MMS Steering GroupMMS and Moodle Functionality and Use (2012/3)

1 Introduction

The University of St Andrews uses MMS and Moodle for administering modules and compliment-ing teaching. In JISC terminology MMS is a managed learning environment (MLE) and Moodle is avirtual learning environment (VLE). Both tools were designed with different philosophies in mindbut have some limited functionality overlap.

As a platform for social constructivist learning Moodle provides a number of student facinglearning & teaching tools and some assessment tools.

Figure 1: Main data flows in and out of MMS and Moodle

MMS endeavours to reduce ad-ministrative overhead on academicstaff and to create high quality, stan-dardised practices by providing ad-ministrative and assessment tools.

The main data flows betweenMMS, Moodle and connected sys-tems are illustrated in Figure 1. MMS,as a core administrative tool, is tiedinto other institution wide systemsso module lists, student lists anduser details come from SITs andIDM. Some of this information is dis-tributed to Moodle.

2 Background

2.1 MMS

MMS is an ’in-house’ development that grew from Tutors and Groups Support (TAGS), a researchproject within the school of Computer Science in 1998. TAGS was a web-based application forstudents to use as part of their modules, that provided simple coursework submission, tutorialattendance tools, a Q&A tool and several innovative learning resources. A review of TAGS in2001 highlighted that staff mainly valued the administration tools. In response to this, significantalterations were made (including re-writing in Java) and MMS was launched in 2002 with the ad-dition of the Exam Marking and Final Grade Reporting tools. In 2008 MMS expanded across theinstitution as it was recognised that it significantly assisted in the flow of data between students,markers, academic staff and Registry. Since then requests from Registry, Student Services, TLACand the Deans have lead to expansion, including disability information, academic alert processing,and postgraduate student management. In response to requests from TLAC a number of the pre-viously removed learning & teaching resources were updated and re-implemented, including theForum, Quiz and Content tools. The transition between WebCT and Moodle in 2010 lead to linksbetween Moodle and MMS, allowing courses in Moodle to be linked with modules in MMS.

1

2.2 Moodle

Moodle is an Open Source VLE system and was implemented in the summer of 2010 to replacethe existing commercial VLE system, WebCT which had been in use since 2001. The version cur-rently used was being phased out by its developers for a brand new VLE, based on the Blackboardsystem. In terms of compatibility with existing university systems, Moodle is currently a greatimprovement on its predecessor.

Moodle retrieves student and staff data from MMS and login is through single sign-on. Moodlecomprises of categories that contain courses, which in turn contain groups, activities and resources.Categories are similar to Schools in MMS however categories can also represent Departments.Courses are usually representative of modules1 however courses that are not linked to modulescan be also be created. e.g. a combined module course which pulls in staff and student lists fromother Moodle courses and are easy to set-up. Moodle courses display activities and resources in aclear, linear fashion and allows significant customisation when it comes to the look and feel of thecourses. Each activity and resource can made visible manually, or set to electronic release depend-ing on dates or marks. Access can also be controlled at the group level.

3 Use

The specialised tiered permission system in MMS mirrors closely the academic structure of theuniversity allowing full administration by schools with very few administrative tasks needed to bedone centrally. The three main tiers are: School, Module and Tool, with the recent addition of theFaculty tier. Modules exists within schools and tools can be added to modules. There are resourcesthat exist at the school and module levels that are standard for all schools and modules.

The standard resources attached to a school and a module include, but are not limited to:

• Display of disability information,• Display of self-certificate information to staff• Links to the student records system to assist staff to make decisions on absence or extensions• Academic Alerts (which replaced the old ’Permission to Proceed’) 5 - 10 are created and

viewed through MMS• Most student ’lifetime’ administration actions such as classification and progression (usually

at the school level).• Within the last couple of years the Research Modules, a unique module type designed to

track PGR students, have been implemented allowing schools to view registry held data onsupervision groups.

• The PGR annual progress reviews and examining committee nominations are also handledexclusively through these modules MMS.

These standard resources and the tools are often broken down into 3 groups based on type ofuse: Administration, Assessment and Teaching & Learning. These distinctions are necessary asusers who have different roles will use the systems for very different purposes, and it becomesnecessary to think in different tool sets for different users. How resources, tools and activities arebroken down between MMS and Moodle is represented in Figure 2. The core tools in MMS arethe Content tool, Coursework tool, Exam tool and Grade Aggregator tool and the ’additional’ toolsrepresent all other tools and the standard resources.

