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Seattle Academy: Difference between revisions

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Seattle Academy is an independent secondary school of approximately 560 students. The upper school has had a laptop program for all students since 1997 and has used Moodle since 2005. Here we document how we have configured and customized Moodle 1.9 to best serve students and faculty in this environment.
Seattle Academy is an independent secondary school of approximately 560 students. The upper school has had a laptop program for all students since 1997 and has used Moodle since 2005. Here we document how we have configured and customized Moodle 1.9 to best serve students and faculty in this environment.
  Note:  These are draft recommendations by Gary Anderson of Seattle Academy.
  Note:  These are draft recommendations by Gary Anderson of Seattle Academy.
  They will be reviewed for final approval by our technology people in consultation
  They will be reviewed for final consideration and implementation by our technology
with the other teaching faculty.
staff in consultation with the other teaching faculty.
==Server Configuration==
==Server Configuration==
===Default Settings===
===Default Settings===
  These settings apply to Moodle 1.9 beta2 which is still in development.
  These settings apply to Moodle 1.9 Beta4 which is still in development.
  In some cases, the default settings may change and so some of these
  In some cases, the default settings may change and so some of these
  customizations may not need to be changed and would be for reference only.
  customizations may not need to be changed and would be for reference only.
As we were early users of 1.9 on a school production server, a number of our
default suggestions have been applied to Moodle base code as as appropriate.
====Site Administration Block====
====Site Administration Block====
=====Grade category settings=====
=====Grade category settings=====
* Hide forced settings - off
* Hide forced settings - Yes
While this may be a useful setting for institutions that have uniformity in grading practices (as it could simplify the choices), our school, like most, give faculty considerable freedom in determining grading standards, hence we do not hide forced settings, using the default settings instead to ease course setup.
We like to keep the interface simple for teachers, so those settings that cannot be changed are not visible.
* Aggregation - Simple weighted mean of grades -- not advanced
* Aggregation - Simple weighted mean of grades -- not advanced
Moodle core developers have come up with a new method of calculating grades, and call it mean of grades and have set it for the 'out of the box' default.  It essentially converts each activity or graded item to a percentage before determining averages.  Hence a 100 point assignment is worth the same as a 10 point assignment.
This is not designated as advanced because teachers will want to set courses to "Weighted mean of grades" if they assign different weight to grading categories like "Daily Work" and "Exams".
Simple weighted mean of grades does the more common computation for schools of having the average be determined as point earned over points possible, hence it is the mean of points as opposed to the mean of percentages.  We rename these strings accordingly.
Simple weighted mean of grades is probably better called "Average of points".  It does the common computation of taking the number of points (or marks) earned divided by the number of points possible.  This should not be confused with what is called "Mean of grades" which is probably better called "Average of percents".  With this computation, grades are normalized to a percentage and then averaged.
* Aggregate only non-empty grades - yes -- not advanced
* Aggregate only non-empty grades - Yes -- Advanced
Again, Moodle core developers have set the rather unusual 'out of the box' setting of treating all ungraded items as zero, rather than just not factoring these items into the grade.  The means that most students will see a very low average until all items (including those not due yet are graded, typically at course completion.
If an activity is yet to be marked, it is not factored into the students grade.  If the activity shoudl earn no credit, the teacher would give the activity a zero.
The change of the setting to yes means that averages are only calculated on items that have been graded; teachers put in a score of zero when they want that computed into the grade.
This would be marked No in the less common case that the teacher wanted activities to be given a score of zero until they are marked.
  Note:  We are urging Moodle core reconsider the decisions prior to 1.9 going gold.
* Include outcomes in aggregation - No, Force,advanced
* Include outcomes in aggregation - no, advanced
Our school does not use outcomes, so we hide these settings under an advanced setting.  Since outcomes adds elements to the user interface for teachers and make the gradebook more complicated when used, we force it to hide the feature.
Our school does not use outcomes, so we hide these settings under an advanced setting
* Aggregate including subcategories - No, advanced
* Aggregate including subcategories - yes, advanced
Having this featured turned on causes Mean of grades not compute grades if grading categories are used (unless every activity is manually given a grade).
We typically don't anticipate the need for subcategories, but if a teacher uses them, they will probably divide things link homework into "first-half" and "second-half", so including these in the overall average seems appropriate.
* Keep the highest - none, advanced
* Keep the highest - none, advanced
* Drop lowest -none, advanced
This option is seldom used.
* Drop lowest - none, advanced
While this option is more common, we keep it as advanced to simplify the interface for most users.
=====Grade item settings=====
*Grade display type: Real
However, category summaries are normally percentages (including course summaries), so teacher must manually set these up when setting up their gradebooks.
Advanced grade item options:  We use the defaults excpet for "Grade display type" which is set to not be advanced because teachers must set these for category and course summaries.
 
