Below are a number of support resources and training opportunities for using the UCSF Collaborative Learning Environment (CLE) provided by the Learning Tech Group.

Search the Knowledge Base

Need a quick answer to your CLE question? It is most likely here in the Learning Tech Knowledge Base.

Attend CLE Basics Training and Tech Clinic

Held bi-monthly at the UCSF Library, attend a Tech Clinic to work with the Learning Tech Group on CLE and multimedia projects. The 90-minute CLE Basics training is held at the start of every Tech Clinic.

Register

Foundations in the CLE

A self-paced online training that includes a basic overview of the CLE, an introduction to the interface, and information about adding activities and resources to your courses.

Self-Enroll

CLE FAQ

Visit the CLE FAQ page for quick answers to frequently asked questions.

Read

CLE Help Videos

We invite you to peek over our shoulders, so to speak, and watch our tips and tricks videos that show you how to perform basic functions in the CLE.

Watch

Visit Moodle.org

Moodle, the learning platform that powers the UCSF CLE, provides useful documentation and guides for Moodle users.

Visit Moodle.org

Contact a Learning Tech Specialist

Still have CLE questions?

Contact Us

CLE Frequently Asked Questions

One of the biggest change students will notice is the that the Course Overview block in the center of the page now displays two tabs: Timeline and Courses. Both tabs allows students to check their course progress and view upcoming deadlines. Instructors can easily see activities that need grading.

How does it work?

There are two main tabs in the new Course Overview block—the Timeline tab and the Courses tab. The Timeline tab can be sorted by dates or by courses. The Courses tab can be sorted by whether the course are “In progress”, “Past” or “Future”.

Timeline Tab

Sort By Dates

• When sorted by dates, sections for Recently overdue (if applicable), Today, Next 7 days, and Next 30 days display.
• Users can click to go directly to a required item – for example, ‘Add submission’ to submit an assignment if you are a student. Instructors will see “Grade” link.
• When an activity such as an Assignment is submitted (or graded if you are an instructor), it is no longer displayed.
• Activities such as Assignment or Quiz without due date won’t be displayed in this view.

This screenshot shows the timeline sorted by dates:

Sort By Courses

Sort By Courses view shows activities filtered by course. If a course is using Activity Completion Tracking, it shows a circle with a percentage completion icon. This percentage shows how many of the activities with activity completion settings have been completed so far.

This screenshot shows the timeline sorted by courses:

Courses Tab

In the Courses tab, users can view their current, future or past courses, which is determined by the course start and end date. Courses without the end date will be listed as a current course. You can set course start/end date in the Course Settings page in each course.

This screenshot shows current (in progress) courses:

.

Follow the instructions below to log in to the CLE and access a list of your courses.

1. Navigate to the UCSF CLE (cle.ucsf.edu) in your web browser.
2. Click the Login button from the top-right corner of the page.
3. Enter your MyAccess credentials.
4. After successfully logging in to the UCSF CLE, you will be directed to your My Home page.
5. From the Navigation block, click on the My Courses link to expand and display all of your CLE courses. Courses that are open to students appear in blue font and are listed first. Courses that are not open to students are listed towards the bottom and appear in grey font.
6. Click a course name and the course page will open.
7. If you do not see a CLE course that you expect to have access to, contact the faculty or course manager to check your enrollment status and course availability.

Want to quickly navigate to current CLE courses? Because CLE courses are rarely deleted, you may accumulate a long list of CLE courses. Learn to Customize the My Home Page to quickly access your current courses.

Watch the video below to learn how to find a CLE course:

Starting a new search

Searches can be launched from any page in the CLE.

1. Hover over the magnifying glass found in the top-right of any page, and type a keyword.
2. Press the RETURN key on your keyboard to begin the search.
3. Browse the results, and click the title (in bold) of a result to open its page.

Search results

The results of searches are displayed in three parts.

• Title – The name of item that matches your search, or the container in which your result was found (i.e. the name of the activity in which the text was found)
• Preview text – A preview of the content surrounding the search result
• Contextual links – “Breadcrumb” trail, or path of links that leads to the search result

Filters

To restrict your search results, try experimenting with the Filters available on the search results page.

• Title – Restrict your search to items with names that match your keywords (i.e. if you want to find John Doe’s profile page, but not forum posts in which his name is mentioned).
• Searched area – Restrict your search to selected types of items (i.e. search only forums, or only for courses in your “My courses” list). You can set multiple items for your search.
• Courses – Restrict your search to content within a specific course. You can set multiple courses for your search.
• Modified after – Restrict your search to items that were created or changed after a specific date.
• Modified before – Restrict your search to items that were created or changed before a specific date.

Indexing

New content will not appear in search results until it has been indexed by the system, which happens automatically every 30 minutes. If traffic in the CLE is very heavy, though, the indexing process could take longer.

Roles and search results

You will only see search results from courses that you are enrolled in. If you only have a category-level role (i.e. category manger), the search feature will not display results from within courses. You must have a course-level role in each course that you wish to search. Students will see search results for any active courses that they are enrolled in.

Advanced searching

Boolean operators – Common Boolean operators like ‘AND’, ‘OR’, and ‘NOT’ may be used to combine or exclude keywords.

Wildcard characters – Wildcards like ‘*’ and ‘?’  may be used to represent characters in the search query. An asterisk serves as a wildcard for any number of characters in that spot, whereas a question mark serves as a wildcard for exactly one character in that spot.

What is searchable?

Nearly all of the content in the CLE is indexed and searchable. This includes:

• User names and details from their CLE profile
• Course long names, course short names, and course descriptions
• Course topic headings
• Text from labels within courses
• Activity and resource names and descriptions
• Typed content from within resources and activities, including text from forum posts, labels, and pages
• Uploaded file and video names and descriptions
• Text from CLE messages (a.k.a. the chat feature)
• Even text INSIDE uploaded documents, like PDF and Word docs!

Note: The text inside files that were uploaded by students into an Assignment activity are not indexed or searchable.

Review Messages

New messages are highlighted with a number in the messaging menu at the top of the screen. There are several settings available to help you review your messages:

1. Display new messages or send a new message.
2. Mark all messages as read.
3. Go to your messaging preferences page.
4. See all your messages.

Messages may be sent from a number of locations:

1. Click New Message from the Message menu as in the screenshot above and search for a user or course;
2. Click the Messages icon in the user menu;
3. Click on a user’s name or picture in a course, for example from the Participants link or in a forum thread.

Note: When sending messages, the size of the message box will increase as the message lengthens. Note that to start a new line, you need to press Shift + Enter. (Pressing Enter alone will send the message, which you may not want.)

To add a contact, click their name or picture.

1. Click the + sign to add them to your contacts.
2. Click the Message icon to message them directly.

Contacts may be accessed from the Contacts link and then either messaged, blocked or removed.

Messages may be deleted by clicking the Edit link (1 below), selecting a message or messages to delete and then clicking the Delete button under the messages (2).

Note: that messages are only deleted for that particular user, not others involved in the conversation.

Message preferences

The preferences page allows you to configure how you are notified of new messages when you are online, offline.

There is also an option click a box to prevent non-contacts from messaging you. Access the preferences page by clicking the gear icon in the messaging menu.

Link to Moodle Documentation

Review Notifications

New notifications are highlighted with a number in the messaging menu at the top of the screen. There are several settings available to help you review your messages:

1. Display new notifications or to mark all as read.
2. Go to your notifications preferences page.
3. See all your notifications.

Notification Preferences

The preferences page allows you to configure how you are notified of new events when you are online and offline.  Access the preferences page by clicking the gear icon in the messaging menu. There is also an option for disabling all notification settings.

Additional information about Notifications is available on Moodle Docs: https://docs.moodle.org/32/en/Notifications

Course-Based Roles

The following roles are used in CLE courses and see below for detailed role descriptions.

click image to view full screen

Manager

• Managers can access courses and modify them (essentially can do anything)
• Usually do not typically participate in courses
• Only Category Managers can assign the Manager role at the course level
• Managers can “log in as” other users in the courses they manage
• Managers can assign the following roles: Instructor, Content Assistant, Grading Assistant, Student, Participant
• Managers do not receive email notifications from CLE course forums

Instructor

• Instructors can do anything within a course, including adding and modifying the activities and resources, and grading students
• Instructors can assign the following roles: Content Assistant, Grading Assistant, Student, Participant.

Course Assistant

• Can add and modify resources and activities
• Add/edit questions and quizzes
• Add/edit questionnaires
• Edit course settings
• Can grade student work (quizzes, assignments)
• Can access the gradebook
• Can modify blocks
• Course Assistants can assign the following roles: Student, Participant

Content Assistant

• Can add and modify resources and activities
• Add/edit questions and quizzes
• Add/edit questionnaires
• Edit course settings
• Can modify blocks
• Cannot grade quizzes or assignments, or access the gradebook
• Content Assistants can assign the following roles: Student, Participant

Grading Assistant

• Can grade student work (quizzes, assignments)
• Can access the gradebook
• Cannot edit course settings
• Cannot add or modify resources or activities
• Cannot assign editing roles

Student

• Students generally have fewer privileges within a course
• Can access resources and activities
• Cannot modify resources or activities

Participant

• Participants have less privileges than students
• Do not appear in the gradebook
• Cannot access quizzes or assignments
• Can participate in forums (e.g., post, reply)
• Can unenroll themselves from courses (for self-enrolled and manually enrolled courses only)

Guest

• Guests have minimal privileges and cannot enter text anywhere
• Note: This is not a role you assign – you can enable guest access on the Edit settings page for your course (click the Guest Tab on the Enrollment Methods document for instructions)

Collaboration Roles

These roles are used in collaboration spaces (i.e., not regular courses).

Leader

• The Leader of a collaboration space has the highest level of capabilities within a space
• This role is analogous to the Instructor role
• Leaders can assign the following roles: Member

Member

• A Member of a collaboration space has the lower level of capabilities within a space
• This role is analogous to the Student role

TinyMCE HTML Text Editor

Why would you want to use the TinyMCE text editor? Maybe you are accustom to the functionality of this editor and prefer specific workflows for adding content to your course. The TinyMCE editor is a favorite with course designers and those who prefer to have more control over the sizing and placement of images when using the editor.

The TinyMCE text editor is the default text editor in the CLE. Follow the steps below to select your CLE text editor:

1. Log in to the CLE
2. From the Navigation block, click My Profile > View Profile
3. From Administration block, click Edit Profile
4. From the Text editor drop-down, choose TinyMCE HTML editor
5. Click Update Profile button

See the screenshots below highlighting TinyMCE text editor functionality:

1. Keyboard Shortcuts

Use keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste text into the text editor. Using the right-click menu to copy/paste in the text editor is no longer supported by web browsers. Here are keyboard shortcuts that are particularly useful when using the collapsed editor:

2. Expand the Editor

3. Full Screen Window

If you are working with a large amount of text and would prefer to see the window full screen, the Toggle full screen mode button is the one for you.

