Creating a Lesson

The lesson module presents a series of HTML pages to the student, who is usually asked to make some sort of choice underneath the content area. The choice will send them to a specific page in the Lesson. In a Lesson page's simplest form, the student can select a continue button at the bottom of the page, which will send them to the next page in the Lesson. There are 2 basic Lesson page types that the student will see: question pages and content pages (formerly called "Branch Tables"). There are also several advanced navigational pages which can meet more specialized needs of the Teacher. The Lesson module was designed to be adaptive and to use a student's choices to create a self directed lesson.

The significant difference between a Lesson and other activity modules available in Moodle comes from its adaptive ability. With this tool, each choice the students make, can show a different teacher response/comment and send the student to a different page in the lesson. Thus with planning, the Lesson module can customize the presentation of content and questions to each student, with no further action required by the teacher.

The choice determines the way the lesson appears to the student. The lesson can be a series of pages presented in a linear fashion, like a slide show, or presented in a non-linear, branching manner, or a combination of the two. The teacher can use the Lesson settings to create a different student experience for each lesson. There are also special navigation pages that the teacher may use to change the way parts of the lesson are viewed by students. The lesson can be scored with the use of questions for a grade, or used simply as a resource of non-graded pages or a combination of both. For example, a particular question's answer might send the student back in the lesson for a review of content pages, while another answer will advance the student to a new page. Sometimes the student will only be given the choice to "continue", or may see a series of labeled buttons below the content that will take them to different pages. There are two basic modes: presentation and flash card. Most of the descriptions of a lesson in this document are about the presentation mode and the use of questions and content pages. The Flash Card section describes how to make lesson pages appear randomly. The Lesson activity uses the standard Moodle HTML editor tool to make any page's content interesting. This tool can assist the teacher with pictures, links, fonts, tables and other graphics to engage the student's attention. Lesson settings also can keep students from straying from the overall teacher's plan with various settings including password protection, time limits and dependency on a previous lesson's activity. Navigation pages are only seen by the teacher but will affect the order of the pages the student views. For example, a cluster is a series of pages bracketed by a navigational page called a "start cluster" and an "end of cluster" page. Navigation pages are an advanced feature and are best added after the teacher has laid out their lesson with the pages that will be seen by the student. The following exercise will cover the Lesson settings in detail and lead you through the steps to create a branch table and questions for each branch of the table.

Adding a Lesson Activity 1. Log into your course 2. Click the button

3. Click the Add an activity drop-down arrow and select Lesson

General

Steps 4 6

4. Enter Bront Lesson in the Name field 5. Time limit (minutes) Do not check Enable This puts a time limit on the lesson. Students are shown a JavaScript counter and the time is recorded in the database. Due to the inconsistent nature of JavaScript, the timer does not evict a student from the lesson when the time is up, however a question answered after the time limit is not counted. The time in the database is checked each time a student submits a question. 6. Maximum number of answers/branches Leave at 4 Grade Options
Steps 7 12

7. Practice lesson Set at No The practice will not show up in the gradebook (see image on page 2) 8. Custom scoring Set at Yes This will allow you to put a numerical point value on each answer. Answers may have negative values or positive values. Imported questions will automatically be assigned 1 point for correct answers and 0 for incorrect, though you may change this after the import. 9. Maximum grade Set at 100 This value determines the maximum grade which can be awarded in the lesson. The range is 0 to 100%. This value can be changed at any time during the lesson. Any change has an immediate effect in the Grades page and on the grades shown to the students in various lists. If the grade is set to 0 the Lesson does not appear in any of the Grades pages. 10. Student can re-take Set at No - This setting determines whether the students can take the lesson more than once or only once. The teacher may decide that the lesson contains material which the students ought to know thoroughly. In this case repeated viewing of the lesson should be allowed. If the material is used more like an exam, then the students should not be allowed to re-take the lesson. 11. Handling of re-takes No setting required When students are allowed to re-take the lesson, this option allows the teacher to show the grade for the lesson in the Grades page as either the mean (average) of the grades over the first and subsequent tries or as the grade from the students' best tries. This option can be changed at any time. 12. Display ongoing score Set at No With this turned on, each page will display the student's current points earned out of the total possible thus far. Example: a student has answered four 5 point questions and answered one incorrectly. The ongoing score would print that s/he has currently earned 15/20 points. Flow Control

Steps 13 19

13. Allow student review Set to No This will allow students to navigate back through the lesson to change their answers. 3

