Guidelines for Instructors

Be sure to communicate any specific technology requirements for your course, in addition to the general Moodle ones. Here are the technical recommendations for using Moodle. Feel free to use these in your course introductory documents There are more detailed versions of these recommendations in the “Getting Started” section on the Moodle home page:

Browser:

• The latest version of the popular browsers Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Apple Safari (older browser versions may not provide full functionality in Moodle)
• Our version of Moodle does not support IE 11
• The Moodle app supports Mobile Safari and Google Chrome

Browser settings:

• javascript should be enabled for SCC’s Moodle site
• pop ups should not blocked for SCC’s Moodle site
• If you block javascript and/or pop ups in your browser, you will need to create exceptions for Moodle in your browser settings

Mobile:

Moodle has an official app for mobile phones. This app allows students and instructors to (among other things):

• Browse course content
• Get notifications about messages and course events
• Find and message others in your courses
• Upload images, audio and videos from your phone to the course
• View grades

However, at this time we do not recommend that students use a mobile device as their primary method of interacting with their online classes. When developing materials and activities for your course, we recommend testing them on the Mobile app to see if they are accessible. This will allow you to give students accurate instructions about what they can use the app for and what they can’t.

In addition to general technical requirements, you should also make your students aware of your other course-specific guidelines. These may include (among others):

• Information about your behavoral expectations for students in dealing with you and their peers (netiquette)
• Details about posting to discussion boards (how often; at what level; responding to other student posts)
• Expectations for how much time they should expect to give to completing course work/for how often they should access the class
• A summary of your schedule in the class; how and when they can contact you; how quickly you will respond

One suggestion to have students interact with your expectations at the beginning of the semester is to have a quiz or other assignment related to it. A low-stakes assessment can ensure that they have reviewed your expectations and that they have practice using the activity, such as the quiz activity, so that they will be ready to use it for higher-stakes assessments later in the semester!