4. Enlarge Window

5. Formatting Text

6. Undo and Redo

7. Copy and Paste

When you copy and paste something into the CLE, there are a few things to be aware of:

• Copy/Paste from a Website into the CLE: When you highlight text from a website and choose to copy, often times you are copying more than the eye can see. Copying and pasting can carry over some unwanted coding that can have the potential to cause havoc in the CLE. If you copy and paste text from a website, then you should always paste this text into a text editor to strip the text of any additional HTML coding it might have. Keep in mind that to the naked eye, it may appear to be doing absolutely nothing. However, it is getting rid of problematic code. Then, highlight and copy the text from Notepad and paste it into the CLE and format from there.
• Copy/Paste inside of CLE: If you are copying and pasting text from one CLE resource/activity to another, it is important to copy from the edit page and not directly from the CLE course page.
• Copy/Paste from Microsoft Word: If you copy and paste text from a Word document, you can use the Paste from Word button located in the text editor to get rid of the extra HTML coding (see screenshot below).

8. Hyperlink Text

First copy the URL you would like to link to. Next, highlight text in the editor, click the Insert hyperlink button, and the Insert/edit link window will pop up.

Generally, the only settings that you will want to edit are located in the General tab. Paste the Link URL in the appropriate space and change the Target to Open in new window (_blank). This will ensure that the URL will open in a new window and your course participants will remain in the CLE course. Lastly, click the Insert button to close the window.

To insert a link to a file such as a pdf in the text editor, click the Browse button from the Insert/Edit Link pop-up. This is helpful when adding links to documents in CLE Labels, Pages, Books and more. Select how the file should display (e.g. Open in a new window) from the Target drop-down to have the file open in a new window, preventing students from exiting the CLE course.

You can now upload the file you want to link to from your computer or other repository from the file picker.

9. Add an Image

10. Add Bullets and Numbering

11. Justify Text

12. Add a Horizontal Rule

13. Embed Media@UCSF Content

Read more about the Media@UCSF Plug-in.

14. Add a Table

You can insert a table into the document, as well as use the icons highlight below to edit the table, such as editing the table properties, editing the cell properties, adding/deleting rows and columns, and splitting/merging table cells.

15. Add an Anchor

16. Toggle to HTML Mode

17. Special Functions

Use the DragMath Equation Editor to insert complex or specific math equations and symbols into your text. Note: You will need to have JavaScript installed on your machine to use this Editor.

Use the Special Characters button to add in characters from other languages or from mathematical sciences.

Use the Find button, if you want to quickly find a word in your text. Use the Replace button, if you want to quickly have all of the instances of one word changed to a different word, such as a different spelling or spelling out an acronym.

Atto HTML Text Editor

Why would you want to use the Atto editor? Because the Atto editor improves usability and accessibility, and is also mobile-friendly. You can read more about the Atto text editor on the Convergence blog.

The Atto text editor is an alternate text editor in the CLE. Follow the steps below to select your CLE text editor:

1. Log in to the CLE
2. From the Navigation block, click My Profile > View Profile
3. From Administration block, click Edit Profile
4. From the Text editor drop-down, choose Atto HTML editor
5. Click Update Profile button

See the screenshots below highlighting Atto text editor functionality:

1. Mobile-Friendly

The Atto text editor is designed to be mobile-friendly and respond to the device you are using. Try out Atto using your desktop, laptop, tablet, or smart phone and let us know what you think!

2. Add an Image using Drag and Drop (only in Atto)

Add an image to resources and activities by clicking the Image button or just drag and drop an image from your computer into the Atto text editor. The ability to drag and drop images on the front page of a CLE course was a very popular feature when it was released in 2012, and we are excited to see this functionality extended for adding images in the Atto editor. Avoid using Internet Explorer as some functionality may not work with the IE browser, such as drag and drop.

Need to edit an image size or description? Just double click on image to edit image properties.

3. Accessibility Checker (only in Atto)

Check to make sure that your course is accessible for participants using screenreaders with a click of a button. The Accessibility Checker reviews the text entered in the editor and congratulates you when “no accessibility problems found!” If the content is not accessible you will get a warning message and you can then correct the issue(s).

4. Screenreader Help (only in Atto)

Confirm that all links, images, and other media are accessible for course participants using screenreaders.

5. Keyboard Shortcuts

Here are keyboard shortcuts that are particularly useful when using the collapsed editor:

6. Expand the Editor

7. Full Screen Window

If you are working with a lot of text and would prefer to see the window full screen, the Toggle Full Screen button is the one for you.

8. Enlarge Window

9. Formatting Text

10. Undo and Redo

11. Copy and Paste

When you copy and paste something into the CLE, there are a few things to be aware of:

• Copy/Paste from a Website into the CLE: When you copy text from a website such as Gmail, often times you are copying more than the eye can see. Copying and pasting can carry over some unwanted code that can have the potential to cause havoc in a CLE course. If you copy and paste text from a website, then you should always paste this text into a text editor (such as Notepad or TextEdit) to strip the text of any additional HTML coding it might have before pasting into the CLE.

• Copy/Paste inside of CLE: If you are copying and pasting text from one CLE resource/activity to another, it is important to copy from the edit page and not directly from the CLE course page.

Use keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste text into the text editor. Using the right-click menu to copy/paste in the text editor is no longer supported by web browsers.

See information in the screenshot below for using the Clear Formatting button.

12. Hyperlink Text

First copy the URL you would like to link to. Next, click the Insert hyperlink button, and the Insert/edit link window pops up.

From the Create Link window, paste the Link URL in the appropriate space and check Open in a new window. Students will remain in the CLE course and the URL will open in a new window. Lastly, click the Create Link button to save and close the window.

To insert a link to a file such as a pdf in the text editor, click the Browse Repository button from the Create Link window. This is helpful when adding links to documents from CLE Labels, Pages, Books and more. Check the Open in a New Window box to have the file open in a new window, and avoid the student from being directed out of the CLE course.

You can then upload the file you want to link to from your computer or other repository from the file picker.

 13. Add Bullets and Numbering

14. Justify Text

15. Add a Horizontal Rule

16. Embed Media@UCSF Content

Read more about the Media@UCSF Plug-in.

17. Add a Table

You can insert a table into the document, as well as use the icons highlighted below to edit the table, such as editing the table properties, editing the cell properties, adding/deleting rows and columns, and splitting/merging table cells.

18. Toggle to HTML Mode

19. Special Functions

Use the DragMath Equation Editor to insert complex or specific math equations and symbols into your text. Note: You will need to have JavaScript installed on your machine to use this Editor.

Use the Special Characters button to add in characters from other languages or from mathematical sciences.

Edit CLE Profile

Follow the instructions below to view and edit your CLE profile.

1. Log in to the CLE.
2. To access your profile, click the user menu at the top of the screen and select Profile. Click Edit profile to make updates.
   
   You can also edit your profile by clicking the user menu at the top of your screen, click Preferences and Edit profile.                                                 
3. Edit your profile and remember to click the Update Profile button to save your changes.
   

Review the Preferences Page

When you access the preferences page, you will see a list of settings that you can adjust to help you use the CLE. Review the sections below to learn more about the various settings.

How do I edit my profile?

This setting in displays the preferred language for the CLE interface, which is set to English by default.

Email digest type

This setting determines how you receive any posts from Forums to which you are subscribed, allowing you to receive messages individually or on a daily basis.

Forum auto-subscribe

This setting lets you decide if you want email copies of posts that are added to forums. If you set this to subscribe, the system will automatically email you copies of new posts in discussions that you post in, unless you manually override it when posting.

Forum tracking

Enabling forum tracking means highlighting the posts you have not read yet, which should improve your forum navigation.

Editor Preferences

The Atto HTML editor is the default editor in the CLE and you also have the option to use TinyMCE editor.

The Atto editor is set as the default editor because it improves usability and accessibility, and is also mobile-friendly. You can read more about the Atto text editor on the Convergence blog.

Learn more about CLE text editors

Course Preferences

The Course Preferences section is set by default to enable the activity chooser dialog box. The activity chooser is a dialog box that is used to add activity or resources to your course. It includes a short description of each activity and resource.

The dialog box is only available to course Managers, Instructors, Editors, and Administrators. If the activity chooser is disabled, separate resource and activity drop down menus are provided instead.

Calendar Preferences

Here you can set the time format, first day of the week, number of events to show in the calendar block, days to look forward for events and if the filters on this calendar should be saved as the default for all calendars.

Security Keys

A security key or token enables other systems to access the CLE securely. A security key is typically used for secure RSS feeds or web services.

Message Preferences
Messaging allows instructors, course staff, and students to send private messages to anyone in the CLE. Adjust your preferences to choose whether you are notified via email or through direct mobile notifications.

Learn more about Messaging settings

Notification Preferences

Notifications keep you up to date so you never miss a thing, like forum posts, assignments, and more. Adjust your notifications settings to select which activities you’ll be notified about and you also have the option of being notified by email or the web.

Learn more about Notifications settings

Link to Moodle Documentation

The Moodle Mobile app is available for free from Google Play and the Apple Store. To get started with the mobile app, follow the simple steps below:

1. Download the app from App Store (iOS) or Google Play (Android)
2. Launch the app and enter https://courses.ucsf.edu on the Connect to Moodle screen,then hit connect.
   
3. You’ll be prompted to enter your MyAccess login and password
4. The CLE dashboard will open to reveal your courses.  

Desktop App

There is also a Moodle Desktop app available, which can be used to access courses on desktop or tablets. The Desktop App works just like the Moodle Mobile so you can experience all the same functionalities. Moodle Desktop is also provides a great option  for viewing your courses as they would be seen by students. The Desktop Moodle app can be downloaded here: https://download.moodle.org/desktop/

Access Your Course
Accessing your CLE Courses on the Moodle Mobile App is easy. Once you log on to Mobile App, enter your MyAccess Log in and Password, and your dashboard will become available. Click on any of the course titles to access a course.

Once you click on a course title, the course overview page will appear. Click on section titles to view section resources and activities. The Redirect icons next to activities indicate that the item is not supported on Moodle Mobile, click the icon to open the activity in a browser. The Could icon indicates that the activity can be downloaded for offline viewing.

Mobile Notifications Settings

The mobile app has push notifications which are displayed just like most apps. Follow the steps below to set Notification preferences.Restrict Access to Activities on the Mobile App

Due to the various types of network connections wifi capabilities, we don’t recommend using the mobile app for advanced tasks such as high stakes quizzes and interactive modules. You have the option of preventing students from accessing certain activities or resources in the mobile app by using restrict access.  To use the restrict access feature:

1. Log on the CLE Course you would like to edit and turn editing on.
2. Navigate to the activity you would like to edit>edit settings (located to the right of the activity).
3. Scroll down to restrict access section and click the restrict access button.
4. Click mobile app to prevent students from accessing activities in the mobile app.
5. Set restrictions and click save, scroll to the bottom of the screen when done.

Download resources and activities

Click the cloud icon to download resources or activities. To access the materials when you are offline, just log into the course and click the activity or resource to access it.

Once you have finished viewing your downloaded resources, you can clear your space usage.

To clear your space usage:

1. Click the home icon.
2. Click App settings.
3. Click Space usage.
4. Click the trash icon to clear space usage.

Access the Participants Page

The Participants page can be accessed from the navigation drawer.

It can also be accessed from the More link in the settings menu (located on the top right of the course page), and then click Enrolled Users in the Users tab.

