One of the Moodle Mooters (those who attended a Moodle Moot training session) and good friend shared how he is making some accommodations in Moodle. Not only that, but he shared this with some Special Education teachers who were blown away.

He has created a vocabulary quiz using Drag and Drop text. The quiz has the vocabulary words listed with Drag and Drop text options available for the students. There are ten or more words. He showed this during a training. The teachers thought that this was useful. However, he did next, well……

Next he duplicated the quiz . Then he went into Editing the quiz. He renamed the quiz by appending “Beta” to the quiz name. He grouped the responses by pairs (so that the responses and vocabulary words are grouped by color – i.e. there are two blue vocabulary words and two definitions which are blue, two tan vocabulary words and two tan definitions, etc.). (By the way, the Special Education teacher that he will be working with announced that he should “pair” those answers prior to him showing them paired. Looks like a good start to working together).  He gave the students unlimited attempts. He added a restriction to limit which group would see this quiz.

All in all, it took a about one minute to accommodate the quiz. He now has two quizzes in his course. Students will only ever see the quiz that is appropriate for them. On one quiz, the students have one opportunity to take the quiz. They have ten definitions to match up to ten vocabulary words. They can drag one definition as many times as they want. In the second quiz, the students have some guidance to assist with which definitions go with which vocabulary words. Once they move a definition, it moves into that one spot, without being “left behind”. The second quiz can be taken as many times as necessary.

Again, the students will only ever see the quiz that is appropriate for them. (Yes, they will eventually figure out that there are two quizzes – kids talk, but they will only ever see the one that is appropriate for them).

Oh, and both quizzes will be automatically graded AND entered in his official school gradebook without him typing them in.

The Special Education teachers wanted to know how many teachers were using this magic. They want to be able to create accommodated versions of quizzes and assignments this easily.

If you’d like to know exactly how to do this, please let me know.

stokpic / Pixabay

Blended learning is becoming more and more popular. I’m a proponent of using Moodle for blended learning because it is open source, has a long history of development, and is extremely flexible.

One aspect of blended learning is real world assignments. Not everything can, or should be, digital. However, in a blended learning world, tracking those real world assignments should be cohesive with online material.

I’ve written about grading student speeches (a definite real world application) using Moodle and rubrics. That still works. Since I published that four years ago, a quick overview is in order. In Moodle, set up an assignment with nothing selected for Submissions. Select (or create) your rubric. As students give their speech, complete the rubric. Students receive truly timely feedback. The teacher is done with grading by the time the students are sitting in their seats (no more nights of translating notes, transferring grades, etc.)

However, I’d like to take this even further. I’d like to have the students acknowledge that they have received the feedback. Plus, I’d like them to be able to respond. Finally, I’d like to have a “pretty” printable version (sometimes we still need to print things).

The Assignment module hack almost accomplishes those things. The rubric works great. However, students can’t respond, nor can the acknowledge receipt of the feedback. (I’m really considering something like the way a student can acknowledge that they didn’t cheat when turning something in). Printing is UGLY.

Using the Assignment module really is a hack. See the perspective of Assignment is that the students are turning something in. What I’m proposing (requesting?, considering, dreaming of), is something that is from a teacher to student feedback perspective. The student is the really the genesis, the teacher is starting the process. This is more of a coaching perspective. The coach (teacher) gives feedback on the performance of the student. The student takes that feedback, makes some corrections and continues. Ideally, the teacher could provide updated feedback.

*This conversation was begun over in the Moodle Forums. If you are a member, or willing to create a free account, please head over there and add your thoughts.

The posting is duplicated below:

Grading “Real World” assignments

I’m looking for a way to grade real world assignments. Not just grade though, but have a documentable copy of that grading.

For one example, let’s say that the students are presenting on a certain topic. (I do see other uses, such as Project-based learning, creating models, cooking an example dish, building a cardboard boat, etc).

Current situation:

We use the Assignment Module. The student doesn’t have to submit anything. We have a rubric set up that the teacher then uses to grade and provide feedback. Some of the teachers will “forget” to mark the rubric “Released” to student. We then click on the rubric and select “Print”. The rubric and Feedback is printed and then signed by the student.

Ideal situation

The teacher pulls up a Rubric. The teacher has the list of students to pick from. The teacher uses the Rubric to grade appropriately. The teacher also provides feedback. A copy of the results are released to the student. The student acknowledges the receipt of the feedback. (This could be similar to the submission statement feature but at the end acknowledging receipt). There is a report or a print button to allow the teacher to print the rubric, the feedback and the student’s acknowledgement.