14. Display review button Set at No This will display a button after an incorrectly answered question, allowing a student to re-attempt it. It is not compatible with essay questions, so leave this off if you are using essay questions. 15. Maximum number of attempts Set at 1 - This value determines the maximum number of attempts a Student has in answering any of the questions in the lesson. In the case of questions which do not provide the answer, for example Short Answer and Numerical questions, this value provides a necessary escape routine to the next page in the lesson. The default value is 5. Smaller values may discourage the student from thinking about the questions. Larger values may lead to more frustration. If set to 1, this value gives the students just one chance to answer each question. This gives a similar type of assignment to the Quiz module except that the questions are presented on individual pages. Note this value is global parameter and that it applies to all the questions in the lesson regardless of their type. Note this parameter does not apply to teachers checking of questions or navigating through the lesson. Checking the number of attempts relies on values stored in the database and question attempts by teachers are not recorded. The teacher should after all know the answers! 16. Action after correct answer Set at Normal follow lesson path The usual action is to follow the jump as specified in the answer. In most cases this will probably show the Next Page of the lesson. The student is taken through the lesson in a logical way, beginning at the start and ending at the end. However, the lesson module can also be used as a type of Flash Card assignment. The student is shown some information (optional) and a question in basically a random order. There is no set beginning and no set end - just a set of Cards shown one after another in no particular order. This option allows two very similar variants of Flash Card behavior. The option Show an unseen page never shows the same page twice (even if the student did not answer the question associated with the Card/Page correctly). The other non-default option Show an unanswered page allows the student to see pages that may have appeared before but only if they answered the associated question wrongly. In either of these Flash Card-type lessons the teacher can decide to use either all the Cards/Pages in the lesson or just a (random) sub-set. This is done through the Number of Pages (Cards) to show parameter. 17. Display default feedback Set at No If set to Yes, then when a response is not found for a particular question, the default response of That's the correct answer and That's the wrong answer will be used. If set to No, then when a response is not found for a particular question, then no feedback is displayed. The user taking the Lesson will automatically be directed to the next Lesson page.

18. Minimum number of questions Set at 3 When a lesson contains one or more Branch Tables the teacher should normally set this parameter. Its value sets a lower limit on the number of questions seen when a grade is calculated. It does not force students to answer that many questions in the lesson For example, setting this parameter to 20 will ensure that grades are given as though the students have seen at least 20 questions. Take the case of a student who only looks at a single branch in a lesson with, say, 5 pages and answers all the associated questions correctly. They then choose to end the lesson (assuming there is that option in the "top level" Branch Table). If this parameter were left unset their grade would be 5 out of 5, that is 100%. However, with it set to 20 their grade would be reduced to 5 out of 20, that is 25%. In the case of another student who goes through all the branches and sees, say, 25 pages and answers all but two of the questions correctly, then their grade would be 23 out of 25, that is 92%. If this parameter is used, then the opening page of the lesson should say something like: In this lesson you are expected to attempt at least 3 questions. You can attempt more if you wish. However, if you attempt less than n questions your grade will be calculated as though you attempted 3 questions. When this parameter is set students are told how many questions they have attempted and how many they are expected to attempt. 19. Number of pages (cards) to show Set at 0 - This parameter is only used in Flash Card type lessons. The default value is zero which means that all the Pages/Cards are shown in a lesson. Setting this parameter to a non-zero value shows that number of pages. After that number of Page/Cards have been shown the end of lesson is reached and the student is shown their grade. If this parameter is set to a number greater than the number of pages in the lesson then the end of the lesson is reached when all the pages have been shown. Lesson Formatting

Steps 20 26

20. Slide show Set at No - This enables the display of the lesson as a slide show, with a fixed width, height, and custom background color. A CSS based scroll bar will be displayed if the width or height of the slide is exceeded by the content of a page. Questions will 'break out' of the slide show mode, only pages (branch tables) will be shown in a slide by default. Buttons labeled with the language default for "Next" and "Back" will be shown at the far right and left of the slide if that option is chosen on the page. Other buttons will be centered below the slide. 21. Slide show width No setting required If the Slide show option were set to Yes, you could enter a number for how many pixels wide the slides would be. 22. Slide Show height No setting required If the Slide show option were set to Yes, you could enter a number for how many pixels high the slides would be. 23. Slide show background colour No setting required Type in a 6-digit hex code for the color of the slides. Click here for hex codes.