Appendix A describes the main tools in MMS (some tools each as LAVA the archaeology gameare only used once a year by a few modules so are not included). Staff can create as many instancesof a tool as they require. The data in some tools can be chained together, for example some assess-ment tools are used for marks storage and mark calculation and then assessment tools can be usedto calculate the final module grades. Final module grades are then signed of by the Head of Schooland submitted to registry via MMS. Deferred and resit marks and grades are also handled by MMSwith submission letters being generated for deferred students.

1Courses can be linked to their corresponding modules by creating the courses through a single button click in MMS

2

(a) Admin

(b) Assessment

(c) Teaching & learning

Figure 2: Resources available in MMS and Moodle

3

(a) The number of tools activated in MMS in 2011/2and 2012/3

(b) The number of resources activated in Moodle in2011/2 and 2012/3

Figure 3: Caparisons between tool activation in 2011/2 and 2012/3 academic years

Although MMS and Moodle have slightly different setups they can be roughly compared.Where MMS has schools, modules and tools; Moodle has categories, courses and activities. Onedifference between the two is that almost all resources in Moodle are handled by individual activ-ities within a course, the only course wide resource is the ’Grade book’ which can pull data out ofindividual activities. Appendix B lists the activities that can be added to a course.

4 Comparisons

4.1 General Comparisons

During the 2012/3 academic year 2120 modules were activated in MMS and 769 courses wereactivated in Moodle. Nearly 8% of the Moodle courses activated did not directly correspond to ataught module, these extra courses are usually meta-courses (a course that makes use of the meta-link enrolment method to copy the student and staff lists from another course).

4.2 Tools

In general the most popular tools MMS are the Assessment tools, with all tools seeing an increase inactivation since the previous academic year (see Figure 3a). As the majority of tools in Moodle areused for Learning and Teaching, all the most popular tools in Moodle are of this type. between the2011/2 and 2012/3 academic year this has been an increase in non-interactive activities such as theFolder, Label, and File activities but a drop in the interactive tools such as Quizzes and Feedback(see Figure 3b)

4.3 Content

During the academic year 2012/3 content related resources (File tool, URL and Folder tool) madeup 82% of the resources in Moodle and within MMS 63% of modules contained a content tool. Thisequated to 20252 files being uploaded to Moodle and 6347 URL’s added and within MMS therewere 74334 files uploaded, 10955 folders and 6160 URL’s added.

4.4 Access

Figure 4 displays the number of logins into MMS and Moodle per day for the 2012/3 academic year.With the exception of the 10th of July 2013, MMS had more logins per day that Moodle, which

4

Figure 4: Number of Logins per day over the 2012/3 academic year for MMS and Moodle

is to be expected as a MMS module exists for all modules. In general the logins for both MMSand Moodle exhibit much the same pattern across the week, with a peak in logins on the Sunday,which decreases until the Wednesday. There is a secondary peak in logins on the Thursday beforecontinuing to drop to the weekly minimum on the Saturday. Clear dips in logins are seen in bothsystems during the inter-semester break, spring break and summer break.

In terms of differences in access between the systems, MMS has a peak in use in Week 1 of bothsemesters, disproportionate to the peak in Moodle, this is due to tutorial signup. MMS also displayspeaks after the exam periods due to staff logging in to input exam marks, grade submission andclassification. The access logs also indicate that MMS sees an increase in loggins as Semester 1progresses with Moodle seeing a gradual decline. Weekly access stays fairly constant in MMSthrough Semester 2 as Moodle displays the same access decline as the previous semester.

5

A Appendix A: Tools in MMS

Tool Description Type Usage

Content Tool

Stores uploaded files and links. Folders can becreated within the tool so that the content struc-ture is a standard icon directory view. Files andlinks can be dragged into folders and, in compli-ant browsers files, be dragged from the desktopinto the tool. Visibility can be adjusted manuallyor by timed release. Store for CLA material

Learning /Teaching

1341 tools74334 files

(58%accessed),

10955 folders& 6160 URLs

Coursework Tool

Allows electronic submission of coursework bystudents or by staff for students. Any file type ac-cepted included zip files. Tracking of deleted workand lateness. Store marks and feedback for assign-ments (even those submitted by paper hand in).Linked with Turntin and displays Turnitin score.Can handle extensions, excused work, differentmarking scales and double marking

Admin &Assessment

5876Assignments

created

Dissertation TitlesFor dissertation modules the dissertation titles areentered into MMS for upload into SITs Admin 30 tools

EmailMMS has tools to email students at both the mod-ule and group level

Exam ToolThe Exam tool in MMS stores marks and calculatesexam grades.

