School Support role

What can you do?

This role is similar to the Editing Teacher role given to teaching staff but extends across a whole  category, which is typically a School but may be a sub-category  (such as a department or subdivisions such as a particular programme, Level 1, Undergraduate etc.).   You should be guided by the person in your School with Category Manager role if there is one.

Essentially you have editing access to all modules stored within your category and any subcategories.  You can:

• create assignments and activities
• upload files
• amend some of the module settings on behalf of teaching staff
• backup modules for safe-keeping
• import/copy materials from one module to another, e.g., from the 12-13 module to the new 13-14 module

Important things to be aware of concerning your access rights

There are a few things to be aware of, as this role comes with permission to amend, edit and create.

1.       Training

You must have participated in a Key Moodle Basics course before starting to work in Moodle as School Support. If you haven’t done this yet, you can sign up here.

2.       Student (and staff) privacy and copyright

 Discretion is required when able to see materials and postings relating to intellectual property owned by the University as well as assignments and private comments from students. Those with School Support role are expected to be aware of and sensitive to staff and student privacy and copyright issues.

Policy on Release of personal information

The regulations, policies and procedures around teaching and learning at the University of Nottingham can be found in the Quality Manual. 

It is also important to be aware of what you can do when using materials for study, research and teaching. Please view the guidance on copyright. 

3.       Deleting resources

You will be able to edit and delete all the items in these modules. There’s no “Undo” in Moodle so we recommend extreme care when working in a module for which you are not the convenor.

If you are deleting materials from a module ensure it is the correct resource.  When you click on the ‘Delete’ icon Moodle will ask you if you are sure and wish to continue.  Once you click on the ‘Continue’ button the resource will be deleted completely from Moodle. 

4.       Backing up a module

Your role allows you to backup a module (see Workspace>Moodle Help for guidance on backing up modules) but not to restore.  When backing-up a module and activities, once you click the button ‘Perform backup’ a ‘Continue’ button will then appear.  This means the backup has been successful. 

NOTE: If you click the ‘Continue’ button an error message will appear. Please ignore this  - your backup will have been successful. [The reason for this is that the School Support role does not have the rights to Restore a backup, so you will not be able to see your backups. Should you need a backup to be restored please contact learning-technologies@nottingham.ac.uk] 

If you need to restore a module please contact either learning-technologies@nottingham.ac.uk  or your local Category Manager.

Metamodules

When you look through your School category at the list of modules you may notice some modules that have multiple codes in their titles.  A metamodule - or parent module - like this is linked to two or more modules which are taught jointly; they have the same content (but potentially different credits, for example) and therefore only require one Moodle module for students to refer to.  Only the Category Manager role and above can create and delete metamodules.

NOTE:  Usually, teaching staff and teaching and learning materials should ONLY be enrolled/uploaded to the parent module; NOT the child module (unless BOTH are being used for different things).

Accessing modules

You should NOT be enrolled onto any module in your School category.  In other words, you will not be able to see modules on your My Moodle/My home page. 

If you are enrolled as Editing Teacher or in any other role in any module in your category or a subcategory, please unenrol yourself (see Workspace>Moodle Help for guidance on unenrolment).

As you are not enrolled on any modules your Module Overview listing on your My Home page will probably be blank.  To navigate to your School category modules do the following:

• In the Navigation block in the left-hand column, click on the ‘Site home’ link.
• This link opens up a list of categories with their subcategories indented.  Scroll down until you have found your School or Department or Division and click the link.  This will open up a list of all modules.
• To enter a module click on the module title. This will open the module’s front page displaying all the materials.

Suggestion: Bookmark the URL of your category – it’s something you will come back to often.

You can also create a block on your Home Page which links to your most used modules. (Search Workspace for “Moodle custom block”)

MediaSpace

This service allows you to easily upload and share media files in Moodle (and, in fact, directly and on other websites). You can enable all other teaching staff in Moodle to reuse your media files, or enable only staff teaching on your module(s) to reuse your media files.  You can also ask your students to submit media assignments. (Search workspace for “Moodle audio and video”.)

End of year processes and rollover

Key info for editing teachers

• Campus Solutions Modules for the year upcoming are created automatically from CS. (If you were an editing teacher last year you will be automatically added this year)
• You will have the ability to request a new module (if it's not a Campus module) - by clicking a button - it will then be created automatically and available to you within about a day.
• Look out for the Year End & Archive block in the right-hand column
• It is important that staff do not re-use or edit the existing modules for the NEW session as existing modules will be archived "as taught"

Transferring content

Some will be starting from scratch: others bringing existing content into the new module.  If you are transferring your own materials please follow the instructions in Workspace Help

Archiving

Academic year modules are re-categorised as Archive (in the following October) and become "Read-only". You will still be able to import content from the archived modules (if you have access to both) but not be able to make changes. 

Archive date: It is possible to extend the archive date if the module has a non-standard end date.  See separate information on rollover and archiving. (Search Workspace for “Moodle rollover”)