How we have increased Moodle use

So, our VLE is Moodle 1.9 and, on top of its use as our e-learning content provider, we use it as our platform to get information across to the students. Some of this information is critical while others are merely vocational.

To help ensure students gain access to Moodle and use it:

• Moodle is accessible from Home
• Moodle is the default home page for Internet Explorer
• Moodle is the only intranet/vle that we use across multiple different sites. 
• Moodle makes use of LDAP authentication so students have to remember only one password when using Moodle and the computers at college. 
• We use Single Sign on in the form of NTLM. This means that as soon as they open Internet Explorer they will be signed into Moodle. (As a side note Internet Explorer is our default browser and only browser in some cases)
• The students emails are done through Google Emails and there is a block on the front page of Moodle where they can see their unread messages. 
• We allow students to chat on Moodle. This is the only social media they have access to in the entire college. It is monitored by sampling from staff, scripts looking for inappropriate language and spamming and we have bullying notification systems. We can block individual students from chat and we can block entire course codes worth of students, usually for an entire year. 
• We have one central theme that is the same across all of Moodle. 
• We make use of the UCL ILP block/mod and we have heavily modified it to show:
• Attendance and Punctuality
• BKSB diagnostic testing
• Prior Learning and Target Grades
• Grade Tracking with Criteria Tracking and predicted grade calculations
• Timetabling
• Reports
• We track our Qualifications on Moodle so students can see when they have met their criteria, units and qualifications. 
• Library information, student services and other core services are all done through Moodle. 
• Internal Inspections of departments take into account Moodle use in awarding grades.
• Downloading of 3rd party blocks/mods. Such as:
• Lightbox gallery

On top of those above we are currently working with the teaching staff to aid them in getting the most out of their Moodle courses:

• Creating Paper and Video Moodle user guides that:
• Clearly describe the use and procedures in using the different parts of Moodle. 
• Explain best practices in the use of each part of Moodle. 
• Show/create exemplar uses of each part of Moodle. 
• Show/create exemplar courses.
• We encourage staff to research 3rd party blocks.

I hope to update this blog post as my team and I work on this area and I can detail each of the installations/mods we have gone through.