Instructions for navigating the course site

The image below is the VHA Health Informatics Online Main Classroom Page.  After logging in, you will be able to access the courses you are registered for by using any of the links labeled “My Courses.”  This will take you to your Dashboard.

The Dashboard provides an overview of your Moodle classroom. Courses you have recently viewed as well as those you are currently enrolled in are displayed in the center (main) section of the page. On the right, you will see items like badges you have earned, the site calendar, upcoming events, and other users currently online. A dashboard example is shown below.

You may navigate to specific courses by selecting them from the dashboard. Other Navigation options are available via the “Menu” icon in the upper-left corner. Using the Menu is described further in the next section. Clicking on a course will take you to that course’s main page.

The VHA Health Informatics Online Classroom utilizes several different course layouts in its various courses.

Collapsible

Collapsible sections help minimize scrolling. In those courses, you can use the grey triangles to open and close all or individual sections within the course. Simply select the triangle to toggle it to open or close a section or sections.

Grid Format

The grid format utilizes a "grid" of icons -- one for each course module.  Click on an icon to display the associated content.

Section Links

Section Links allow you to quickly jump to a particular section.

Scroll and Click

To access a section or activity, scroll up or down as needed and click on the item you want to access.

The main course page will act as your main classroom while working through a course.  This is where you will find links to all the course materials.

Understanding the elements of the main page will enhance your experience with e-Learning.

Click the “Menu” icon in the upper-left corner.

The menu will appear on the left side of each Moodle page and you will see the Navigation block at the top. Go to the "My Courses" section and click the link containing the course name to return to its main course page.

NOTE: You can also use the menu to jump to specific assignments within a course.

• Click the arrow next to the course name to expand and view course contents
• If the assignment is in a module, click the arrow next to the module name
• Click on the assignment

NOTE: The Navigation block is handy for jumping quickly to a certain assignment or another screen in the course.

We DO NOT RECOMMEND using the block exclusively. Important materials may be contained on the main course page that are not linked in the navigation block.

The Menu/Navigation bar collapses once you have made your selection.

To get the most out of your virtual classroom experience, you should take some time to get to know your fellow classmates. In addition to introducing yourself and interacting with other students in the discussion forums, your profile is an opportunity to tell your classmates a little about yourself. 

Settings within your profile also give you an opportunity to manage how your e-mail relative to new posts in course discussion forums is handled.

At the top right of the screen, you should see your name (and your picture once you upload one). 
Select the drop down arrow to display a menu and click "Profile". 

Your user profile will be displayed, along with the courses you are enrolled in, login activity and any badges you have earned. 

Click "Edit profile." 

Within the profile, there are several sections you can address.

• General:  
  
• This section includes demographic information, and provides the option to tell us a little about yourself under the "Description" field.
• Note that although you can edit the Email address field, the system will require a va.gov e-mail account. If you prefer to use a personal account for course mail, please let the course staff know.

• User Picture: 
• Uploading a picture of yourself is especially important in the virtual environment, as it adds a personal touch and it is always helpful to be able to put a face with a name. Additional instructions for uploading files is provided within this book.
• Interests, Optional and Other Information:
• The more information that you choose to include in your profile, the better the other participants can get to know you which helps to make connections in a distance learning environment.

Be sure to select "Update profile" to save your changes before exiting the screen.

There are some important items that you will want to address within your user preferences.

These preferences determine how much mail you receive from the course, how discussion forums display, and several things that can make a considerable difference in your course experience.

One of the most significant of these is Forum preferences, which we will describe shortly.

Click “Preferences”

The “Preferences” screen appears. 
NOTE: This screen also offers the option to edit the user profile.

In the following pages, let’s look at setting some specific preferences.

NOTE:  Not all the options shown below will appear until you select the button on the top left (#1) to display all available formatting options.

Hover over the icons while logged in with the editor open to display the role of each “button” or icon.

The TinyMCE editor has a more extensive list of formatting options. Here is a partial list of some of the tools available:

1. Formatting options:  Select this button to display the full list of editor options.
2. Paragraph: This setting determines font weight and spacing. The default setting is paragraph/body text style. Select the down area to create headings of different sizes.
3. Text formatting: Bold, Italics
4. Lists: Create Bulleted or Numbered lists
5. Add link, Remove link, or prevent automatic linking
6. Add images and videos
7. Undo/Redo
8. Underline, Strikethrough, _subscript, ^superscript
9. Alignment: Left, Center, Right
10. Indenting: Increase or decrease indent
11. Text color, Highlight color
12. Text direction: Right justify and Left justify
13. Font family and size: controls the text style such as Arial, Times New Roman, etc. and the size of the text
14. Find and replace
15. Add tables
16. Pasting into Moodle tools
17. Full screen

Atto HTML editor:

Hover the mouse over each of the icons in the top bar to display the function.

NOTE:  Not all the options shown here will appear until you select the button to the top left to display all available formatting options.

Plain Text Editor:

The plain text editor is just that. It does not provide text formatting options. The editor opens a text box which you may type or Ctrl + V to paste into.

Forums are used to provide you opportunities to interact with your classmates.  As the name suggests, “Forum Preferences” allows you to set up how you interact with your forums.

Click “Forum preferences.”

When the “Forum Preferences” window appears, use the drop-down box adjacent the setting to adjust your preferences using the guidelines below the image. 