The Participants Page

The participant page provides a clean layout that allows instructors to easily enroll, view, search for, filter, edit and delete course participants. View the image and list of features below:

1. Search drop down menu to filter users by period of activity, enrolment method, group, role and status.
2. Search for users by filtering by first and last name.
3. Click the gear icon to select an enrollment method, edit groups, edit course permissions, and check permissions for users in your course. Click on Other Users to view a list of users that are not enrolled in this course but do have roles, inherited or assigned within it.
4. The Status column indicates if a student is active, click the i icon to reveal enrollment details, click the gear icon to edit enrollment, click the trash can to unenroll users.
5. Bulk select users in your course and then choose if you would like to send them a message, edit selected user enrollments or delete the selected users from your course.
6. Click enroll users to manually enroll users in your course.

Enroll Users

To Manually enroll students:

1. Open that navigation drawer and click Participants.
2. Click the Enroll users button at the top right or bottom left of the page. The Enroll users window will open (see screenshot below).
3. If adding individual users, click select users and enter the name or the ID# for the student or employee. Click Select Cohort If you are enrolling a cohort.
4. Click Show More to expand the enrolment options and set them as appropriate. These include the enrolment duration.
5. Click the Enroll Selected Users and Cohorts button towards the bottom of the window to complete enrollment.

The user will then appear in the list of enrolled users.

Delete Users

To delete users from a course:

1. Open that navigation drawer and click Participants.
2. The Participants page will open.
3. Search for the student/user that you would like to delete and click the trash can located on the far right.
4. The student or user will be removed from the course.

Select Enrollment Methods

1. Open that navigation drawer and click Participants.
2. Click the gear icon located on the top right of your screen.
   
3. Select Enrollment Methods from the drop down menu. The enrollment methods window will open.
4. Go Add method and select the enrollment method.

Click the trash can icon to delete an enrollment method, click the eye icon to enable or disable an enrollment and click the gear icon to make edits.

Visit the Enrollment Methods page for detailed information about enrollment methods and instructions for applying them to your course.

Below is an overview of the six different formats that can be applied to a CLE course.

Click on the images to view full-screen or click the tabs above to read more about course formats.

Topics Course Format

The course is organized in to topic sections and the instructor can edit individual topic names. Each topic section contains activities and resources.

Use Case

This is a great format to use if your course is objective based and each objective may take different amounts of time to complete, such as an asynchronous course. An example of this would be when using scaffolding, where students are building upon the knowledge from earlier topics.

To use the Topics course format:

1. While in the CLE course, navigate to the Administration block and click Edit Settings
2. Scroll down and expand the Course Format section
3. From the Format drop down menu, select Topics Format
   
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save Changes button

The Topics course format will now be used in the course.

Show Only One Section Per Page

With the Weekly and Topics formats it is possible to show only one topic per page. The course home page shows just the section names and any text in the section description along with the number of activities and resources inside of the section, with the names being click-able. This is what students see the first time they access the course. Once the students have selected a topic by clicking on its name, they then see only one section at a time.

There is a Jump to… menu at the bottom of each single section page for navigation. Students can also use the Navigation block to access course topics.

Use Case

This is great to use for courses with a large amount of content, where students are expected to work in only one topic at any given time.

To enable one topic per page in a course:

1. While in the course, navigate to the Administration block > Course administration > Edit settings > Course Format > Course Layout and select Show one section per page.
2. Click the Save Changes button.
3. If editing is turned ON in the course, then only those with an editing role will see all the content in all the sections while on the main course page. To view the course from the student perspective, make sure to turn editing OFF in your course, navigate to the Administration block > Switch role to > Student.
4. Remember to click Return to my normal role from the Administration block or top-right corner of the course when you are done.

Weekly Course Format

The course is organized week by week, with a clear start date and finish date. The CLE will create a section for each week of your course depending on the number of sections selected on the Edit Settings page.

Use Case

If you want all students to work on the same materials at the same time, this is a good format to choose. Many academic courses use the Weekly course format.

NOTE: Make sure your course start date is entered in Edit Settings > Course Start Date. If a start date is not entered, the weeks will use the incorrect dates. This is especially important if you have imported content in to a course to use for a new quarter.

To use the Weekly course format:

1. While in the CLE course, navigate to the Administration block and click Edit Settings
2. Scroll down and expand the Course Format section
3. From the Format drop down menu, select Weekly Format
   
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save Changes button

The Weekly course format will now be used in the course.

Show Only One Section Per Page

With the Weekly and Topics formats it is possible to show only one topic per page. The course home page shows just the section dates and any text in the section description along with the number of activities and resources inside of the section, with the names being click-able. This is what students see the first time they access the course. Once students have selected a week by clicking on its name, they then see one week at a time.

There is a Jump to… menu at the bottom of each single section page for navigation. Students can also use the Navigation block to access course topics.

Use Case

This is great to use for courses with a large amount of content, where students are expected to work in only one week at any given time.

To enable one week per page in a course:

1. While in the course, navigate to the Administration block > Course administration > Edit settings > Course Format > Course Layout and select Show one section per page.
2. Click the Save Changes button.
3. If editing is turned ON in the course, then only those with an editing role will see all the content in all the sections while on the main course page. To view the course from the student perspective, make sure to turn editing OFF in your course, navigate to the Administration block > Switch role to > Student.
4. Remember to click Return to my normal role from the Administration block or top-right corner of the course when you are done.

Collapsed Topics Course Format

Streamline the look of your CLE course! The Collapsed Topics format helps to organize your course to eliminate the scroll of death. The course format allows students to keep course content tucked away within sections. Topics can be expanded and collapsed with a single click and the state of the toggles is remembered on a per course per user basis.

Use Case

The Collapsed Topics course format is one of the newest course formats in the CLE. It is great for both academic or collaboration courses with a large number of resources and activities.

To use the Collapsed Topics course format:

1. While in the CLE course, navigate to the Administration block and click Edit Settings
2. Scroll down and expand the Course Format section
3. From the Format drop down menu, select Collapsed Topics
4. Configure Collapsed Topics settings to meet your course needs
5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save Changes button

The Collapsed Topics course format will now be used in the course.

Other Course Formats

Flexible Sections Course Format

This powerful course format was designed to help organize large amounts of activities and resources. Using Flexible Sections gives your course topics a hierarchical and flexible structure. Now you have the ability to create sections within your topics that allow you to organize your content into subsections. Sections can be collapsed or expanded to provide a more streamlined course home page.

Use Case

The Flexible Sections course format is great for department or collaboration pages used as a hub for resources.

This course format looks very similar to Topics format except:

• Sections can also be added inside another section
• Each section (regardless of its nesting level) can be shown expanded or collapsed
• If a section is displayed collapsed, it’s name is displayed as a link to the separate page and on this separate page the link Back to … is displayed
• If teacher hides a section all nested sections and activities become hidden as wel
• If section has both activities and subsections activities are displayed first.

To use the Flexible Sections course format:

1. While in the CLE course, navigate to the Administration block and click Edit Settings
2. Scroll down and expand the Course Format section
3. From the Format drop down menu, select Flexible Sections Format
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save Changes button

The Flexible Sections course format will now be used in the course.

Social Course Format

This course format is focused around one main forum, the social forum, which appears listed on the main page.

Use Case

Great course format for student groups, organizations and department collaboration. It is useful for situations that are more free form and may not even be courses.

To use the Social course format:

1. While in the CLE course, navigate to the Administration block and click Edit Settings
2. Scroll down and expand the Course Format section
3. From the Format drop down menu, select Social Format
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save Changes button

The Social course format will now be used in the course.

The course forum can be edited by clicking the Update this forum button on the social forum page. The forum introduction is displayed at the top of the course page. Activities and resources can be added to the side of the course utilizing the Social activities block.

Single Activity Course Format

The Single Activity course format only has one section and allows the instructor to add only one activity to the course. When the single activity format is selected, a drop down menu appears for the instructor to choose the activity to use in the course. Students are taken directly to this activity upon entering the course.

Use Case

Where the focus of a course is on a single activity, such as a Forum or Quiz.

To use the Single Activity course format:

1. While in the CLE course, navigate to the Administration block and click Edit Settings
2. Scroll down and expand the Course Format section
3. From the Format drop down menu, select Single Activity Format
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save Changes button

The Single Activity course format will now be used in the course.

The Single Activity course format displays additional resources and activities as “orphaned” and for instructors only; while the Social format displays additional activities and resources in an activities block and are available to students.

To access the CLE course settings, locate the Administration block in the course and click the Edit Settings link.

CLE Course Settings are organized in the following sections:

• General: Course name, Course start/end date, category, availability to student, etc.
• Description: Information displayed when searching for a course in the CLE
• Course Format: How the course is organized and displays to students
• Appearance: Language preferences and configure what students see in the course
• Files and Uploads: Set maximum upload size for course
• Completion Tracking: Turn completion tracking on at the course level to apply activity completion to activities and resources in the course
• Groups: Set a default Group Mode for all activities
• Role Renaming: Change the role names in a course

Want to see all the sections on the Edit Setting page expanded so you do not miss something? Click the Expand All link in the top-right of the Edit Settings page to quickly expand all sections.

See below for more information on each course setting:

General

Description

Course Format

Appearance

Files and Uploads

Completion Tracking

Groups

Role Renaming

Watch the video below to see how to add edit CLE course Settings:

Editing Course Sections

When you have the editing turned on in your course page, you’ll notice that you can now view editing icons which will allow you to edit your page.

Edit Topic Name

The pencil icon allows you to edit the title of the resource / activity. To rename a section/topic in your course:

1. From the Administration block or from the top-right of the CLE, select Turn editing on (or use the Turn editing on button located in the top-right corner).
2. Click the pencil icon to edit the title.
3. Click escape to cancel or enter to finish editing.

Move a Course Section

The move icon allows you to move items or sections by dragging and dropping. To move a section in your course:

1. From the Administration block or from the top-right of the CLE, select Turn editing on (or use the Turn editing on button located in the top-right corner).
2. Click the up/down arrow or the crosshairs icon to move the section
3. Drag the section to where you want to position it and let go.

Edit Topic

The Edit drop down menu allows you to highlight, hide, and delete a topic. To edit a topic in your course:

1. From the Administration block or from the top-right of the CLE, select Turn editing on (or use the Turn editing on button located in the top-right corner).
2. Click the Edit drop down menu which is located to towards the top right of your topic or section.
3. Click highlight, hide topic or delete topic.

Stealth Mode

Stealth mode is a visibility setting that allows you to have activities that are not available on the main course page are accessible when linked. This replaced the Orphaned Activities workaround that we have been using previously.

A use case for enabling Stealth Mode in your course would be when you would like to link to resources and activities from a page or book but do not want to display the item within the section. To enable Stealth Mode in your course:

1. From the Administration block or from the top-right of the CLE, select Turn editing on (or use the Turn editing on button located in the top-right corner).
2. Click the Edit drop down menu which is located to towards the top right of your topic or section.
3. Click Hide topic (you also have the option of hiding individual activities or resources), blue alerts will appear on the page reminding you that the items are hidden.
4. Click the Edit menu again and select the Make available option. The blue alert message changes to remind you that the activity is available but will not be displayed on the course page to students.