24. Display left of menu Set at No - This will show a list of the pages (Branch Tables) in the lesson. Also, by specifying a grade greater than 0, the user taking the Lesson must have a grade equal to or greater than the grade set in order to view the Left Menu. This allows Lesson designers to force users to go through the entire lesson during the user's first attempt. Then, if a user retakes the Lesson after meeting the required grade, s/he can see the Left Menu to help with review. 25. Display left menu only if grade greater than No setting required

26. Progress Bar Set at No The progress bar display a progress bar at the bottom of the Lesson. Currently, the progress bar is most accurate with a linear Lesson. While calculating the percent completed, Branch Tables and Question pages that are answered correctly count toward Lesson progress. While calculating the total number of pages in the Lesson, clusters and pages within clusters only count as a single page and End of Cluster and End of Branch Table pages are excluded. All other pages count toward the total number of pages in the Lesson.

Access Control
Steps 27 30

27. Password protected lesson Set at No - This will not allow a student to access the lesson unless they type the password. 28. Password No entry required 29. Available from No settings required 30. Deadline No settings required Dependent on
Step 31

31. Dependent on Set at None This setting allows this current lesson to be dependent upon a students performance in another lesson that is in the same course. If the performance requirement(s) is not met, then the student will not be able to access this lesson. Conditions for the dependency include: Time spent (minutes) the student must spend this amount of required time in the required lesson Completed the student must complete the required lesson Grade better than (%) the student must earn a grade in the required lesson that is better than the grade specified here

Any combination of the above can be used if needed. 7

Pop-up to File or Web Page

Step 32

32. Pop-up to file or web page No setting required - This will create a pop-up window at the beginning of a lesson to a file (example: an mp3 file) or a web page. Also, a link will be printed out on every lesson page that re-opens the pop-up if necessary. Optionally a Close Window button be printed at the bottom of the pop-up and the height and width of the window can be set as well. Supported embedded file types:

MP3 Media Player Quicktime Realmedia HTML Plain Text GIF JPEG PNG

All other file types will default to a link for download. Other options for the Pop-up window:

Show close button to show or hide the close button on the pop-up window Window height to set the height of the pop-up window in pixels Width to set the width of the pop-up window in pixels

Other
Steps 33 35

33. Link to an activity Set to None The drop-down menu contains all of the activities for this course. If one is selected, then a link to that activity will appear at the end of the Lesson. 8

34. Number of high scores displayed No setting required With this setting you would type a number to limit how many of the top scores are displayed. 35. Use this lessons settings as defaults Set to No If Yes is selected here before saving the lesson, then the settings you have chosen for this lesson will be the default settings for the next lesson created for this course. Common Module Settings

Steps 36 42

36. Click the

button the view all/advanced Common Module Settings

37. Grouping Set to None A grouping is a collection of groups within a course. If a grouping is selected, then users assigned to groups within the grouping will be able to work together. Group mode must be set to separate or visible groups. 38. Available for group members only Do not check If the "Available for group members only" checkbox is checked, then the activity (or resource) will only be available to users assigned to groups within the selected grouping, or to any group if no grouping is selected. 39. Visible Set to Show To show or hide the lesson from student view 40. ID number No entry required - Setting an ID number provides a way of identifying the activity for grade calculation purposes. If the activity is not included in any grade calculation then the ID number field can be left blank. The ID number can also be set on the edit grade calculation page in the gradebook, though it can only be edited on the update activity page. 41. Grade category Set to Uncategorized If grade categories have been created, you can choose a category for gradebook calculations 42. Click the button 9

Adding a Branch Table 43. Click the Add a Branch Table link in the next window

44. In the next window, enter the Page title and Page contents

45. Scroll down and enter the Page descriptions: 10

Description 1: Emily Bront Lesson Description 2: Anne Bront Lesson Description 3: Charlotte Bront Lesson button at the

46. Click the bottom of the page

47. Youll be presented with an Expanded view of the Branch Table

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48. Click the Collapsed tab to view a collapsed version of the Branch Table

49. Click the Preview tab to view a preview of the page with links to the lessons

At this point the Branch Table is not yet linked to anything. Next, well create the Question Pages, and then link the Question pages to the appropriate lesson. 50. Click the Edit tab to return to the editing page Adding Question Pages 51. Click the Collapsed tab 52. Under the Actions column, click the Add a page drop-down arrow and select Question This question page will contain bio information for Emily Bront. No answers will be entered into the page, resulting in an informational page with a Continue button at the bottom of the page. This Continue button will lead to the questions which well be adding later on.