Admin &Assessment 1712 tools

Grade Aggregator

Calculates module grades based on marks in theother tools. Once final grades have been calcu-lated, the module results are submitted either elec-tronically via MMS to registry or via letter as gen-erated by MMS (usually for deferred students)

Admin &Assessment 2406 tools

Attendance Tracking

The attendance tool allows staff to record atten-dance at both the module and group level. Stu-dents can be marked as ’attending’, ’absence (ap-proved)’ or ’absence (unapproved)’

Admin 949 tools

Moodle linkA auto-updating link that will always point to thecorresponding Moodle course. Administration 708 tools

Notebook Tool

A simple forum where staff and students can cre-ate threads and post messages. Configure optionscan prevent students from creating new threads orposting new messages if required. Threads andmessages can also be restricted to groups

Learning /Teaching 86 tools

Quiz ToolMMS has a Quiz tool that can be used for creatingsimple, single answer, multiple choice questions.

Assessment& Learning /

Teaching19 tools

Student Signup

The ’Group signup tool’ can be assigned to a grouptype and allows students to sign up to groupswithin that type. Staff can put a time limit onsignup and can limit group sizes

Admin 684 tools

Table 1: Tools in MMS for 2012/13

6

B Appendix B: Activities in Moodle

Tool Description Type Usage

Quizzes

Moodle has a very powerful quiz tool with a widevariety of question types. Questions can includeimages and links. The tool can be set to providea range of feedback, both at the question and quizlevel. Questions can also be stored in the QuestionBank for use in any quiz.

Assessment &Learning /Teaching

868 Quizes

Assignment

The assignment tools allows electronic upload.Assignments can also be set to use Turnitin, inwhich Moodle will upload the student submissiondirectly to Turnitin and then display a link to thereport. The match setting in Turnitin can also beconfigured along with student access to original-ity reports.

Assessment 142assignments

CertificatesMoodle can award certificates based on activitiescompleted and/or marks attained based on pre-defined templates

Learning /Teaching 0

FilesThe File resource in Moodle allows staff to uploadfiles to Moodle so that students can view them on-line or download them to their computer

Learning /Teaching 20252 files

Links

Staff can enter links which are displayed on thecourse overview. This method is used to allowstudents do download CLA material straight fromMMS.

Learning /Teaching 6347 links

Content Package

Moodle is able to display and run interoperableIMS content packages. These packages are usuallyinteractive and go beyond the standard file andlink type of content.

Learning /Teaching 3

PageAllows staff members to create simple HTMLpages that can be opened in Moodle

Learning /Teaching 523 pages

ChatStaff can add multiple Chat activities to a coursewhich acts as an asynchronous messaging system

Learning /Teaching 13 activities

Forums

The Forum activity is very powerful and allowsboth staff and students to create threads and posts.Files, images and links can be included. Posts canalso be marked

Assessment &Learning /Teaching

1286 (769being ’News

Forum)

Choice

The Choice activity allows online polls within aMoodle course. Staff enter the choices that the stu-dents can choose from. The number of studentsthat can make a choice can be limited if required.This is most often used to allow students to selectgroups

Learning /Teaching 141 activities

Database

Allows students to enter and store information inthe course. Staff can create a simple student fac-ing interface to limit the data students can enter ifrequired

Learning /Teaching 1 activity

FeedbackThe Feedback tool in Moodle can create surveysfor students in the course to complete. These canbe set to anonymous entry if required.

Learning /Teaching 244 activities

GlossaryThe Glossary activity allows staff and students tobuild up an online glossary of the terms found inthe course.

Learning /Teaching 4 activities

WikiThe wiki tool allows students to create simple,linked pages.

Learning /Teaching 21 activities

Table 2: Tools in Moodle for 2012/3

7