Additional information about Stealth Activities: https://docs.moodle.org/33/en/Stealth_activities

Add Topics or Section

When you create a CLE course, you can select the number of sections in the course while you are formating your course in edit settings. Once your course is set up, you can add additional sections to your course with the add topics icon. To add topics or sections to your course:

1. From the Administration block or from the top-right of the CLE, select Turn editing on (or use the Turn editing on button located in the top-right corner).
2. Scroll down to the bottom of your module page.
3. Click on the Add Topics button at the bottom of the topics / sections to add a new section.
4. A window will pop up and will prompt you to indicate the number of sections to add. Click the dropdown to select the number of sections and click Add topics. The new section will be added to the bottom of the module page.

Watch the video below to learn how to use and apply Stealth mode to your course:

Student Information System (SIS) Enrollment

SIS enrollment provides a simple way for student enrollment to be automatically synchronized between the UCSF Registrar’s office and a CLE course. SIS is the preferred enrollment method for academic courses where students register by filing a study list. SIS enrollment cannot be configured for collaboration or non-academic spaces. SIS enrollment is setup by Category Managers. If your course does not have a Category Manager or you don’t know who your Category Manager is, please contact Learning Tech Support.

SIS enrollment instructions:

1. Log in to the CLE (cle.ucsf.edu).
2. Go to the CLE course where you would like to set up SIS enrollment.
3. Click the hamburger icon located on the top left to open the nav drawer and click Participants (screenshot)
4. The Participants page will open, click the gear icon located on the right corner and select Enrollment Methods (screenshot)
5. Select UCSF Student Information System enrollments from the  Add method dropdown menu (screenshot)
6. Select the term/quarter then choose the subject and the course (screenshot)
7. Select the role that these new users should have (mostly likely the Student role)
8. Click the Add method button.

After SIS Enrollment has been configured, students will automatically be added to the CLE course. Every hour, the CLE synchronizes with the Registrar’s Office. At that time, any students who have been added to the course through the Registrar’s office will automatically be placed in the CLE course, and any students who have been dropped from the course through the Registrar’s office will be removed from the CLE course.

Users who are enrolled with the SIS enrollment method cannot be manually removed from the CLE course. Instead, the student must update their study list through the Registrar’s Office, and then the CLE will reflect that change automatically within the hour.

Suspended users:

When a student drops a course, or is otherwise un-enrolled via the Registrar’s Office, they are not completely removed from the corresponding CLE course(s). Instead, their enrollment status is tagged as “suspended.” The student loses access to the course, but course editors can still view that student’s grade history.

To view suspended users in a course:

• To view suspended students on the Grader report page of the gradebook, you must first change the following setting:
  1. Click the hamburger icon on the top left to reveal the navigation drawer, click Grades. 
  2. Click the Set Up and Preferences Grader Report tabs. (screenshot)
  3. Scroll down to General group, then set Show only active enrollments to No. (screenshot)
  4. Click Save Changes.

• To view suspended students on the Participants users page, filter the page accordingly:
  1. Click the hamburger icon on the top left to reveal the navigation drawer, click Participants (screenshot)
  2. From the filter window, select Status: Inactive. (screenshot)

Manual Enrollment

Another way to add users to a CLE course is using manual enrollment. Manual enrollment is commonly used to provide faculty and/or staff members with editing access to academic courses, and to provide access to leaders and members of collaboration spaces. It is not frequently used for student enrollment in academic courses, as SIS enrollment is the preferred enrollment method for academic courses.

To manually enroll a user in a CLE course:

1. Log in to the CLE (cle.ucsf.edu).
2. Go to the CLE course where you would like to enroll users.
3. From the Administration block, click Users and then Enrolled Users.
4. On the Enrolled Users page, click the Enroll users button in the top-right of the page.
   
5. On the Enroll users pop-up window, type the person’s first and last name or email address into the Search box and click their name or to select.
   
6. If you would like to add them to a cohort, select the cohort you would like to assign them to in the Cohort drop-down menu.
7. Select the role you would like to assign  from the Assign role drop-down menu. Click to learn more about CLE Roles.
8. Click the Enroll selected users and cohorts button to save the enrollment changes and return to the Enroll users page.

Self Enrollment

Enabling self enrollment in a course allows users who are logged into the CLE with a UCSF MyAccess account to enroll in a course without the intervention of an Instructor or Manager. If you enable self enrollment in a course, you may also choose to set an enrollment key (i.e. a password) that must be entered before self enrolling in the course.

When a student or participant first visits a CLE course with self enrollment configured, they will see the name of the course, the instructor and an Enroll me button. Clicking the Enroll me button will automatically add the student to the course based on how the Self Enrollment has been configured (see information below).

This method is frequently used for collaboration spaces, and for academic courses where students need access to course materials before they have officially enrolled via the Registrar’s office. By default, self enrollment is disabled in CLE courses.

To enable self enrollment in a CLE course:

1. Log in to the CLE (cle.ucsf.edu).
2. Click the hamburger icon located on the top left to open the nav drawer and click Participants (screenshot)
3. The Participants page will open, click the gear icon located on the right corner and select Enrollment Methods (screenshot)
4. Select Self Enrollments from the Add method dropdown menu (screenshot).
5. Under Course administration, click Users link to expand and then click Enrollment methods.The Enrollment methods page opens.
6. Next, click the Edit icon (gear symbol) to configure self enrollment settings for the course.
7. From the Self Enrollment page, configure enrollment settings (click images to enlarge).
8. After configuring the self enrollment settings, make sure to scroll to the bottom of the page and click Add Method.
9. On the Enrollment methods page, you can delete (trashcan), disable (eye) or edit (gear) enrollments by clicking the icons.

Guest Access

Instructors and Managers who wish to make their CLE course available to users who are NOT currently logged in to the CLE with a MyAccess account can enable Guest Access.

Guest Access allows public guests to view your course/space in a very limited way. Guest Access is disabled by default in CLE courses. If you do not wish to allow Guest Access, you do not need to take any action.

A guest is anyone who is not currently logged into the CLE with a MyAccess account. This includes members of the general public who do not have MyAccess accounts, as well as UCSF faculty, staff, or students who do have MyAccess accounts but are not currently logged in.

* Please note you may also request a Guest MyAccess account for guests that are not affiliated with UCSF, which will allow them to access the CLE. Guest MyAccess accounts are fee based and can be requested through the account sponsor in your department. If you are not sure who your account sponsor is, please email your request to iam-admin@ucsf.edu or call the IT Service Desk at 415-514-4100.

Guests CAN:

• See the front page of your course/space
• Read wikis and Forum postings
• View all documents, links, and calendar postings (unless restricted by Groupings)

Guests CANNOT:

• View user profiles
• Receive email from the CLE
• Submit assignments, forum posts, take quizzes or otherwise participate in activities

What should I consider before turning on Guest Access?

• If you enable Guest Access, consider placing a notification on the front page of your course and/or in your forum descriptions.
• Guest Access may be enabled or disabled by the Instructor/manager at any time.
• Enabling Guest Access without an enrollment key may allow your course materials to appear in internet searches.
• Be careful about enabling Guest Access in courses/spaces that contain copyrighted content, private student information, or other protected materials. Providing unrestricted access in these cases may make you, the instructor, liable for copyright infringement or other legal claims.
• Under no circumstances should PHI, or any information that could lead to the identification of a patient/client, be uploaded or posted in the CLE.

To enable Guest Access in a course:

1. Log in to the CLE (cle.ucsf.edu).
2. Click the hamburger icon located on the top left to open the nav drawer and click Participants (screenshot)
3. The Participants page will open, click the gear icon located on the right corner and select Enrollment Methods (screenshot)
4. On the Enrollment methods page, if you have not yet enabled Guest access for the course, the Guest access method will appear grayed-out. Click on the Settings icon () to open the Guest access page.

1. On the Guest access page, for Allow guest access select yes.This opens the course to members of the general public (i.e. those who are not logged in).
2. Optionally, you can enter a password, and only those members of the general public who have been given the password will be able to access your course materials. Note passwords are case-sensitive. (Click the magnifying glass to unmask the password)
3. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page when you are finished.

Cohort Enrollment

What Are Cohorts?

Cohorts are a collection of users, or a group, that are created and maintained at the category level. These cohorts can be enrolled in any number of courses within that category. This makes bulk-enrollment easy, especially if you’re trying to enroll (for example) the entire SOM Class of 2017 into multiple courses.
It should be noted that SIS enrollment should always be your first choice for enrollment, and that cohorts or other methods are only used when SIS cannot work (non-academic courses, collaborative spaces, etc). Only users with the Category Manager and Cohort Manager role can manage cohorts.

Note: Cohort enrollment replaces the old CSV enrollment process, which is no longer available.

Creating a Cohort

1. Navigate to the top-level of your group’s Category in the CLE (i.e. Courses > School of Dentistry).
2. Click the gear icon top left and select Cohorts from the Administration menu. (screenshot)
3. Click the Add New Cohort tab. (screenshot)
4. Name the cohort and the click the Save changes button. (screenshot)
5. In the Edit column, click the people icon to proceed to Assign cohort members page.  (screenshot)
6. Using the Potential users group (right side), Search for the participants and then click the Add button to include them in the cohort. (screenshot)
7. If you need to remove a user, select them from the Current users group (left side), and then click the Remove button.
8. Click the Back to cohorts button to finish.

Enrolling a Cohort in a Course (Syncing)

This method will enroll all users from the cohort into a CLE course, and keep them in sync.

1. Navigate to the home page of a CLE course.
2. Click the hamburger icon located on the top left to open the nav drawer and click Participants. (screenshot)
3. The Participants page will open, click the gear icon located on the right corner and select Enrollment Methods. (screenshot)
4. Select Cohort Sync from Add Method menu. (screenshot)
5. Custom instance name can be left blank if you don’t need to name this specific enrollment instance.
6. From the Cohort menu, select your cohort (the cohort must have already been created on your category page).
7. Select from the Assign role menu (typically Student).
8. Click Add method to enroll the cohort. (screenshot)

Note: To remove a user from a course that was enrolled with a cohort, you must edit the cohort at the category level. You cannot manually remove them inside the course. Thus, cohort sync is an all-or-nothing proposition. Meaning, if you enroll a cohort in more than one course, and then edit that cohort, that change will appear in all of the courses automatically.

Enrolling a Cohort in a Course (without Syncing)

This method will enroll users from a cohort into a CLE course, but no sync will be created or maintained with the original cohort. Therefore, updates to the cohort at the category level will not affect enrollment in the current course, and enrolled users can be added or removed manually on the course’s Enrolled users page.

1. Navigate to the home page of a CLE course.
2. Click the hamburger icon located on the top left to open the navigation drawer and click Participants (screenshot)
3. Click Enroll users.(screenshot)
4. From the Select cohorts menu, select your cohort.
   
5. Select from the Assign role menu (typically Student)
6. Click Enroll selected users and cohorts to complete enrollment.

