Thursday, 28 March 2024, 4:35 PM
Site: learn@inasp
Course: General (General)
Glossary: Moodle tips

Time zone for deadlines

The default time zone on this site is West Africa Time (WAT).

Why the time zone matters

In your online course, there may be events that are time-based (such as live sessions) and activities that have deadlines (such as writing activities). For such events and activities, your Dashboard on this site and the time alerts on activity pages show times in WAT by default.

Changing the time zone

To see mentions of times in your local time zone, edit your profile and change the time zone in the Timezone field. We also suggest you add reminders in your calendar about upcoming events and deadlines. If you would like to compare WAT with your local time, use this link.

Why we use WAT

We use WAT as the default time zone because a large number of our course participants are based in West Africa.

[Anonymisation of survey responses]

We may combine or correlate the responses in the feedback survey with the responses in the pre-course survey to understand the influence of different factors on course participation. However, in doing any such analysis, we will be using anonymised numeric identifiers and not real names. Further, for reporting purposes we may use anonymised data or quotes from this survey. (You can also look at our privacy policy to learn how we use the data we collect.) While we ask you to complete this survey to meet the completion criteria for the course, your actual responses will not have any bearing on your course completion status.

Seeing the peer assessments you've received

If you've submitted your work as part of a peer assessment activity, visit the activity page after the assessment phase to read the assessments you've received. When you visit the activity page, you can view your assessments by clicking the link to your submission. This link appears before the links to the assessments you have given to others. Once you click the link to your submission, you will see a page with a list of all the assessments you have received. Make sure you read all your assessments closely, and make notes on how you can improve your work.

Check/edit your profile

To edit your profile, click your name or photo in the top right hand corner of this site, click "Profile" and then "Edit profile". We recommend that you add a photo of yourself in your profile and write something about yourself in the "description" field. This way you'll contribute to making the course a friendly learning environment :) When editing your profile, you can also change your personal details (including your password), set your time zone, etc.

Trouble opening documents in the assessment phase

If the submission is in DOC or DOCX format, please use Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer to open the document. LibreOffice is free and open source software, so it's a good choice if you don't have Word. If you are not able to open a submitted document with such software, or if you open the document and find it to be blank, please do the following: (1) complete a dummy assessment for this submission (eg, write 'could not open document' in each aspect of the assessment form), and (2) report the issue on the Technical Support / Technical Queries Forum.

Using the 'optional subscription' feature

To receive email copies of posts made on this forum, click on 'Subscribe to this forum' in the 'Forum administration' menu (the gear icon on the right side). You can unsubscribe at any time. Alternatively, you can subscribe to specific discussion topics within a forum.

How to reset your password

  1. Go to the login page: https://learn.inasp.info/login/index.php
  2. Click on the link titled 'Forgotten your username or password?'
  3. Under 'Search by email address', put in the email address you used when you created your user account, and click 'Search'. Alternatively, if you remember your username, put that under 'Search by username', and click the 'Search link' next to this box.

You will then receive an email with instructions to reset your password.

How to edit an entry you have added in a database

To see or edit your own entry in an activity that is set up as a database, you have to first search for your entry, for example, you can put your name in the search box and click search. You should then be able to see your entry. Then click the gear-shaped icon alongside your entry.

Checking your submission in a peer assessment activity

  1. Go to the activity page.

  2. Pay attention to the table at the top which explains the different phases of the activity.

  3. See if there's a green check mark next to the phrase "Submit your work" in the "Submission phase" section. If yes, you have successfully submitted your work. You can click the "Submit your work" link to see your submission, and you can edit it before the deadline if you'd like to. If you don't see a green check mark next to "Submit your work", you have not submitted your work.

  4. If you have uploaded a document as part of your submission, make sure that it is in a proper file format (eg, an MS Word file). It is always a good idea to download what you have submitted and then to open it to check (a) whether the file opens and (b) if it has the right contents.

Completing a peer assessment activity

The completion check mark for an activity that includes a peer assessment phase will appear once the activity is closed. It will NOT appear immediately after the submission and assessment phases.

  1. Submission phase: This is the phase in which you have to prepare and submit your work. Read the instructions on the activity page to find out what you should submit.

  2. Assessment phase: This is the phase in which you have to evaluate the submissions that have been allocated to you. When the activity moves to the assessment phase, the activity page will contain instructions on how you should carry out the assessments.