=====Scales=====
=====Scales=====
* Remove: Separate and Connected Way of Knowing
* Remove: Separate and Connected Way of Knowing
This must be here for historical reasons in Moodle's development.  We don't know what it is and will not use it.
This must be here for historical reasons in Moodle's development.  We don't know what it is and will not use it.  This must be done before the scale is used in a course.
* Added:  Not Submitted, Submitted
* Added:  Not Submitted, Submitted
Seattle Academy faculty are expected to, at a minimum, let people know the status of a student's assignment submissions in Moodle.  With this setting, activities can be marked as satisfactorily submitted or not.  Potentially, submitted could be treated as 100% for that assignment and not submitted as 0%, so the percent of submitted assignments could be reported.
Seattle Academy faculty are expected to, at a minimum, let people know the status of a student's assignment submissions in Moodle.  With this setting, activities can be marked as satisfactorily submitted or not.  Potentially, submitted could be treated as 100% for that assignment and not submitted as 0%, so the percent of submitted assignments could be reported.
=====Grader report=====
=====Grader report=====
* Students per page - 100
* We use all the defaults except Column average display type is Percentage
Classes at Seattle Academy or normally under 20, but sometimes multiple sections brings the number higher; our largest is our Chemistry class with about 90 students.  This setting lets a teacher view all grades at once without scrolling, and does not have too serious of an impact on the server.
* Grades Selected for Column Average -- Non-empty grades
This is an important setting as otherwise averages for assignments only make sense when all grading is completed, otherwise assignments not yet graded or those coming due later count as zero.  Recommendation: This default for Moodle as it ships should be reconsidered.
* Show column averages:  Yes.  This is a common enough setting so the teacher can see how the class did on an assignment.
* Show number of grade in average: yes
Especially with the above settings, having a count of graded assignments is helpful.


===Custom patches to the code===
===Custom patches to the code===
To do:  Add this section.  Seattle Academy has several dozen customizations to the Moodle code for the high school environment, in many cases posting them to Moodle tracker for future versions..
===Selection of blocks and modules===
===Selection of blocks and modules===
===Custom blocks===
===Custom blocks===
To do:  Add this.  We have a half-dozen custom blocks for reporting status on assignments, attendance, and other progress indicators to ease the use of Moodle in a high school environment.

Revision as of 05:53, 22 January 2008

Seattle Academy

Seattle Academy is an independent secondary school of approximately 560 students. The upper school has had a laptop program for all students since 1997 and has used Moodle since 2005. Here we document how we have configured and customized Moodle 1.9 to best serve students and faculty in this environment. 

Note:  These are draft recommendations by Gary Anderson of Seattle Academy.
They will be reviewed for final consideration and implementation by our technology
staff in consultation with the other teaching faculty.

Server Configuration

Default Settings

These settings apply to Moodle 1.9 Beta4 which is still in development.
In some cases, the default settings may change and so some of these
customizations may not need to be changed and would be for reference only.
As we were early users of 1.9 on a school production server, a number of our
default suggestions have been applied to Moodle base code as as appropriate.

Site Administration Block

Grade category settings
  • Hide forced settings - Yes

We like to keep the interface simple for teachers, so those settings that cannot be changed are not visible.

  • Aggregation - Simple weighted mean of grades -- not advanced

This is not designated as advanced because teachers will want to set courses to "Weighted mean of grades" if they assign different weight to grading categories like "Daily Work" and "Exams". Simple weighted mean of grades is probably better called "Average of points". It does the common computation of taking the number of points (or marks) earned divided by the number of points possible. This should not be confused with what is called "Mean of grades" which is probably better called "Average of percents". With this computation, grades are normalized to a percentage and then averaged.

  • Aggregate only non-empty grades - Yes -- Advanced

If an activity is yet to be marked, it is not factored into the students grade. If the activity shoudl earn no credit, the teacher would give the activity a zero. This would be marked No in the less common case that the teacher wanted activities to be given a score of zero until they are marked.

  • Include outcomes in aggregation - No, Force,advanced

Our school does not use outcomes, so we hide these settings under an advanced setting. Since outcomes adds elements to the user interface for teachers and make the gradebook more complicated when used, we force it to hide the feature.

  • Aggregate including subcategories - No, advanced

Having this featured turned on causes Mean of grades not compute grades if grading categories are used (unless every activity is manually given a grade).

  • Keep the highest - none, advanced

This option is seldom used.

  • Drop lowest - none, advanced

While this option is more common, we keep it as advanced to simplify the interface for most users.

Grade item settings
  • Grade display type: Real

However, category summaries are normally percentages (including course summaries), so teacher must manually set these up when setting up their gradebooks. Advanced grade item options: We use the defaults excpet for "Grade display type" which is set to not be advanced because teachers must set these for category and course summaries.

Scales
  • Remove: Separate and Connected Way of Knowing

This must be here for historical reasons in Moodle's development. We don't know what it is and will not use it. This must be done before the scale is used in a course.

  • Added: Not Submitted, Submitted

Seattle Academy faculty are expected to, at a minimum, let people know the status of a student's assignment submissions in Moodle. With this setting, activities can be marked as satisfactorily submitted or not. Potentially, submitted could be treated as 100% for that assignment and not submitted as 0%, so the percent of submitted assignments could be reported.

Grader report
  • We use all the defaults except Column average display type is Percentage

Custom patches to the code

To do: Add this section. Seattle Academy has several dozen customizations to the Moodle code for the high school environment, in many cases posting them to Moodle tracker for future versions..

Selection of blocks and modules

Custom blocks

To do: Add this. We have a half-dozen custom blocks for reporting status on assignments, attendance, and other progress indicators to ease the use of Moodle in a high school environment.

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