Follow the instructions below to import, or “roll over” content from one CLE course to another:

1. Navigate to the new CLE course you want to import content into.
2. Click the gear icon located toward the top right of your course.
3. From the Administration block, click Import.
4. Search for and select the course you wish to copy content from (use a simple search, like the course short name), select the radio button next to the course name, and then click Continue.
5. Check the boxes next to the type of content you wish to copy (you can leave all boxes checked, though filters are rarely used in CLE courses) and click Next.
6. Check/un-check boxes next to the specific activities and resources you want to import – just leave all boxes checked if you are importing the whole course. Click Next when done.
7. Follow the continue/next prompts, and that’s it! You will see the progress of the course import and this can take a few moments, depending on the size of the course. You should see the “Import complete” message when the process is done.
8. Click Continue to return to the course.

Coming soon!

On the grader report you will see a grid containing a row for each enrolled student, and a column for each grade item, as well as columns displaying category point totals. The tabs across the top of the report represent other functional areas of the gradebook, used for setting up the gradebook, and adjusting gradebook settings.

• View / Grader report – Display of all students and grade items, including calculated totals.
• Categories and items – Manage categories, calculation methods, and add manual grade items here.
• Scales – Setup and manage scales, such as Pass/Fail/Incomplete or 5-star scale (more info on scales can be found here).
• Outcomes – A sub-set of grades, outcomes are used to assess specific levels of knowledge that are linked to specific learning goals established by the instructor, and often displayed as a series of statements. This is an advanced gradebook function.
• Letters – Edit letter grades assignments. For example, set 90% to as an A, and 80% and above as a B.
• Import – Merge the data from an external spreadsheet into the course gradebook.
• Export – Export data from the course gradebook into a format that can be read by external applications, such as Microsoft Excel.
• Settings – Control how the gradebook appears to all participants in the course.
• My preferences – Control how the gradebook appears to you only. Settings here apply to all gradebooks that you have access to in the CLE.

You will spend much of your course setup time creating the activities that students will interact with on the course home page. You may also need to add manual grade items to fill in certain gaps, for those items that don’t have an online component. It is very important to understand the difference between activities and manual grade items, because they are added to the gradebook, and graded, in different ways.

Adding manual grade items

1. Open the grader report and click the Categories and items tab.
2. Click the Add grade item button.
3. Name the item.
4. Set the total point value for this item in the Maximum grade box.
5. Select a category from the Grade category drop-down menu.
6. Click the Save changes button.
7. Repeat this process for each manual grade item in the course.

Adding activity-based grade items

1. Navigate to the course home page.
2. Click the Turn Editing On button (top right of page).
3. Click the Add an activity or resource link from within a topic area.
4. Choose an activity from the list provided. (Resources are not associated with the gradebook.)
5. Click the Add button.
6. You will be taken to the Adding a new…. page, which is different for each type of activity. Provide a name and description for the activity.
7. Set up the grading values and select the containing category from the gradebook.
8. Each activity has a unique setup process! Refer to other articles in this knowledgebase, or contact us for assistance.
9. Click the Save and display button.
10. Repeat this process for each activity-based grade item in the course.

After you have populated your course home page with activities and resources, and you have added any necessary manual grade items to the gradebook, you are ready to use the Categories and items page to setup categories and aggregations methods. Categories are folders in the gradebook that help you visually organize your grade items. They can also have a functional purpose, allowing you to group grade items for certain grade calculations.

For example, if you want to weight all of the course’s assignments to be 40% of a student’s grade, and all of the exams to be 60%, you’ll want to group those grades items into two separate categories, respectively, and then apply the weighting.

Aggregation methods are the calculations used to determine student grade totals. Aggregation methods can be set for the entire gradebook, and for each sub-category.

• Mean of grades – The sum of all grades, divided by the total number of grades. Or, in simple terms, the average of all grades.
• Weighted mean of grades – Categories and individual grade items can be assigned a weight value, which determines their overall influence on the final grade.
• Simple weighted mean of grades – A way to convert a points-based gradebook into a percentage-based gradebook, this method calculates the weight for you as the max grade minus the minimum grade. Or, in simple terms, this method allows you to edit the category totals field (often used to change total from a random sum of points, to an even 100).
• Median of grades – The middle grade when grades are arranged in order of size.
• Lowest grade – Only the lowest grade is used.
• Highest grade – Only the highest grade is used.
• Mode of grades – The grade that occurs the most frequently.
• Sum of grades – A simple sum of all grade values.

Setting up categories:

1. In the gradebook, click the Categories and items tab.
2. Click the Add category button.
3. Name the category.
4. Click the Save changes button.
5. To position the category, click the move icon (two up/down arrows) from the Actions column.
6. Then, click the empty box that represents the location that you want to move the selected category to.

Moving grade items into the categories:

1. In the Select column, check the boxes to select the grade items.
2. You can also use the All or None links to select or deselect all items in one location.
3. From the Move selected items to drop-down menu, select a category.

Setting aggregation methods:

1. Click the Aggregation drop-down menu on the first row of the table, and select a method.
2. Select an aggregation method for each sub-category, as well.

Note: There are additional options available in the Actions column for each category and grade item. This includes the ability to hide, lock and access a settings page for each item. More details are provided on page 7 of the gradebook handout.

There are two pages in the gradebook module that allow you to adjust the gradebook display; Settings, and My preferences. Settings and preferences do not affect how grades are calculated. Just remember to click the Save changes button anytime you make a change to a default setting.

Settings tab notes:

• Changes affect all course participants’ view of the gradebook, including course editors and students.
• General and Grade item settings affect the overall gradebook. Overview report settings affect the grader report that course editors see. User report settings affect the report that students see.
• Grade display type  – Choose the format of the grade totals. For example A/B/C (letter), points, or a percentage.
• Overall decimal points – Set how many decimal points display on the grader report. Does not affect calculations, which use up to 5 decimal points.
• Hide totals if they contain hidden items – Hides category totals from students, if a grade item within that category is hidden. This prevents students from figuring out what grade they may have received on a hidden item, before course editors release it to the class.

My preferences tab notes:

• Changes affect only your view of the gradebook. Also note that preferences apply to all of your course gradebooks across the CLE.
• Show show/hide icons – Visible by default, the show/hide icon (look like an eyeball) allow a course editor to show or hide an entire grade item from all students’ user reports.
• Show locks – One handy feature of the gradebook is the ability to lock a grade item, preventing it from being updated manually or by the activity it’s contained within. Locks are hidden by default.
• Show quick feedback – Adds a feedback box to the grader report, allowing a course editor to quickly add a short comment for the student about a specific grade item.
• Students per page – Tired of all the vertical scrolling? Lessen the number of students per page on the grader report. 15 is a good number to try!

__Not sure what a setting or preference does, exactly? Click its adjacent help icon!

Some activities, like assignments, allow instructors to provide detailed feedback to students within the activity, as their work is being reviewed and scored. For the activities and grade items that do not have this functionality, feedback can be provided from within the gradebook module.

Feedback that is provided to students from within the gradebook is visible to students on their User report (click on the User Report tab above for more info).

Edit Grade Feedback:

1. From the Administration block, click Grades.
2. Click the Turn editing on button.
3. Click the settings icon next to the grade item you wish to comment on.
4. On the Edit grade page, enter your comments in the Feedback text field.
5. Click the Save changes button.

Quick Feedback:

If you only need to type a few words of feedback, you can type directly into the grader report. This is called “quick feedback,” but by default the quick feedback boxes are not visible on the grader report. To use this feature:

1. From the Administration block, click Grades.
2. Click the My Preferences tab.
3. From the General group, set the Show quick feedback drop-down menu to Yes.
4. Click the Save changes button.
5. On the Grader report, click the Turning editing on button.
6. You will see small, dotted-lined boxes appear in each grade item cell. Type your feedback there.
7. Click the Update button.

Note: Feedback provided from within the gradebook should be kept short and sweet. The students only see this text on their User report, where it is condensed into a small box next to the grade item (see below). More elaborate feedback should be provided to students in other forms, such as email, or in-person.

Navigating the grader report can be challenging. Here a few tips to help you move around more efficiently in the grid:

Side scrolling devices: Often there is need to scroll up and down in the gradebook, and also sideways, to view specific student’s grade items. A mouse with a dual-scrolling wheel, or a laptop with a touch pad can allow you to scroll both ways, without having to click and drag on the scroll bars!

Tool tips: Do you ever scroll back and forth in the grader report so much so, that you lose your place? It happens to all of us? A simple tip to reorient yourself is simply to pause, and hover your mouse over a cell in the grid. After a short delay, a small tool tip box will appear, telling you exactly which column and row you are in!

Highlighting columns and rows: If you click the empty space within a column header (grade item title) or row header (student name), the entire column or row will become highlighted with color. This is a great way to keep your place, visually, as you scroll around in the grading grid.

Sorting and filtering: Within each column header you will see small, blue, up/down arrow icons. Clicking an arrow will sort the grading report in ascending or descending order by that column. For example, you could sort the lowest course totals scores to the top to see which students are potentially failing the course.

Clicking the First name or Last name text links in the first column, to sort by student’s names.

Clicking a letter from the First name: and Last name: rows above the grading grading will filter out all students except those who’s names start with the letter you clicked. For example, to only see students who’s last names start with M, click the M link under Last Name:. To refresh the view, click the All link.

Users per page: If you have a large class and/or a small computer screen, you may find yourself scrolling up and down the grader report quite a bit. This is a pain! Newer versions of the Moodle gradebook promise a streamlined interface. But for now, there is something you can do – change the number of students per page.

1. Open the My preferences tab within the gradebook.
2. Change the General > Students per page setting to something like 12, or 15.
3. Click the Save changes button.

Group view:

If the course contains groups, you can filter the grader report by group, to reduce the number of students visible at one time. This is a useful feature in large courses that have multiple instructors, when each instructor is only responsible for grading their sub-group of students.

This group select menu will only appear if groups are already setup in the course. This is a two-step process. First, you must select a Group mode on the course’s main Edit settings page, and then create the actual groups and assign students to those groups (Administration block > Course administration > Users > Groups). For more information on groups and groups, refer to this document.

Once that is complete, you will see a groups drop-down menu appear at the top of the grader report. Select a group from that menu to apply the filter.

One of the most useful and yet unknown areas of the gradebook is the User report. Ever wonder what students see when they look at their grades in the CLE? Well, this is it! You can view a generic User report, or one for a specific student.

Simply select User report from the drop-down menu on the grader report. You will see the generic report. To drill-down into a specific student’s report, select their name from the Select all or one user drop-down menu.

Grades link moved to Navigation block

Previously, the “Grades” link was found in the Administration Block. This link has been moved to the Navigation block. This change cleans up the interface for students, who will no longer see the Admin block on the course home page. When a student clicks this link, they’ll be taken to a page displaying their personal User Report and earned grades. When an instructor clicks this link, they’ll be taken to the Grader Report page, displaying all student grades.

Note: There is a new user menu in the top-right corner of the CLE interface, and within that menu is a second “Grades” link. This link takes the user to a page displaying all of the courses they are enrolled in, their total grade for each, and provides links to each course’s User Report for more details.

Gradebook Setup link added to Administration block

The Categories and Items area in the gradebook has been updated (see the Aggregation Methods tab for details), and it has a new, more concise name: Gradebook Setup. Furthermore, you can now jump directly to this Gradebook Setup page from your course home page by clicking its link in the Administration block.

