Moodle Frequently Asked Question

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Q

What do I do, if a student can't log in to Moodle?

A

Ask the student to follow the instructions in the Moodle Quick-Start Guide for Students. The two main reasons a student can't log in are:

The student is not yet officially registered for any classes at SJCC (and therefore doesn't have a Moodle account).
The student is using the wrong password. Currently, the default password for students is Changeme1.

Q

What do I do, if a student can log in but can't see my Moodle course?

A

If individual students don't see your course on their Moodle front page, it's likely that they aren't yet registered for the class. They can check MyWeb to verify that they are registered, or you can check your roster in MyWeb.

Students should have access to Moodle within two (2) hours after their registration is complete. If they do not, contact your instructional technologist, or the ITSS Help Desk (270-6411).

Q

What do I do, if none of my students can see my Moodle course?

A

If all of your students are unable to access your course, it's probably because you haven't yet made the course available to students. To do that:

From inside the course, click on Settings (in the Administration block on the left).
Scroll down to the section labeled Availability, and change the availability from ‘This course is not available to students’ to ‘This course is available to students.’
Click Save changes.

Q

When will students have access to my Moodle course?

A

There are two steps to student access to your course:

Students rosters are uploaded to Moodle one week before the beginning of each term. If students add the class after that, they will have access within two (2) hours after they appear on your MyWeb roster.
Students who have been added to your Moodle course will still not be able to access it, until you make it available to them. (See the instructions above.)

Q

Do Moodle passwords ever expire or change?

A

Student passwords are reset to the default password, just before the beginning of each term.The default password is Changeme1.

Instructor passwords are never changed and do not expire. If you want to change your password, you can do one of the following:

When logged in to Moodle, click on your name in the upper-right corner to go to your Profile. Then click on Change Password at the bottom of the page.
If you can't log in, click on the 'Help Me Login' button on the login page. Then enter your email address, to have your password reset and the new password sent to you.
Contact the Help Desk (270-6411).

Q

My Moodle front page is cluttered with lots of classes from previous semesters. How do I get rid of them?

A

Moodle courses are retained on the server for one year after the class ends. To prevent Moodle from displaying your courses from previous semesters, you can unenroll yourself from each course you do not want listed.To do that:

Go to your Profile. (Click on your name in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.)
You will see all of your courses listed. Under Courses, click on the title of a course you want to remove from your Moodle front page.
The title of that course will appear in black text, and a new button will appear at the bottom of the screen, with the label "Unenrol me from <course name>." Click on the Remove button.
You will see the prompt, "Are you sure you want to unenrol yourself from this course?" Click Yes.
You will see your Moodle front page, without that course listed.

You will need to repeat that process for each course you want to remove.

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Q

I replaced a file that I had uploaded to Moodle with a newer version, but Moodle is still displaying the old version. What can I do?

A

This is probably because your web browser is displaying an older verion of your file, even though the file has been replaced on the server. Some browsers 'cache' or save files as you view them, which makes it faster to display the same document if you view it again. However, it means that when you are editing files (as is the case here), your browser displays the old version of the document. Anyone in your Moodle course who has not viewed the older version of the file will see the new version, so it will not typically cause problems for your students. Here are some options for solving this problem:

Be sure to refresh your screen after you've made changes to files or file names. (Type Control-R, or click the Refresh button, or select Refresh/Reload from the View menu.) This is a first step, but it may need to be combined with other approaches.
Save the new version with a different name, and then link to that new file name instead of the old one. Or you could rename the old file and upload the new version, without changing the link. (Be sure to Refresh.)
You can delete the "temporary internet files" in your browser. There are various ways to do this, depending on your browser and the version. For many versions of Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Internet Options.

Q

When I save my Microsoft Word files as web pages and upload them to Moodle, they have lots of funny characters in them. Why does that happen?

A

The strange characters appear because the character-encoding used for your Word file is different from the character-encoding used by Moodle. The Moodle server uses UTF-8, Unicode a standard that is recognized by all current web browsers and that supports multiple languages. Your Word file probably has some other type of character-encoding. You will need to change your document character encoding to Unicode (UTF-8).

For instructions on changing the character encoding, see these resources:

Preparing Microsoft Word Files for Moodle
Converting Microsoft Word Files to Web Pages

Q

When I copy text from Microsoft Word and paste it into the Moodle HTML Editor, strange formatting code and/or funny characters appear.

A

There are two main causes for problems with copying and pasting from Word to Moodle:

Character-encoding differences — See the question above for information about character encoding.
Word document formatting codes — When you copy text in Word, the Microsoft formatting codes that are normally hidden are also copied. When you then paste that text into the Moodle HTML editor, the formatting characters that are specific to Word may be visible. The Moodle HTML editor provides a special tool to remove Microsoft Word formatting.The "Clean Word" button on the HTML editor toolbar (It has a W on it.) removes some of the Word formatting from your pasted text. This will help in most cases. In addition, it will make the page smaller and less complex, so that it loads faster. If it doesn't solve the problem, you can save your Word file in plain text (.txt) and then copy and paste to Moodle. See: Preparing Microsoft Word Files for Moodle.

Q

I'm trying to delete files from my course Files area, but Moodle won't permit it. Why is that?

A

When you attempt to delete a file in your course Files area, you may see this message: "Warning: Delete operation is blocked by existing resource. Either update your resources first or ask administrator to disable this safety mechanism in global Resource configuration." In plain English, this means that one or more of the files you are trying to delete is linked to your course homepage. You have to delete the link, before you can delete the file. This is to prevent broken links on course pages.