Once the above two phases are completed, the course facilitator will close the activity. You will see a completion check mark after the closure phase IF (1) you have submitted your work and (2) you have received at least one assessment. If you have submitted your work but you have not received any assessments, you will not see a completion check mark, but the course moderator will ensure that you get credit for this activity -- as long as you have assessed all the works allocated to you.

Remember: To receive completion credit for a peer assessment activity, you should take part in BOTH the submission and assessment phases.

How to check if you have assessed the submissions allocated to you

To check whether you have indeed completed the assessments, go to the activity page and scroll down to view the submissions assigned to you. If you see the phrase 'Already graded' under a submission, it means you have assessed that submission. You can click on the 'Re-assess' button in case you'd like to change anything in your assessment.

Completion check mark for a peer assessment activity

A peer assessment activity consists of three phases, explained below. The completion check mark for this activity will appear at the end of the third phase. It will NOT appear immediately after the submission and assessment phases.

  1. Submission phase: This is the phase in which you have to prepare and submit your work.

  2. Assessment phase: This is the phase in which you have to evaluate the submissions that have been allocated to you. You will be provided with a rubric or assessment form for evaluating each submission.

  3. Closure: Once the above two phases are completed, the course facilitator will close the activity. You will see a completion check mark after the closure phase IF (1) you have submitted your work and (2) you have received at least one assessment. If you have submitted your work but you've not received any assessments, you will not see a completion check mark, but you will still get credit for this activity as long as you have assessed all the works allocated to you.

Also see: Completion credit for a peer assessment activity

Checking or editing your own entry in a database activity

Once you have added an entry, you can check or edit it if you'd like to. To do this, you have to first search for your entry by putting your name in the search box in the database. You should then be able to see your entry. To edit your entry, click the icon that looks like this:

Who can take part in the assessment phase

Only those participants who have submitted their own work will get others' work for assessment. If you have not submitted anything, you will not be assigned any submissions to assess.

Printing/saving quiz reviews and peer assessments

You can print or save quiz reviews (ie, quiz questions and answers) and peer assessments you've received. For quiz reviews, visit the quiz page, click 'Review' next to any of the attempts you have made, and use the print or save feature in your browser. If you have a PDF writer installed (such as CutePDF), you can print the review as a PDF file. 

For peer assessments, visit the peer assessment activity page, view the assessments you've received, and use the browser print or save feature. Alternatively, you can manually copy and paste the assessments into a document. Also see: how to view the assessments you have received

Percentage completion figure in Moodle Mobile app

If you use the Moodle Mobile app on your mobile device to access a course, you may see a percentage completion figure under your course on the app homepage (after you've logged in). This figure may be inaccurate in some cases -- this is a shortcoming of the Moodle app and not something we at INASP can control. Please do not use this figure to determine your progress in the course. You may as well ignore it. What is important is to check the completion criteria for the course and any other information given in the course on how to track your progress.

Confidentiality statement: INASP Moodle

The information you provide in the background information survey and your activity metrics in the course will be held in confidentiality by INASP. If you are taking an online course as part of a sponsored group, we may share this information with the sponsoring organisation. Otherwise, only overall data, such as the number of course completers, are shared in the public domain.

Phases of a peer assessment activity

1. Submission phase: This is the phase in which you have to prepare and submit your work.

2. Assessment phase: The system will randomly allocate some of your course colleagues' submissions to you, and you have to evaluate these using an assessment form.

3. Closure: Once the above two phases are completed, the course moderator will close the activity. You can then view the assessments you have received from your course colleagues.

Related: Completion credit for a peer assessment activity

Forum etiquette - Don'ts

You should NOT:

  • Display any kind of bias towards course participants based on their gender, ethnicity, nationality, or anything else
  • Write in a harsh or insulting manner to anyone in the course
  • Share the contact information of other participants without permission
  • Discuss things unrelated to the topic of the course (unless you use a special social forum for informal/off-topic discussion);
  • Advertise anything without providing context. This includes posting calls for papers from journals, conferences and other events. You can however provide a link to anything online if it is relevant to an ongoing discussion in the course
  • Provide links to websites that may have illegal content, such as pirated software, scanned books, and copyrighted journal articles that are not meant to be shared openly. Uploading any such content directly on the forums is also forbidden.
  • Create an excessive number of separate threads on the same topic
If you are in doubt, check with your course moderator.

Forum etiquette - Dos

  • Check the forums regularly to see what others have posted
  • Make sure your posts are relevant
  • Post your contributions at appropriate times or within deadlines (if any)
  • Check what you have written before posting it, especially when expressing a disagreement