Scrolling is easier in Grader Report

In the past, one of biggest challenges of working with the gradebook was simply scrolling through the Grader Report. It was clunky, for sure! The scrolling mechanics have now been completely overhauled. Row and column headers remain visible at all times, and the process of scrolling vertically and horizontally is smooth and seamless.

Single View (pencil icons in grader report)

This is a new feature that allows graders to completely isolate a single column or row in the Grader Report, and allowing the grader to focus on one piece a time. This allows graders to see all students scores for one particular grade item on a single page, or view one student’s scores for all assignments.

Just look for the new pencil icons located in column and row header cells of the Grader Report. Click one and give it a try!

Sum of Grades replaced by Natural Grading

There is a new aggregation method in the gradebook called Natural grading. It incorporates the functionality of a number of other grading methods, and may eventually replace them. As of the July 1, 2017 update, all existing aggregation methods are still available, with the exception of Sum of Grades. The first time a course editor opens a gradebook that had used the Sum of Grades aggregation method, they will see a message indicating that the gradebook is automatically recalculating grades. Don’t worry, though, student scores will remain unchanged!

Here are a few additional notes about this change:

• After the recalculation, you’ll notice a new Weights column in the setup area of the gradebook. The weights will be greyed out by default, and will not affect grade calculations unless you check the adjacent boxes to activate weighting.
• “Drop the lowest” and “Keep the highest” functionality is retained.
• The User Report main contain an additional column labeled “Calculated Weight,” which could confuse students if you aren’t using weights in your gradebook. We recommend reviewing the user report, and then if necessary, hide this column from students in the Setup > Course Grade Settings > User Report options area.

Using Natural Grading:

You are welcome (and encouraged) to use the new Natural aggregation method if you are starting a new course, because it provides functionality for both “sum” and “weighted” grading schemes. This allows academic programs to standardize and simplify grading methods across their curriculum, as well as making it easier for support staff to troubleshoot. Here is the basic idea:

1. From Admin block, click “Gradebook setup.”
2. From the Actions column, click the top-most Edit link, and choose “Edit settings.”
3. From the Aggregation drop-down menu, choose Natural.
4. Optional: Click the “Show more…” link to access additional settings, including the option to “Exclude empty grades” (basically, this setting tells the gradebook to ignore empty cells in the gradebook, instead of counting them as zeros and lowering student overall course totals).
5. Click the Save Changes button.
6. At this point, your gradebook is just adding everything up. If you want to change the weight of certain grade items, click the corresponding box in the Weights column, and provide a weight value.
7. If necessary, you may also click the “Add category” button to create new sub-sections for your gradebook, which can utilize other grading methods and rules.

For additional basic information on setting up a gradebook, check out our original Grades help document.

IMPORTANT Recommendations:

• We do not recommend changing an active gradebook to the Natural aggregation method from Weighted Mean of grades. Doing so will reset all weight values, and there is no undo button. Furthermore, the Weighted method allows you to edit the category total field, but the Natural method does not. This means, if you were using Weighted Mean of Grades and had also edited category totals, changing to Natural grading will cause student grades to calculate incorrectly!
• If your gradebook fits any of these criteria, we recommend that you review grades for accuracy after the update:
  • the gradebook is very complex
  • the gradebook uses a combination of grading methods that included Sum of Grades and Weighted Mean of Grades methods
  • the gradebook uses extra credit

And finally, if you have any questions, please contact us for assistance BEFORE making changes to your gradebook!

Grade History

There is a new report in the gradebook that allows graders to quickly see details about particular student grades, including who the grader was, when they updated the grade, and if the grades are locked or overridden. If there are any issues with a student’s grades, and especially if there are multiple graders working on the course, this report can help to clear up confusion.

1. Click Gradebook Setup from the Administration block.
2. Click the View tab.
3. Click the Grade history tab.
4. If necessary, you can adjust the filters, then click the Submit button to run the report. You can filter by student, grader, grade item, date graded, and whether or not the grade was changed after it was initially awarded.
5. Optional: To download the report and open it with Excel, select Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) from the drop-down menu provided, then click Download.

Import via Paste from Spreadsheet

If your courses uses a complex grading scheme, or if it incorporates offline elements, you may need to manage grades in Excel, and then import scores into the CLE gradebook later, for student viewing. In the past, this process was rather complex and unforgiving, and involved the conversion of Excel files into .csv files. You still need to adhere to the same rules for syncing grades between Excel and the CLE (using the “ID number” field), but with this new “Paste from Spreadsheet” feature, the import process is greatly simplified!

If you are new to importing/exporting grades, review the general process on page 11 of this gradebook handout. It’s best to start by exporting the gradebook after students are enrolled, because that will generated the structure for you, including student names, grade items, and the all-important ID number field to match things up during import. When you’re ready to import, follow the steps below:

1. In Excel, hide or delete all columns in your spreadsheet except for the “ID number” column, and the column(s) that represents the grade item(s) you wish to import.
2. Highlight and then copy those columns (right-click or use the keyboard shortcut Cmd/Ctrl-C).
3. Open the gradebook in your CLE course.
4. Click the Import tab, and then the “Paste from spreadsheet” sub-tab.
5. Click into the Data box, and paste (right-click, or user the keyboard shortcut Cmd/Ctrl-V).
6. Click the Upload Grades button.

If you receive an error message, make sure that your column headers in the spreadsheet match EXACTLY with the grade item names in the CLE gradebook, including the first column, which should be “ID number.” If you get stuck, just drop us a line and we’re happy to help troubleshoot.

Individuals must be part of a Group before they can be assigned to a Grouping. The graphic below will explain a few different ways to use Groups and Groupings.

A Grouping can be used on two levels:

• Course level – The Group mode defined at the course level is the default mode for all activities within the course. To use Groups you need first to set a Group mode in the Administration block > Course administration > Edit settings.
• Activity level – Each activity that supports Groups can also have its own Group mode defined. If the course setting Force Group mode is set to Yes then the option to define the Group mode for individual activities is not available. If it is set to No, then the teacher may change the Group mode.

Use cases for Groupings:

• Divide students into separate Groups or cohorts
• Create Groupings and change the amounts of students in Groups depending on the activities.
• Assign a specific activity to a Grouping, such as an extra credit activity or quiz to a certain subset of students.

Example for using a Grouping

Use Groupings when you have multiple cohorts using the same CLE course. For example, if you have a single course with two cohorts that will receive either 1 or 2 units of credit. The activities and resources are mostly the same and will be used by both Groups. However, the students that are taking the course for 2 units will complete higher level activities that will be worth a different amount of points.  Groupings would allow you to keep both cohorts in one course and direct activities to a specific cohort so that each Group only views course work relevant to them.

Add Groups to a Grouping

1. Log in to the CLE (cle.ucsf.edu).
2. Go to the CLE course where you would like to add a Group.
3. From the Administration block under Course administration, click Users, then Groups. The Groups page will open.
   
4. Click the Groupings tab.
5. Create a new Grouping by clicking the Create Grouping button.
   
6. Add a Grouping name and an optional description. Click save changes, the Groupings page will open.
   
7. Click the Show Groups in Grouping people icon in the edit column.
   
8. Select the Group(s) you want to add to the Grouping from the Potential members list.
9. Click the arrow button that points towards the Existing members list.
10. Click the Back to Groupings button – Group(s) you added to the grouping will now be listed in the table on the Groupings page.
    

Existing Groupings can be edited and/or deleted using the appropriate icons in the edit column of the table on the Groupings page.

Assign an Activity to a Grouping

Groupings are a collection of groups, and you can assign activities to specific groupings as needed.To assign a specific activity to a Grouping, you must first set up the Grouping:

1. Log in to the CLE (cle.ucsf.edu).
2. Go to the CLE course where you would like to add a Grouping
3. Once in the course, go to the activity and turn editing on, click edit > edit settings for the activity.
   
4. The activity’s Settings page will open.
5. Click Common module settings to view and adjust group settings for the activity.
6. In the Group mode drop-down menu, select either Separate groups or Visible groups.
   • Visible groups allows non-group members to see the work of other groups
   • Separate groups allows only group members to see work within the group
7. Select the Grouping from the Grouping drop down menu.
8. Click the Save changes button at the bottom of the page.

Students will only see the activities they have been assigned to. Teachers will see the name of the Grouping in brackets after the activity name on the course page. A count of activities assigned to each Grouping is kept on the Groupings page.

Resources: Click the appropriate tab above or use the buttons below to learn more about Groups and Groupings.

Moodle Docs What is a Group?

Watch the video below to learn how to use and apply Groupings to your course:

Add and Configure the Quickmail block in a CLE Course

Follow the instructions below to:

1. Add the Quickmail Block to a CLE Course
2. Configure the Quickmail Block (Optional)
3. Create a Quickmail Signature (Optional)
4. Setup an Alternate Email for Sending Quickmail Messages (Optional)
5. Remove the Quickmail Block from a CLE Course (Optional)

1. Add the Quickmail Block to a CLE Course

The Quickmail block must be added to a CLE course before you can begin to send Quickmail messages. Only the Manager, Instructor, and Content Assistant roles can add the Quickmail block to a CLE course. To add the Quickmail block to a CLE course:

1. Log in to the CLE (cle.ucsf.edu).
2. Go to the CLE course where you would like to add the Quickmail block.
3. From the Administration block, click Turn editing on (or use the Turn editing on button located in the top-right corner).
4. Near the bottom-portion of the course, find the Add a Block drop-down menu.
5. From the “Add a Block” drop-down menu, scroll down the list, and choose Quickmail.
6. After a moment, the window will refresh, and the Quickmail block will be located near the bottom-left corner of the CLE course page. To move the block to a new location, use the move icon located in the top-right portion of the Quickmail block (with editing is turned on). Moving this block will affect all visitors to your course.

2. Configure Quickmail (Optional)

Configuration settings allows you to change the default behavior of the Quickmail block. For example, the default setting for the Quickmail block prevents students from sending Quickmail messages in a CLE course. Follow the instructions below to allow students to send Quickmail messages:

1. Navigate to the CLE course where the Quickmail block has been added.
2. Inside of the Quickmail block, click Configuration.
3. Choose to allow students to use Quickmail by changing the default from No to Yes. Using default setting (No), students can only receive Quickmail messages, and cannot send.
4. From the Filter by Role box, choose the roles you would like to filter by when sending a Quickmail message to quickly communicate in large classes.
5. From the Prepend drop-down menu, choose to prepend the CLE course short name or the CLE course ID to the title of the Quickmail message.
   
6. Select No from the “Receive a copy” drop-down menu if you do not want to copy the sender on Quickmail messages by default. This can be changed later when sending individual Quickmail messages.
7. Click the Save Changes button to return to the CLE course.

3. Create a Quickmail Signature (Optional)

Want to create a signature to use in Quickmail messages? Follow the instructions below to create a signature before sending a Quickmail message:

1. From the Quickmail block, click Signatures.
2. On the Signature page, enter a Title for your signature. The title is used to identify and select your signatures from the Signature drop-down menu when composing a message.
3. In the Signature Field, compose your signature.
4. To make this your default Quickmail signature, check the Default checkbox.
5. Click the Save Changes button to save the Quickmail signature.
6. When composing Quickmail messages, you will now be able to select and include this signature – even from other CLE courses that use the Quickmail block.

