Moodle for Faculty
What is Moodle?
Moodle is an open source course management system designed by educators for educators. It is being used worldwide and has a large and supportive development community.
How to request a Moodle site
If you are teaching a fully or partially online course, a Moodle site will be automatically generated for your course and will be available through your myCourses tab in MyKwantlen (Kwantlen's intranet). Online and partially online courses are generated approximately one month prior to the start of each semester.
If you want to use Moodle to support your classroom-based courses, you need to request a course site through Kwantlen's Online Self Service system (find the Faculty menu -- the same place you access your classlists etc.). To log in, use your nine digit employee ID number and PIN. Online Self Service is available directly at: https://bweb.kwantlen.ca or through myKwantlen. Once you request your course website, you should receive an email with a link to your site within 3 business days.
You may also request a Moodle site on our development area at any time throughout the year. This allows you to work on upcoming courses and then copy your content to the "live" site when you are ready to teach the course. Students cannot access the development area.
Faculty Responsibilities
Faculty members are responsible for backing up their course content at the end of each semester and for restoring the content to new courses using Moodle's backup and restore procedures. Instructions are posted on the Moodle Community. Faculty are added to this community when they request a Moodle course through the Self Service system. Contact the IET Service Desk if you have problems logging onto the Community or with the back up and restore procedures.
Student Access
Students access Moodle sites through the myCourses tab in myKwantlen or through the main Moodle website: http://elearning.kwantlen.ca/courses. Your students need to know that Moodle uses only the myKwantlen email address. If they prefer to use a personal email account, they can change their myKwantlen email settings to autoforward to another address.
Technical Support
Technical support for instructors and students is provided by the Information and Educational Technology (IET) Service Desk (604-599-2116). Regular support hours are from 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday. After hours, problems may be reported by voicemail or through IET's Self Service system.
Moodle Training
Moodle workshops are scheduled regularly each semester through the Centre for Academic Growth. Workshops are advertised by email through the online announcement service (Today@Kwantlen) and on the Centre's website. One-on-one support can also be arranged through the IET Service Desk. Moodle administration and training is provided by Kwantlen's Learning Technology team.
The Moodle Faculty Community is an online resource for instructors using Moodle at Kwantlen. When you request a Moodle course, you will be added to the community and to a mailing list used to communicate information about system maintenance and other Moodle news. Please contact the IET Service Desk if you don't have a Moodle site yet but are interested in joining the community.
For other questions about Moodle or technology tools for teaching, please contact Meg Goodine, Manager, Learning Technology at 604-599-2114 or by email at meg.goodine@kwantlen.ca
