Problems with Moodle (5.11.2015)

UH Moodle was out of use at the 5th of November because of unexpected fault situation! We worked our best to solve the problem quickly but unfortunately Moodle was unusable the whole evening.

We are sorry for the inconvenience!

For more information, please contact ok-moodle@helsinki.fi

Edit: service break ended at 21:30 and Moodle is now back in use.

YouTube videos are now auto-embedded in Moodle

We made a small but largely desired change to YouTube video settings in Moodle at the beginning of September. We now have the auto-embed working when creating hyperlinks to YouTube videos. This means that teachers no longer need to copy the embed code from YouTube to Moodle but they can create a hyperlink to a video and it is automatically embedded. Students can then watch YouTube videos from Moodle.

Anywhere that Moodle’s text editor is available, it is possible to auto-embed a YouTube video, for example in a label or a page, a course topic summary or a quiz description. In other words, if you create a hyperlink to a YouTube video , Moodle will now automatically embed the YouTube video instead of just linking to the video.

If you just want a simple link, instead of an automatically embedded video, you can make one of the following things:

Add the link by using Add a resource or activity > URL. This will not embed the video. Or you can turn off automatic multimedia embedding for your course. This can be set under Administration block > Course administration > Filters > Multimedia plugins > Off. This setting will affect content in the entire course. If you don’t want to affect the entire course, you can turn the multimedia filter off for a single page by editing the page, clicking on Page module administration > Filters , and setting Multimedia plugins to Off. More detailed instructions about multimedia filters in Moodle.

Automatic embedding only works with YouTube videos. If you are using other video services (Vimeo etc.), you still need to copy the embed code to Moodle. If you are using UH’s UniTube, see more detailed instructions about UniTube.

Please contact us at ok-moodle (AT) helsinki.fi if you have someting to ask about video embedding in Moodle!

New version of Moodle (2.8) now in use

Moodle is now updated to a new version. To improve the capability and reliability of Moodle, also the servers were renewed.

The new version brings about few changes:

* New improved appearance based on the new visual style of the University of Helsinki. According to the style guide, no faculty colours will be used.
* Usability improvements especially in a new user menu and in the grade book tool and the quiz tool in teachers view.
* In a discussion forum, users can now subscribe to individual forum discussions (threads) instead of the whole discussion.

See the list of all new features. Existing courses, tools and functions remain mainly the same.

If you have any questions about the new version, please contact ok-moodle (ÄT) helsinki.fi.

 

 

Moodle-MOOC is coming (autumn 2015)

If you are a teacher and want to learn to use Moodle efficiently in your teaching – take part in a Moodle-MOOC that is coming this autumn.

An international Moodle MOOC (massive open online course) is about to start at the 9th of the August 2015. The course is aimed for all teachers that are beginners with using Moodle in their own teaching. “Teaching with Moodle” MOOC is free of charge and open for everybody. We strongly recommend this MOOC for all UH teachers!

More information and registration:
https://learn.moodle.net/

“The MOOC is designed to provide a good foundation and context to Moodle, the MOOC covers the basics of Moodle learning management system, including how to set up and effectively use Moodle in teaching.” Duration of the course is four weeks (allow 3 to 4 hours a week).

The MOOC is organized by Moodle HQ.

The new features of Moodle 2.8

University of Helsinki is updating Moodle to a new version in June 2015. Moodle servers are also replaced simultaneously, which means that we are going to have a longer service break than usually. Please take into account that Moodle cannot be used for studying or teaching during June 17th and June 18th 2015!

Screen Shot 2015-03-11 at 13.42.56

Moodle 2.8 has some new features and many improvements. See the list of all new features.

Key improvements are also demonstrated in this video:

If you have anything to ask or comment, please contact Moodle support at  ok-moodle (AT) helsinki.fi.