4. Setup an Alternate Email (Optional)

Managers, Instructors, Content and Grading Assistants can setup an alternate email address to send Quickmail messages. When an alternate email is used in a Quickmail message, such as a Gmail account, it will appear as the “reply-to” address in the message. Using a valid UCSF email address is always recommended to help simplify support requests.

Follow the instructions below to setup an alternate email account before sending a Quickmail message:

1. From the Quickmail block, click Alternate Emails.
2. If you have not previously set up an alternate email, click Continue.
3. Enter an alternate email in the Email Address field.
4. Click Save Changes.
5. The following message will display “Alternate address [email address] has been saved. An email to verify that the address is valid has been sent to [email address]. Instructions on how to activate the address is contained in its contents.”
6. In a separate browser window, navigate to the inbox for the alternate email address.
7. Find the following email from Moodle: Quickmail, with the subject link “Alternate email address verification.”
8. Verify that you would like to use the alternate email address by clicking the link provided in the email.
9. Once you have verified the alternate address, it can be used in Quickmail messages.
10. You will return to the Alternate Email page, where you can view, edit, or add additional alternate emails.
11. When composing a Quickmail message, you will now be able to send the message from this alternate email address.

Please note: Use of an alternate email address only affects the “Reply-to” for emails sent from Quickmail. The email used in instructor’s CLE Profiles will be used for all other CLE-generated emails and messages. If the Quickmail block is configured to allow student use, Quickmail messages sent to the instructor will go to the email address associated with their CLE profile, and not the alternate email address.

5. Remove the Quickmail Block (Optional)

Want to remove the Quickmail block from a CLE course? Follow the instructions below to remove the block from the CLE course:

1. Make sure editing is turned on in the CLE course that contains the Quickmail block.
2. Click the gear icon in the Quickmail block.
3. Click Delete Quickmail block.

Use the Quickmail block

After adding the Quickmail block to your CLE course, follow the instructions below to:

1. Send a Quickmail Message
2. Receive a Quickmail Message
3. View Quickmail Draft Messages
4. View Quickmail History

1. Send a Quickmail Message

Quickmail messages can be sent to individual course participants or groups. This includes manually created groups from the course, or groups divided by roles (i.e. all students or all instructors). After the Quickmail block has been added to a CLE course, you can begin to send Quickmail messages to students and other participants in the course following the instructions below:

1. Inside of the Quickmail block, click Compose New Email.
2. On the Quickmail page, choose to filter recipients by Role or Sections (Groups) or choose to no filter.
3. Highlight the users name from the “Potential Recipients” box and click the Add button to add users to the “Selected Recipients” for the Quickmail message.
4. To include more than one section, group or participant at a time, hold down Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) and click additional names in the “Potential Section” list.
5. To include all course members as recipients, click the Add All button.
6. Enter the email address for anyone who is not enrolled in the course, but should be included on the Quickmail message.
7. Choose to add an Attachment(s) to the Quickmail message.
8. Enter a Subject for the Quickmail message (required).
9. Compose your message (remember you can include video, audio, images, tables, etc.) in the text editor.
10. Choose a Signature from the drop-down menu (see “Setup a Signature” in the “Add/Configure” tab above for instructions on creating a Quickmail signature).
11. From the “Receive a copy of the message” drop-down menu, select Yes to receive a copy of the message in your own mailbox. The default setting is No and you must select Yes each time you wish to receive a copy of a message.
12. Click Send Email to send the Quickmail message.
13. Click Save Draft button if you would like to save and return to the message at a later time to make additional edits before sending.
14. Click Cancel to delete the Quickmail message.
15. After clicking Send Email, you will be directed to the “Quickmail View History” page. Please note, messages sent using the Quickmail block are sent immediately.

2. Receive a Quickmail Message

• Quickmail is used to send email, but not to receive. Quickmail messages are viewed in the email mailbox of the recipient and not inside of the CLE. Students can view Quickmail messages using their ucsf.edu email accounts if the Quickmail block is configured for student use.
• Faculty and staff can view messages using their ucsf.edu email account or using an alternate email address.
• Quickmail messages override course members’ individual profile settings for receiving CLE emails as daily digests.

3. View Drafts Messages

Want to view a Quickmail draft message before sending? Follow the instructions below to view Quickmail draft messages:

1. From the Quickmail block, click View Drafts.
2. The “View Drafts” screen opens, displaying a list of your draft messages.
3. To open a draft message to edit and send, click the Magnifying Glass from the Action column.
4. To delete a draft, click the red X icon from the Action column.

4. View Quickmail History

Want to view a Quickmail message you have sent? Follow the instructions below to view Quickmail history:

1. From the Quickmail block, click View History.
2. The “View History” screen will open, displaying a list of messages you have sent.
3. Click the Magnify Glass icon to open and read the sent message.

Quickmail Resources

Below are additional, great Quickmail resources from the Moodle community:

Moodle Quickmail Doc

UMass Amherst Quickmail Documentation

To add the Recent Courses block to a CLE course:

1. Log in to the CLE (cle.ucsf.edu).
2. Go to the CLE course where you would like to add the Recent Courses block.
3. From the Administration block or from the top-right of the CLE, select Turn editing on.
4. Near the bottom-portion of the course, find Add a Block drop-down menu.
5. Click the Add a Block drop-down menu, scroll down the list, and click on Recent Courses.
6. After a moment, your window will refresh, and the Recent Courses block will be located near the bottom-left corner of the CLE course page. To move the block to a new location, use the move icon located in the top-right portion of the Recent Course block, when editing is turned on. Moving this block will affect all visitors to your course.
7. To customize the block, click the User settings link located at the bottom of the block.
8. The Recent Courses block has only one setting – a drop-down menu allowing you to choose how many of the courses you have most recently viewed will be displayed. This number can be set to as few as one course, or as many as ten.
9. After making your selection, click Save changes button to return to the front page.

Deleting an item

To delete, or send an item to the recycle bin:

1. Navigate to your course home page, and click the Turn editing on button.
2. Locate the item you wish to remove, and click its corresponding Edit link, and choose Delete from the menu.
3. From the Confirm dialog box, click the Yes button.
4. After a few moments, refresh your browser. The Recycle bin icon will appear near the bottom of the Administration block.

Recovering

To recover, or move an item from the recycle bin back to the course home page:

1. From the Administration block, click the Recycle bin icon (only visible if something has been recently deleted, and after you have refreshed the page).
2. Locate the item, and click its corresponding Restore icon.
3. You will see a confirmation banner appear at the top of the Recycle bin. Return to your course home page, and the item will be in its original location.

Permanently deleting

To permanently delete an item from your course:

1. From the Administration block, click the Recycle bin icon (only visible if something has been recently deleted, and after you have refreshed the page).
2. Locate the item, and click its corresponding Delete icon.
3. From the Confirm dialog box, click the Yes button.

NOTE: If you delete something from within the recycle bin, you are permanently deleting that item, and there is no undo option!

Please make note of the following tips about the recycle bin:

Recovery time allotment: You have 28 days to recover any item sent to the recycle bin. After that, it will be automatically and permanently deleted from the CLE.

Hiding instead of deleting: If you’re not sure about removing something from a course, and you are worried about the 14 day time limit for items in the bin, we recommend leaving the item on the course home page, and simply hiding it from students, until you are sure.

Deleting whole sections: You can now delete entire sections. However, section headers DO NOT get sent to the recycle bin. Activities and resources with the section will end up in the recycle bin, but anything typed or embedded into the section header is lost as soon as you delete it. For this reason, we recommend using the Label resource for adding descriptive information to the course home page, because labels are recoverable when deleted, and they can be freely moved within the center column of the course.

Deleting elements from activities (but not the whole activity): If you delete just a single piece of an activity (for example, a forum post, or a chapter from a book activity), it will NOT appear in the Recycle Bin and cannot be recovered. Only whole resources or activities are protected by the Recycle Bin functionality!

One bin per course: There is only one recycle bin per course, and it is shared by all course editors.

Students: Students cannot delete activities or resources from a course, and will never see the recycle bin.

Delays and refreshing the page: After deleting an item, the recycle bin will not appear until you refresh the page. It can take about 30 seconds, or more, for the bin to appear, especially if the deleted item was large or complex, like a quiz, or a page with embedded media.

Category level bin: If you are a category manager, and have the ability to create and delete entire courses, you’ll be glad to know that the recycle bin will appear on the course category page as well. This means you can recover entire courses that were accidentally deleted, with just a few clicks!

More info: docs.moodle.org/32/en/Recycle_bin

If you have any questions about this feature, or notice something missing in your course that does not appear in the recycle bin, please contact us ASAP!

Add the Remote News Feed Block to a CLE Course

Follow the instructions below to:

1. Add the Remote News Feed Block to a CLE Course 

2. Remove the Block 

1. Add the Remote News Feed Block to a CLE Course 

The Remote News Feed block must be added to a CLE course before you can configure the block to display Class Capture or other RSS feeds. Only the Manager, Instructor, and Content Assistant roles can add the Remote News Feed block to a CLE course. To add the Remote RSS Feed block to a CLE course:

1. Navigate to the CLE course where you would like to add the Remote News Feed block.
2. From the Administration block, click Turn editing on (or use the Turn editing on button located in the top-right corner).
3. Near the bottom-portion of the course, find the Add a Block drop-down menu.
4. From the “Add a Block” drop-down menu, scroll down the list, and choose Remote RSS Feed.
5. After a moment, the window will refresh, and the Remote News Feed block will be located near the bottom-left corner of the CLE course page. To move the block to a new location, use the move icon located in the top-right portion of the block (with editing is turned on). Moving this block will affect all visitors in your course.
   After the Remote News Feed block has been added to the CLE course, continue to the Setup Class Capture tab above for detailed instructions on configuring the Remote News Feed block to display Class Capture content in a CLE course.

2. Remove the Block 

Want to remove the Remote News Feed block from a CLE course? Follow the instructions below:

1. Turn editing on in the CLE course where the Remote News Feed block has been added.
2. Navigate to the RSS Remote Feed block and click the gear icon.
3. Click Delete Remote News Feed block.

Setup Class Capture in Remote News Feed Block

Recorder Class Capture lectures can be shared in three different ways:

1. Share a direct link to the Course Catalog page. Simply share the link that ETS provided to you, with your audience.
2. Share a link to a single session. You can copy a link to a single session and share that with your audience.
3. Share a syndicated feed of your Class Capture content. You can copy an RSS feed link for your Catalog, and use that to display a dynamic list of past, live, and future lectures in the Remote News Feed block.

The Remote News Feed block sharing method is most common, because it only needs to be setup once per course. After that, new Class Capture recordings will appear automatically for students.  To complete the steps below, you must have the role of Content Assistant, Instructor, or Manager in the course.

Follow the instructions below to:

1. Locate Class Capture RSS Feed 

2. Add Class Capture RSS Feed to Remote News Feed Block 

3. Confirm Working 

1. Locate Class Capture RSS Feed 

When you complete your request with ETS to use the Class Capture system, they will email you with a link and information about sharing the live and recorded sessions. If you did not receive this information, please contact ETS.