• Email digest type:  Determines how much mail you receive in Outlook from discussion forums.
  • No digest: The default option, "No digest," will cause Moodle to send you forum posts one at a time. So, shortly after someone posts to the forum in the course, you will receive a copy via email.
  • Complete digest: The "Complete digest" option sends you just one email each day. This single email contains all of the forum posts from all of the forums to which you've subscribed. These daily digests are a great way to see all of the forum activity for a day at a glance.
  • Subjects digest: The final option, "Subjects digest," is similar to the Complete digest option in that it also sends just one email per day. However, this email only contains the subject lines from the forum postings.
• Forum auto-subscribe: This setting determines what happens when you post to a forum.
  • Yes: when I post, subscribe to that forum: With this option, you will be automatically subscribed to any discussion forum in which you post and will start receiving forum posts via email.
  • No: don't automatically subscribe me to forums: This option will save your email from being inadvertently flooded with forum messages. You will still have the option to subscribe to forums on a case by case basis.
• Forum tracking: This setting allows for a highlighted number indicating the number of unread posts in a particular forum.
  • Yes: Highlight new posts for me: With this setting, the number of unread posts is displayed next to the name of each forum and highlighted
  • No: Don't keep track of posts I have seen: You would need to visit each forum to identify the new posts

Forum discussions are a key component for collaborative learning in Moodle.

When asked to post a new discussion, use the “Add a new discussion topic” or “Add a new topic” button to compose your post.

The window for entering and editing text will appear.

Type the text of the post in "Message" section's editor block.

NOTE: There are a number of formatting options available in the area above the editor block. They are described in the "Using the Forum Editor" section coming up next.

You can also attach files (Pictures, documents, slide decks, etc.) and subscribe to your forum. Those options are accessed by clicking on the "Advanced" link below the editor. They are discussed in the “Forum Advanced Options” section.

Don't forget!

You can attach files in a number of different types of activities and assignments, including Forums, Glossaries, and Databases.  

NOTE: You must click the "Advanced" link to upload attachments. 

There are two ways to add an attachment:

1. Use the File picker to browse for a file or files on your computer or network.
2. Drag and drop the files from a folder within your computer or network folder to the space identified by the highlighted “+.”

Using the File Picker

Click the blue folder icon in the upper left corner of the Attachment section.

The “File picker” window will appear

A.  Click the “Browse” button navigate to the file location and select it.
B.  In the “Save as” field, give the file a unique name (If desired).
C.  Click the “Upload this file” button.

After uploading the file, it will appear in the Attachment section.

Don't forget!
Be sure to click the “Post to forum” to save and display your post.

For some assignments, you will need to submit a file for grading. The upload process is basically the same as attaching a file, described earlier, but submitting the assignment for grading requires a few important extra steps.

Upload A File to an Assignment

A. Navigate to the appropriate assignment
B. Scroll down to find the "Add submission" button and click it

1. Use the "Add" button to open the "File picker" or drag a file, or files, to the space provided.
2.  Once the file is uploaded, it will appear in the File submissions section.  You can add additional files as needed.
3. Once your file upload is complete, select "Save changes."

Don't stop there!  You haven't submitted the assignment yet.

• You can submit the assignment now, or return to edit and upload additional files at a later time
• You can also enter comments that you and the faculty can see
• Note that once you submit the assignment, you won't have access to edit the files further. If you need to edit an assignment contact vhahi2certhelp@va.gov and request that the assignment be reverted to "Draft" status
• However, you can ask the faculty or course staff to reopen the assignment for you if needed

NOTE:  Some assignments require additional steps beyond saving changes in order to submit your assignment.

In that case, the Submission status reflects “Draft (not submitted).” You can still edit your submission at this point.

When editing is finished and your submission is final, select “Submit assignment.”

You may also be prompted to confirm your submission. Click "Continue."

Once your file is submitted, the “Submission Status” window will appear and should reflect “Submitted for grading.” Some assignments do not actually require grading. Credit is given once the assignment is submitted.

When you are looking at a course, blocks are items displayed in the left-hand column of course pages.

NOTE: When you look at your dashboard, some blocks will be in the right-hand column.

These blocks may change depending on where you are within the course and are often used to provide helpful tips and other information relevant to the specific activity or assignment. In addition to the Course Progress block previously mentioned, the next pages highlight a few of the blocks you can see.

Target Course Completion Date

This is a countdown timer indication the number of days and hours until the course is over.

NOTE:  You can request an extension if you need just a little more time to finalize your work.

Student Resources

This block displays a list of links to documents and tutorials aimed at letting you get the most out of your learning t experience.

Online Users

This block displays a list of the participants that are currently online working in the course. This can be helpful if you want to reach out to them.

Learn a New Term

This helpful block displays an informatics-related term along with a definition.  A new list of links to documents and tutorials aimed at letting you get the most out of your learning t experience.

The Calendar block serves a powerful visual reminder of upcoming events and due dates. When your instructor sets due dates for assignments and activities in the course, the dates will be highlighted and linked to the specific item in the course.

You can also use the calendar to add personal reminders. 

A full-size calendar will appear.

•  Complete required fields

•  Notice the options to repeat the event weekly

•  Click “Save.”  The new event will appear as a highlighted block in the calendar

Some courses do not have grades. For those that do, you should complete the graded assignments within each module by the module end date or as soon as possible thereafter.  

Instructors will typically post grades by the end of the following week.

If your course has segments that received grades, there are two ways to access them.

Click on the dropdown next to your name in the upper-right corner of the course window.

Select the drop-down arrow to display the “Grades” link.

Or, click the “Menu” icon in the upper-left corner.