Moodle
Moodle, the School’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), provides a web-based platform for courses and programmes by bringing together a range of resources and tools in one place, available at any time and from any place via the Internet. Is it available to all LSE students and teaching staff.
There is considerable variation as to how Moodle is used, but most courses will contain course materials such as handouts, reading lists, weblinks and e-packs. Moodle can also be used for:
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discussion boards
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online quizzes
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multimedia content
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collecting work
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providing feedback.
Using Moodle offers advantages for both students and staff:
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Instant access anytime, from anywhere
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Students can view and print materials in formats that suit their needs (large print, different font)
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Resources are always available: an online reading is never “out on loan”
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Improved student learning experience through engaging and supporting students online
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A one-stop-shop for all course-related documents, communication and activities
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Provides information on student activity and performance.
Moodle is run and supported by the LSE Eden Centre team. They offer advice, support and training in how to use educational technologies, including Moodle, effectively. If you are interested in innovating your teaching with educational technologies please contact the Eden Centre.
Students experiencing difficulties using Moodle should contact the IT Service helpdesk and/or their department. There will also shortly be Moodle FAQs for students accessible from the LSE Eden Centre website.
Library resources on Moodle
To ensure students make the best use of the resources available to them, provide them with online readings. Using Reading Lists @ LSE you can easily link to full text e-journal articles, e-books and websites, as well as to the Library’s print holdings. For core readings, the Library can carry out copyright checks and then digitise the readings for you, helping to make book chapters or articles available to all your students while ensuring you arecompliant with the School’s Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) licence.
You should take care not to upload any content to Moodle where you do not own the copyright, unless you have permission. This includes images, text or other materials you might find online. The Eden Centre provides online copyright advice on its website.
You should also talk to your academic support librarian about the range of information skills sessions they can run for your students such as literature searching, managing information and citing and referencing. Do encourage your students to register for the Library Companion for Students, an online course available in Moodle, to help them maximise their use of Library resources.
Plagiarism prevention and text matching
LSE uses Turnitin text matching and plagiarism prevention service – an online service that enables comparison of students’ work with electronic sources including the Internet and other students’ work submitted to TurnitinUK.
Turnitin can be used to set up classes to check assignments. These can be set for students tocheck their own work against faulty referencing or without students having access to “originality reports”. Contact the LSE Eden Centre to be given an instructor account, for advice on how best to use the service with your students, and instructions on how to set it up. Visit the Eden Centre’s Turnitin FAQ for further details.
Instant voting
Also known as PRS (Personal Response System), instant voting can be used to enable “agile teaching” and enhance communication among students and between students and teacher. Teachers create questions which can be used either directly in a PowerPoint presentation or as a standalone programme to run alongside any other presentation tool.
They can be beneficial in both small classroom settings and large lecture halls. Students can answer using their own devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops. The LSE Eden Centre’s Live Polling webpage contains further information, including a guide and screencasts on how to get started.