Information Technology

Moodle

What is Moodle?

Moodle is our on-line course management software system. It is used by professors to make course materials available online to students, as well as provide an means for online testing, and even hold online discussions with members of the course. It should be noted that not all professors use Moodle, but the number is increasing.
Back to top

How do I access Moodle?

You can access Moodle by opening a web browser and going to https://moodle.wittenberg.edu, and then log in with your campus username and password.

Back to top

What settings do I need to for my Browser to work with Moodle?

In general you need to allow your web browser to accept cookies and allow pop-ups from "moodle.wittenberg.edu". Here are some instructions for common web browsers:

Microsoft Edge

  1. Click the Tool menu and then Settings
  2. Click the Advanced button
  3. Turn off the "Block pop-ups" option
  4. Under the Cookies heading set the option to "Block only third party cookies"
  5. Close Edge an re-open it

Internet Explorer

  1. Click Tools, then Internet Options
  2. Click the Privacy tab
  3. Click the Settings button next to Turn on Pop-up Blocker
  4. Click the Sites button
  5. Add "moodle.wittenberg.edu" and click Allow, then click OK
  6. Add "moodle.wittenberg.edu" to the list of Allowed Sites and click Close
  7. Click Ok to close the Internet Options window

Firefox

  1. Click Tools, then Options
  2. Click the Content option
  3. Click the Exceptions button, next to Block pop-up windows
  4. Type in "moodle.wittenberg.edu" and click Allow, then Save Changes
  5. Click the Privacy option
  6. Click the Exceptions button, next to Accept cookies from sites
  7. Type in "moodle.wittenberg.edu" and click Allow, then Save Changes

Safari

  1. Choose Preferences from the Safari menu and click Security
  2. Click "Only from sites you navigate to" to prevent storing cookies that come from websites other than those you open. Select this option to prevent advertisers on websites you visit from storing cookies on your computer.
  3. Remove the check from the Block Popup Window option

Back to top

I do not see my course listed as one of the courses available in Moodle?

Not all professors use Moodle, and by default courses are hidden. So if you do not see your course listed in Moodle, contact the professor to see if they are using Moodle for that course. If they are using, ask that they change the course from hidden to visible so students can see it (below are instructions for a professor on how to make their course visible).

Another possibility is that you are not properly signed in to the particular course. In this case you will need to talk to the Registrars Office to have them confirm that you are indeed signed into the particular course. It might take a business day from the time you sign into the course before the change takes place in Moodle to show you the course.

Back to top

Faculty: How do I make my course visible to students?

Back to top

By default courses or set to hidden from students. This is to allow professors to work on the course without students seeing the work in progress, as well as to not confuse students with courses that are not being used. To make your course visible to students follow these steps:

  1. Log into Moodle
  2. Select your course
  3. Under "Course Administration" select Edit Settings
  4. Change the Visible option to Show
  5. Click the "Save and display" button

Back to top

Faculty: How do I email/contact the students in my course?

One of the benefits of using Moodle to contact the students in your course, is that the communication is kept in the course. This way if a student loses the email or signs up for the course late, all of the communications are still in the Moodle course for review.

All course membership information including any teaching assistants added, co-instructors, etc. are maintained directly in the Moodle course. That means that Moodle has the most immediate information from the Registrar office along with any change the professor chose to make in a course. Since Moodle has the most correct information, Moodle will be the mechanism used to send class group messages and e-mails. This does NOT require that you use the Moodle course in general; there is no problem with using a Moodle course to send messages to students even with the course disabled (students cannot see it). There are two methods available to send e-mail to the course members; either one maintains a record for the professor in the Moodle course.

Send an announcement e-mail to course participants:

  1. Log into Moodle
  2. Click the course name
  3. On the right, click Add a new topic under the latest news block. Posting a latest news topic is only available to a course instructor. Posting a news item sends an e-mail to each of the students in the class at the same time.

Send an e-mail to all or to a subset of course participants:

  1. Log into Moodle
  2. Click the course name
  3. Click Participants (on the right)
  4. If there are multiple pages, you can choose to Show All using the button at the bottom of the page
  5. Choose sending a message to all members by clicking the Select All button at the bottom of the page, or select from the check boxes to the right of each name to send a message to a subset of the members
  6. With the members selected, pull down the With selected users menu at the bottom of the page and click Add/send message

Back to top

Faculty: How do I add a student to my course?

The primary means of adding someone to a course is usually students being registered for the course. So the first step is to make sure the student is properly registered for the course with the Registrars Office. Only students registered through the Registrars Office will get credit for the course. It should take about an hour after the Registrars Office completes the registration of the student, before they show up in the Moodle course.

It is important to note that students cannot be manually added or removed from Moodle courses without going through the Registrars Office, as it can lead to problems with accuracy of the student's academic records.

Back to top

Faculty: How do I add a helping Instructor or Teaching Assistant?

If someone is Co-Teaching a course, you will need to contact the Registrars Office and have them added as a Co-Teacher.

If you want to add someone to help with the Moolde course, whether it is an Instructor or Teaching Assistant follow these steps:

  1. Log into myMoodle
  2. Click the course name
  3. Go to the Settings block, Course Administration, Users, click Enrolled Users
  4. Click the Enrol button at the top right
    • If you missed the role for someone, there is a plus sign to the right of their name in the list of course members where you can add a role.
  5. A window will pop up; the next part occurs in that window:
  6. Use the Search at the bottom of the window to find the person; type a last name and hit Enter works fine
  7. Choose the ROLE at the top of the window
  8. Click the Enrol button next to the person's name
  9. Repeat until you've added everyone you wanted
  10. At the bottom of the window click Finish enrolling users

To remove them simply follow these steps:

  1. Log into myMoodle
  2. Click the course name
  3. Go to the Settings block, Course Administration, Users, click Enrolled Users
  4. Click Delete for the person to unenroll

Back to top

Faculty: Adding an outside (non-Wittenberg) person to a Moodle Course

Send the first name, last name, and email address of the person to add to solution@wittenberg.edu. Once a staff member has added the user to Moodle, you'll be able to enroll the person in the course using the "Adding another instructor or a teaching assistant" directions above.

Back to top

This document last reviewed March 30th, 2020.

Back to top