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53. In the next window, enter the Page title and Page contents the lesson information for Emily, in this case, copied from www.wikipedia.com

54. Click

the button button on the

55. To link this page to the Emily Bront Lesson link in the Branch Table, click the Bront Sisters Lesson Branch Table

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56. Click the Jump 1 drop-down arrow and select Emily Bront Short Bio

57. Click the of the page

button at the bottom

58. The Emily Bront Lesson link is now connected to the Emily Bront Short Bio page. When a student clicks the link, the bio will be displayed with a Continue button at the bottom of the page.

The Editing page (collapsed view) displaying the Jump

59. Click the Expanded tab to view the expanded version of your Lesson (optional) 60. Click the Collapsed tab and then click the Add a page drop-down in the Emily Bront Short Bio row. Well be adding the first question that the students must answer in the Emily Bront Lesson. 61. Select Question Note: Question Pages can be added in both expanded and collapsed view. For simplicity, well be adding the questions pages in collapsed view. Only one question is allowed per page. 14

62. Select the Multiple Choice tab (it may be already selected as its the first question choice) 63. Enter the information below into the corresponding fields: Page title Emily Bront Question 1 Page Contents Emily Bront was born on what date? Answer 1 July 30, 1818 Response 1 Correct Jump 1 Next page, Score 1 100 Answer 2 August 15, 1820 Response 2 Incorrect Jump 2 Next page, Score 2 0 Answer 3 June 11, 1817 Response 3 Incorrect Jump 3 Next page, Score 3 0 Answer 4 October 10, 1818 Response 4 Incorrect Jump 4 Next page, Score 4 0 button

64. Click the

65. In the image below, notice that the Emily Bront Question 1 appears directly beneath the Emily Bront Short Bio. Because of this flow or sequence the Continue button at the end of the Emily Bront Short Bio page will lead directly to Emily Bront Question 1 in the Emily Bront Lesson. No matter which answer the student selects in Question 1, he/she will be lead to the next page which is the Question 2 page that were adding in the next step of this exercise.

66. To add another question click the Add a page drop down arrow in the Emily Bront Question 1 row and select Question 67. Select the Short Answer tab as well be adding a short answer question 15

68. Enter the information below in the corresponding fields: Page title Emily Bront Question 2 Page Contents Emily Bronts most notable novel is: Answer 1 Wuthering Heights Response 1 Correct Jump 1 Next page, Score 1 100 button at the bottom of the page

69. Click the

70. In Collapsed view, the Emily Bront Question 2 appears directly beneath Emily Bront Question 1

71. To add the 3rd question to the Emily Bront Lesson, click the Add a page drop-down arrow in the Emily Bront Question 2 row and select Question 72. Click the True/False tab as were adding a true or false type question 73. Enter the information below in the corresponding fields: Page title Emily Bront Question 3 Page Contents Emily Bront had no brothers. Answer 1 False Response 1 Correct Jump 1 End of Lesson, Score 1 0 Answer 2 True Response 2 Incorrect Jump 2 End of Lesson, Score 2 100 button at the bottom of the page

74. Click the

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75. In the Collapsed view, Emily Bront Question 3 should be directly beneath Emily Bront Question 2. The Jump for both a true or false answer leads to the End of the Lesson for Emily Bront.

76. To add the lesson page for the Anne Bront Lesson, click the Add a page drop-down arrow in the Bront Sisters Lesson row (see image above) 77. Enter the Page title and Page contents for Anne Bront, again copied from www.wikipedia.com 78. Click the bottom of the page button at the

79. In the Collapsed view, the Anne Short Bio page appears directly beneath the Bront Sisters Lesson row

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80. To link the Anne Bront Short Bio to the Anne Bront Lesson in the Branch Table, click the Bront Sisters Lesson link (the link in the first row of the preview) 81. Click the button

82. Under Description 2, click the Jump 2 drop-down arrow and select Anne Bront Short Bio 83. Click the button at the bottom of the page

84. In the Collapsed view, the jump from the Anne Bront Lesson to the Anne Bront Short Bio page has now been linked.

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85. To add a question to the Anne Bront Short Bio, click the Add a page drop-down arrow in the Anne Bront Short Bio row and select Question 86. Click the Multiple Choice tab (if not already selected) 87. Enter the information below into the corresponding fields Page title Anne Bront Question 1 Page Contents Anne Bront was born on what date? Answer 1 January 17, 1820 Response 1 Correct Jump 1 Next page, Score 1 100 Answer 2 August 15, 1820 Response 2 Incorrect Jump 2 Next page, Score 2 0 Answer 3 June 11, 1817 Response 3 Incorrect Jump 3 Next page, Score 3 0 Answer 4 October 10, 1818 Response 4 Incorrect Jump 4 Next page, Score 4 0 button at the bottom of the page

