The summer semester 2020 is just a few weeks old and yet it is already a very special one. Due to the corona pandemic, all courses will be held online this semester.
For lecturers and students at RWTH this is a special challenge, but especially the teaching and learning portal RWTHmoodle offers many great opportunities for communication with students and for teaching and learning content. There, lecturers can use virtual course rooms and thus exchange information with students and make learning materials available.
Here are some tips and tricks about RWTHmoodle for lecturers
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In this article you will learn more about the different functions of RWTHmoodle which are especially important at the start of the digital summer semester. Beside the descriptions of the different features you will find links to helpful pages of the IT Center Documentation Portal and further information.
Opencast for video upload
With the streaming server of RWTH it is easy to provide recorded lectures or other video material in the course rooms. These videos can then be viewed by the students in the course room. Video material of up to 10 GB can be uploaded. Follow the link.
Managing tasks and duties
If you do not want to organize student submissions by e-mail, you can use the activity “Task” in RWTHmoodle. In this way, tasks can be set, submitted and evaluated completely digitally. All this is displayed in the course room in a simple and clear way.
Notify and inform students
To keep students up to date with the latest developments, there are a few options in RWTHmoodle. We recommend the forum “Announcements“. It allows students to be notified about new announcements by e-mail. However, the announcements remain permanently visible in the course room via the forum.
Create student folder for submissions
The Student Folder activity is a great option for sharing content and materials between students. If lecturers include such a folder, students can also upload materials in the course room and share them with others.
Allocate consultation hours by appointment planner
With the activity of the “Appointment Planner”, the allocation of consultation hours is no longer a problem using the digital way. Booking online is very easy once the activity has been activated by the lecturer.
Restrict access and visibility
If requirements for the view of certain materials should be fulfilled in advance, this can be easily controlled via RWTHmoodle. Both the previous completion of a task, the membership in a group or a certain time: All this can be set to limit the access to files, follow the link here.
Designing tests
To create tests in course rooms in RWTHmoodle you need to activate the activity “Test“. It allows you to create and run tests for students and thus allows easy retrieval of knowledge despite spatial distance.
Designing interactive course room elements with H5P
H5P makes it easy to integrate interactive elements into the course room. These include dictations, cloze texts, pictures, memory games and the possibility to conduct a quiz. All this is activated with just a few clicks and provides a varied alternative to the other content.
If there are still questions that cannot be answered by the tutorials or if there is a general need for advice about RWTHmoodle, the CLS “Learning Platform Management” department now offers online consultation hours. These can be booked under the following link:
https://www.buchsys.de/cls-aachen/angebote/aktuellerzeitraum/RWTHmoodle-Sprechstundeonline.html
We hope you have gained a good insight into the most important functions of RWTHmoodle for lecturers and wish you a smooth implementation of your teaching concept in this very special semester.
Responsible for the content of this article are Susanne Kubiak and Liza Schwarz.
