure 8 Enable completion tracking in your course

You can then set completion criteria on each resource based on your criteria or student

manual completion. More here.

You can check how students see your course my moving your role to student in the admin

menu:

The tick shows that

this is complete.

Jump to next section

using the link at the

bottom of each

section

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Figure 9 Admin menu

All users also get a quick insight into their deadlines, alerts, submitted assignments for

marking directly from the menu link in the top right hand corner. As the page displays well

on mobile devices students can even check on their courses on the bus!

If a message is sent this displays when you log on, towards the bottom of the screen:

Video management in Languages@Warwick.

The Kaltura system is integrated into Languages@Warwick to make video management easy and ensure that the platform is not slowed down by video files, which are large and can be problematic. The integration gives tutors 3 ways of making video available:

As a Kaltura resource The recording is added to the system and then can be included in a course using the Kaltura icon in a

label, through the text editor or through “add a Kaltura resource”.

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As a Kaltura presentation The recording is added to the Kaltura system and then included using “add a Kaltura video presentation” which allows the addition of further files to work on with the video (e.g. a word doc or .pdf).

As a Kaltura assignment This type of assignment gives students the opportunity to upload videos created on any device in

response to a set task. The recording will be processed on the system to ensure that it plays back. It

can be graded by the tutor and feedback returned.

Managing your media in Languages@Warwick.

There are two spaces where you can manage media that you have uploaded on the Kaltura system.

1. My media You will find this by expanding the site home link under “navigation” on your home page:

It will show you all the video that belongs to you and offers ways of creating further recordings:

The my media tool shows you all media available to you across the entire site.

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2. Media Gallery. The media gallery tool can be seen only from within a course. Go to one of your courses, click on

course tools and under navigation, expand current course.

Here you will see all Kaltura media that is available to the course.

You can also search the site repository to see if there is other suitable media to add to your course.

Click on the +add media button and explore the shared repository:

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If you have longer recordings (such as films) which you would like to make available through Kaltura,

please contact techsupport.language@warwick.ac.uk

Mahara e-portfolio.

The mahara e-portfolio tool is integrated within Languages@Warwick, making it easy for you to

move content, assignments and forum posts into your private, reflective space. Mahara is used to

support student awareness of transversal skills acquisition and is sometimes part of the

accreditation of some courses. You can read about the language e-portfolio project here.

The link to move from Languages@Warwick into Mahara is found on the network server block. This can be added to your course (under course tools) or is by default available on the “my home” page. The block looks like this:

Here is a tutorial about moving between the two spaces. Mahara is an open source tool and has the following functions:

A journal tool for private “diary” reflection

A creation space for making web pages or collections to share with others

A group area to set up spaces for sharing files and co-creating

Further detail and tutorials about using Languages@Warwick can be found: On our WarwickLanguage YouTube Channel In the Using Moodle to support Language Teaching course on Languages@Warwick On the Moodlerooms Knowledge base.