88. Click the

89. In the Collapsed view, Anne Bront Question 1 should appear directly below the Anne Bront Short Bio row

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90. To enter Anne Bront Question 2 directly after Anne Bront Question 1, click the Add a page drop-down arrow in the Anne Bront Question 1 row and then select Question 91. Click the Numerical tab as were entering a numerical type question Page title Anne Bront Question 2 Page Contents Anne dies in what year? Answer 1 1850 Response 1 Incorrect Jump 1 Next page, Score 1 0 Answer 2 1860 Response 2 Incorrect Jump 2 Next page, Score 2 0 Answer 3 1849 Response 3 Correct Jump 3 Next page, Score 3 100 Answer 4 1855 Response 4 Incorrect Jump 4 Next page, Score 4 0

92. In the Collapsed view, Anne Bront Question 2 should appear directly beneath Anne Bront Question 1

93. To add Anne Bront Question 3, click the Add a page drop-down arrow in the Ann Bront Question 2 row and select Question 94. Click the Matching tab as were adding a matching type question 20

95. Enter the information below into the corresponding fields: Page title Anne Bront Question 3 Page Contents What year were the following books first published? Agnes Grey The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Correct response Correct Wrong response Incorrect Answer Agnes Grey Matches with answer 1 1847 Correct answer jump End of Lesson, Correct answer score 100 Answer 2 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Matches with answer 2 1848 Wrong answer jump End of Lesson, Wrong answer score 0 button at the bottom of the page

96. Click the

97. In the Collapsed view, Anne Bront Question 3 appears directly beneath Anne Bront Question 2.

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98. To add the Charlotte Bront Short Bio page click the Add a page drop-down arrow in the Bront Sisters Lesson row and select Question 99. Enter the Page title and Page contents for the bio copied from www.wikipedia.com 100. Click the bottom of the page button at the

101. The Charlotte Bront Bio page appears below the Bront Sisters Lesson page

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102. To link the Charlotte Bront Short Bio to the Charlotte Bront Lesson link, click the Bront Sisters Lesson link in the Branch Table (the first link in the table pictured above) 103. Click the button in the Branch Table

104. Under Description 3, click the Jump 3 drop-down arrow and select Charlotte Bront Short Bio

105. Click the button at the bottom of the page All of the Table Branches now have links

106. To add question 1 directly after the Charlotte Bront Short Bio, click Add a page drop-down arrow in the Charlotte Bront Short Bio row and select Question 107. Click the Multiple Choice tab (if not already selected) 23

108. Enter the information below into the corresponding fields: Page title Charlotte Bront Question 1 Page Contents Charlotte Bront was born on what date? Answer 1 April 21, 1816 Response 1 Correct Jump 1 Next page, Score 1 100 Answer 2 August 15, 1820 Response 2 Incorrect Jump 2 Next page, Score 2 0 Answer 3 June 11, 1817 Response 3 Incorrect Jump 3 Next page, Score 3 0 Answer 4 October 10, 1818 Response 4 Incorrect Jump 4 Next page, Score 4 0 button at the bottom of the page

109. Click the

110. Click the Add a page drop-down arrow in the Charlotte Bront Question 1 row and select Question to add question 2 111. Click the Essay tab as the question will be an essay type question 112. Enter the information below in the corresponding fields: Page title Charlotte Bront Question 2 Page contents Charlotte, Emily, and Anne published a joint collection of poetry under the assumed names. In what year was the collection published and what was Charlotte's assumed name? Jump Next page, Score 100 button at the bottom of the page

113. Click the

114. Click the Add a page drop-down arrow in the Charlotte Bront Question 2 row and select Question to add question 3 115. Click the Multiple Choice tab (if not already selected) 24

116. Enter the information below into the corresponding fields: Page title Charlotte Bront Question 3 Page Contents In what year did Charlotte Bront die? Answer 1 1850 Response 1 Incorrect Jump 1 Next page, Score 1 0 Answer 2 1852 Response 2 Incorrect Jump 2 Next page, Score 2 0 Answer 3 1853 Response 3 Incorrect Jump 3 Next page, Score 3 0 Answer 4 1855 Response 4 Correct Jump 4 Next page, Score 4 100 button at the bottom of the page for the final preview in Collapsed view

117. Click the

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118. Click the Preview tab to preview and test your links 119. To grade essay questions, click the Grade Essays tab

120. Click the Emily Bront Lesson link to preview the finished Lesson Preview of the first Emily Bront question

~End~

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