PolyLearn Support

Information Technology Services

Getting Started

1. Select Turn editing on.
2. Click on the Add an activity pull-down list.
   
   
3. Choose the Lesson tool.
4. Under the General section, type the Name (required) of the assignment into the text box.
5. Choose the Time limit, Available Dates, Due date, Maximum number of answers for the questions, and a password for the lesson if preferred.
6. Choose the Grade and the Grade category.
   
   Options
• Under the Grade options section, select if this is an ungraded Practice lesson, Custom scoring of questions, Re-takes, and whether to Display ongoing score to students
• Under the Flow control section, there are a number of options to customize how the student progresses through the Lesson:
  • Allow student to review the Lesson before starting it.
  • Allow student to try a question again if answered incorrectly.
  • Maximum number of attempts for a question.
    
  Note: Once this has been reached, the student is automatically moved on to the next page of the Lesson.
  • After a correct answeron a question, set which page the student is sent to.
  • Display a default feedback message after a question is answered.
    
  Note: This will display if a custom message is not set for a question.
  • Progress bar allows students to see what percentage of the Lesson they have completed.
  • Display the left menu during the Lesson, only if the student's grade is greater than a defined percentage on a previous attempt.
    
  Note: This forces the student to fully progress through the Lesson the way it is set up, and prevents the student from jumping to pages in a prohibited order.
  • Minimum number of questions that appear in the Lesson.
    
  Note: This number is used for grading--regardless if the student attempts equal, less, or more questions, their score will be calculated based on this set number.
  • Number of pages to show in the Lesson.
    
  Note: This only applies to lessons in which random pages are shown after a correct answer on a question. This number can be set so that the student does not have to go through all of the pages of the Lesson, and that going through this number of pages would suffice. Setting this number to zero will make the student go through all the pages in the Lesson.
  • Slideshow displays the Lesson with a fixed width and height.
  • Link to an activity once the Lesson is completed.
• Under the Pop-up to file or web page section, select if a file is to pop-up whenever students enter the lesson.
  
Note: This file can be anything, including an image, document, or video.
• Under the Dependent on section, choose if students must meet certain criteria for another assignment before they are allowed to enter the Lesson:
  • Time spent (minutes) on the other separate assignment
  • If the other assignment was completed.
  • If the student's grade on the previous assignment is high enough.
• Under the Common module section, choose to make the Lesson visible to students (can be changed later), and a custom ID number of the assignment for easy reference when grading.
• Restrict access allows the instructor to set a condition on the assignment until other assignment(s) are completed:
  • Allow access from and Allow access until determine when students can access the activity via a link on the course page.
    Note: The difference between access from/to dates and availability settings for the activity is that outside the set dates the latter allows students to view the activity description, whereas access from/to dates prevent access completely.
  • Grade condition determines any grade conditions which must be met in order to access the activity.
    Note: Multiple grade conditions may be set if desired. If so, the activity will only allow access when ALL grade conditions are met.
  • Show activity greyed-out, with restriction information / Hide activity entirely determines how the activity displays before conditions have been met.
    
7. Choose either Save and return to course or Save and display.

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Adding a content page

A content page consists of information that is to be conveyed to the student. This can include any combination of text, images, or video. Content pages can be interconnected with one another, as well as with question pages to serve as miniature quizzes of what its corresponding page covered.

1. Click Add a content page to create the first page of the Lesson.
   
   
2. Under the Add a content page section, type the Page title (required) into the text box.
3. Insert any desired content into the Page contents.
4. Type the Description (required) into the text box of the Content 1 section.
   Note: This creates a clickable button at the bottom of the page that allows the student to "jump" to the next content or question page.

Note: Only fill out the Description text box of the Content 1 section for a linear, one-way path through the Lesson; fill out multiple Content sections to create a multiple branching paths through the lesson, based on the student's answers.
5. From the Jump pull-down list, select where the corresponding Content option will take the student in the Lesson.
   Note: This jump can be to the previous page, the next page, or any other content or question page already in the lesson.

Note: Setting jumps to the correct pages is essential for allowing students to navigate the Lesson appropriately. Verify that the jumps direct to where needed by clicking on the Preview tab on the main Lesson page and going through the Lesson like a student would.
6. Click Save page.

Note: More content pages can be added to the Lesson by clicking on the Edit tab at the top of the page and selecting Add a content page.

 

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Adding a question page

A question page is a page that is inserted into a lesson following a content page. It is a graded aspect of the lesson that is intended to test the student's understanding of the material.

1. Click on the Lesson activity.
2. Click on the Edit tab, and then click on Add a new page... wherever in the lesson the question page is desired and select Question.
   
   Note: For an alternative way to add pages to the Lesson, click on Expanded (located under the four tabs). This provides links below each content page, as well as at the very top of the Lesson layout for easy placement of Lesson pages.


3. From the pull-down list, Select a question type for the questions in the question page. Click Add a question page.
4. Type the Page title (required) and Page contents (required) into their respective text boxes.
5. Type answers into the Answer boxes.
   Note: Depending on the question type, multiple answers (i.e. right and wrong) may be required, or none may be necessary at all, such essay answers that must be manually graded by the instructor. Keep a lookout for how many answers are required to be input to proceed.
6. Insert an optional Response for each answer that will display if the it is chosen.
7. Define where the student will Jump to in the lesson if the answer is chosen,
8. Set the Score for each answer.
9. Click Add a question page.

Additional Features

Clusters

A cluster is useful for organizing a set of questions in the Lesson. Within a cluster, questions can be randomized for students. Clusters consist of both "Start of cluster" and "End of cluster" pages, so a cluster is its own entity within the Lesson.

1. Click on the Lesson activity. Click on the Edit tab.
2. Click on the Add a new page... pull-down list, and select Add a cluster.
3. Click on the editing icon directly above the pull-down list.
4. Enter the cluster Page title, Page contents, and the next page to Jump to. Click Save page.
Note: Selecting Unseen page within a cluster as the jump makes the questions random within the cluster.

5. Click again on the Add a new page... pull-down list, and select Question (see Add a question page).

Note: Other question pages can be moved into the cluster by clicking on the move icon and choosing where to move the page.
6. Click once more on the Add a new page... pull-down list, and select Add an end of cluster.
Note: Not signifying the end of cluster forces Moodle to assume that the end of the cluster is the same as the end of the Lesson.

Reports

1. Click on the Lesson activity.
2. Click on the Reports tab. There are two ways to view grades: Overview and Detailed statistics.
   • Overview shows each student's number of attempts on the activity (including when each was taken and how long each attempt took), and the highest score on the activity. The instructor can delete any attempt from here. Below this shows averages for all attempts, as well as high/low scores and durations.
   • Detailed statistics shows every question page, and a percentage breakdown of which answers were chosen. It does not show individual student scores (see Overview).

   
   

Import questions

1. Click on the Lesson activity.
2. Click on the Edit tab. Then click on Expanded (located below the Edit tab).
3. Click on Import questions.
4. Choose the File format and Choose a file to upload.

Note: If the contents of the file aren't questions, the file will not upload successfully.