Class Capture lectures are available in audio or video format. The instructions below provides steps for setting up Class Capture video content in the Remote News Feed block. Please follow the same instructions for setting up a separate Remote News Feed block for audio (mp3) versions of the lectures using the unique audio catalog page.

To find your Class Capture RSS feed:

1. Locate and open the Class Capture catalog page using the URL that was emailed to you from ETS.
2. You should see the RSS link in the top-right corner.
3. Right-click on the RSS link and select Copy Link Location from the pop-up menu. Note: Some browsers will use different phrasing in their pop-up menu, but they all provide a mechanism for copying the link address. This screenshot shows Firefox’s context menu. Internet Explorer uses the phrase “Copy Shortcut.” Safari uses the phrase “Copy Link.” Chrome uses the phrase “Copy Link Address.”

2. Add Class Capture RSS Feed to Remote News Feed Block 

After adding the Remote News Feed block to a course and locating your Class Capture RSS feed, you are ready to configure the block to display Class Capture recordings. Follow the instructions below to add the Class Capture RSS feed to the Remote News Feed block:

1. Turn editing on in the CLE course where the Remote News Feed block has been added.
2. In the Remote News Feed block, click the gear icon and select Configure Remote News Feed block.
3. The “Configuring a Remote News Feed block” page will appear. Click the Add/edit feeds link to setup the Class Capture RSS feed.
4. Click the Add a new feed button.
5. Paste the Class Capture RSS feed that you copied earlier into the “Feed URL” field.
6. It is not necessary to check the Enable auto-discovery of feeds? box, because we are copying/pasting a direct link to the RSS feed from your Class Catalog. If you were linking to something else, like a news website, you may need to check this box because you may not have access to the actual RSS feed. In that case, the CLE will attempt to find a feed on that page for you.
7. Enter a Custom title to override the default title from Class Capture. The title will be supplied by the feed and can be edited later. For this example we will enter NURSING Spring Lectures as a custom title for the feed.
8. Please DO NOT change the “Shared feed” option to Yes. Doing so will cause your Class Catalog RSS feed to appear as an option to display in everyone’s Remote News Feed block!
9. Click the Add button when complete.

Once the Class Capture feed has been added, return to the front page of the CLE course to finish configuring the Remote News Feed block.

1. In the Remote News Feed block, click the gear icon and select Configure Remote News Feed block (with editing turned on in the course). This will take you to the “Configuring a Remote News Feed block” page.
2. Choose to display the each link’s description in the block. This includes any descriptive information provided by the Class Capture system.
3. Select the max number of entries (or lecture recordings) to show per block.
4. Choose the feed to display in the block. For this example, choose the feed created above, titled NURSING Spring Lectures.
5. Enter a custom title for the block. For this example, we will again use NURSING Spring Lectures.
6. Choose to display the link to the original website (if you would like students to be able to add the RSS feed to a podcatcher on a mobile device, choose Yes).
7. Choose to Show the channel image in the block if one is available.
8. Configure where and how the block displays on the course page.
9. Click the Save changes button.

3. Confirm Working 

The Remote News Feed block is now setup in your course. New lectures that are recorded using Class Capture will automatically appear in the block 30-60 minutes after the lecture has ended and students can click the links to view individual lectures.

Here are a few quick tips for managing the Remote News Feed block has been added to a course:

• To make changes to the block configuration, click on the gear icon and select Configure block. You can update settings such as the maximum number of lectures that appear, or change the title that appears in the block.
• You can move the block to any location on the left or right of your course. Turn editing on, then click the cross icon to drag the block to the location you prefer.
• To hide the block form students, turn editing on, click on the gear icon, then select Hide. Course instructors will still be able to see the block.
• If a Class Capture catalog is set to private, only UCSF community members logged into MyAccess will be able to watch the Class Capture content. If you would like to allow others outside of UCSF to be able to review the Class Capture content, please contact ETS to request that the catalog be made public.
• Want to use Class Capture for your UCSF class? Contact Educational Technology Services.
  

Course logs allow instructors to see which resources or activities have been accessed and when. You can check to see if an individual student has viewed a specific resource or participated in a particular activity. You can limit your search to a specific day, or get results for a specified period of time. Logs are particularly helpful to view an individual student’s forum posts over the course of the semester.

To run a Log Report:

1. Go to the Administration block, click Reports, and then Logs.
2. You will see an array of drop-down menus. Choose one or more options to narrow the search:

• Course filter. The default is the current course.
• Group filter. The default is All groups. Pull down the list to select a specific group.
• Participant filter. The default is All participants. Pull down the list to select a particular participant.
• Day filter. The default is All days. Pull down the list to select a specific date.
• Activity filter. The default is All activities. Pull down the list to narrow the filter to one activity.
• Action filter. The default is All actions. Pull down the list to limit the action to Create, View, Update, Delete or All actions.
• Education level. Filters include Teaching,Participating and Other. Selecting Teaching filters results based on actions a teacher might take (e.g. grading a student or creating an activity or resource). Selecting Participating filters results based on actions a student or participant might take (e.g. posting to a course or making a submission to a Moodle Assignment).

3.  Click Get these logs. The page will refresh displaying logs based on your chosen filters.
4.  To download the report as a file, use the Download table data as drop-down menu to select a file type.
5.  Click Download (at the bottom of the report) to download the report file to your computer.

Log Report Example

Live logs

Displays a log of activity over the past hour.

Activity reports generates a simple unfiltered report showing all activity in the course that you can sort by column header.

1. On your course page, in the Administration block,
2. click Reports and then Activity report.
3. A new page will open listing course activities.
   • Items are listed in order of appearance in the course sections.
   • The Activity column shows the icon for the activity type and the name of the activity.
   • The Views column tells how many times each item has been viewed.
   • The Last access column tells the date the item was last viewed, and elapsed time since it was last viewed.

Activity Report Example

A Course participation report provides an easy way to monitor general participation in your course, and is particularly useful for monitoring activity in forums. You can see if students have viewed readings or forums, and if (and how many times) they have posted in the forum or activity.

1. From the Administration block, click Reports and then Course participation. A new page will open showing an array of drop-down menus.
2. Choose your options from the drop-down menus:
   • • Activity module – Select the Activity type on which you wish to report (e.g., Chat, Forum, Quiz, etc.).
       Note: only the activity and resource types used in the course will be listed in this drop-down menu.
     • Look back – Select the period on which you wish to report (you can only go back to the number of days when the first activity occurred).
     • Show only – Choose what course role to filter by.
     • Show actions – Choose whether to report on Views, Posts, or both (All Actions).
     • Groups – Choose which groups to filter by.
3. Once you have entered values for the above parameters, click Go. Users matching the criteria you selected will be listed in a table sorted by Name. Under All actions you can see whether (and how many times) they have completed the action.

Course Participation Report Example

Activity completion generates a list of all participants and displays whether they have completed activities.

Note: Activity Completion reports are only available:

• if the Enable completion tracking is set to Yes in your course (in the Settings block under Course Administration > Edit) and your course contains activities.
• and if Activities have Completion tracking enabled (on the activity’s Settings page).

Activity Completion Report Example

To create a book:

1. Log in to the CLE (cle.ucsf.edu) and go to the CLE course where you would like to add the book.
2. Click the Actions Menu (Gear icon) located on the top-right of the CLE, select Turn editing on from the drop down menu.
   
3. In the course section where the Book should be displayed, click the Add an activity or resource link.
4. An activity or resource window will open, scroll to the bottom to find the Resources section. Select the Book resource type, then click Add. This will take you to your new book’s settings page.
5. First, enter a Name for your book. Whatever you enter into this box will be the link students will click on to view the information contained within.
6. You may also enter an optional Description to provide additional information to students about the book. If you do enter a Description, you can choose to display that description on the front page of your course by checking the box.
7. Click the Expand all link to expand all settings.
8. You may also choose the way this book handles Chapter formatting; for information about the available options, click the Help icon  next to the Chapter formatting drop-down menu.
9. To being populating content into your book, click the Save and display button at the bottom of the page.
10. To begin building your book, enter your first Chapter title, and put the information you want to present to students into the Content box. This content can include text, images, links — anything that you can enter into in a word processor can be entered here.

    NOTE: LTG staff recommend not copying and pasting directly from word processors (especially Microsoft Word) into the Content window, or any other area in the CLE where the HTML toolbar is present. If you have too much content to type it directly into the browser window, click the Paste from Word icon and paste your text into the window that appears. This tool will attempt to strip hidden formatting that could cause your book to display improperly, or could break other functionality within the CLE. You may need to re-apply formatting to your content using the HTML toolbar after using the Paste from Word tool.

11. When you are done entering content, click Save changes to proceed.
12. After you have added the first chapter to your book, you will see the title and content from that chapter on the right side of the book window. Navigation buttons will automatically appear that help users move forward and backward through your content. Users can also use the Table of contents to move freely throughout the Book’s content. Other actions you can perform using the book’s table of contents include  Moving (A) a chapter up or down in the list, editing the Settings (B) for a chapter or subchapter, deleting (C) a chapter or subchapter, hiding (D) a chapter or subchapter, or adding a new chapter/subchapter (E).
13. To add chapters or sub-chapters to a book, click the Add (plus sign) icon. A new chapter will be added directly below the Add icon, and you will be taken once again to the Editing chapter screen. To make a subchapter instead of a chapter, simply click the subchapter box on that screen.
14. When you are finished making changes to the book, you can more accurately preview the way your book will look to others by Turning off editing. To do this, make sure you are still inside the book, click the gear icon (actions menu), and click Turn editing off. The editing icons in the Table of contents will disappear, and you will be seeing the book in the same way other users in your course will.

Chapters and subchapters are used to present a visual heirarchy for users who are navigating the book, but there is no difference in what kind of content can be contained within a chapter or subchapter. The only difference between the two is that subchapters are slightly indented in the Table of contents. The presentation of chapters and subchapters will vary slightly, based on which Chapter formatting selection you made on the Edit settings page of the book.

Printing a book

Whole books and individual chapters may be printed by clicking the gear icon (actions menu) located on the top right of the book while editing is turned on.

Watch the video below to see how to add a Book to a CLE course:

To upload multiple files to your CLE course:

1. Log in to the CLE (cle.ucsf.edu).
2. Go to the CLE course where you would like to upload a file.
3. From the Administration block or from the top-right corner of the CLE, select Turn editing on.
4. Locate the files you would like to upload on your computer.
5. If you have several files that should each be displayed on the front page of your course, highlight these files on your computer, and drag them from your computer as a batch into the correct topic section.
6. A dashed-line box will appear when you are in an area that your files can be dropped. Once this box appears, drop your files onto the course page. A progress bar will be visible while the files are uploading, and will disappear when the uploads have finished.
7. The files will each be displayed as multiple links on the front page of the course.
8. Rename the files. By default, the CLE will make the names of the links to the files the same as the file names. To change the name that displays on the course page, click the pencil icon next to a file and enter the correct name.
9. To enter a description, display options, assign groupings or restrict access, select Edit Settings from the drop-down menu next to the file.
10. Clicks the Save and return to course button

Alternatively, if you have several files that should be displayed within a folder on the front page of your course, combine any files you want to upload into a ZIP archive, and then drag and drop the ZIP archive onto your course page. In the box that appears, select either Unzip files and create folder if you want students to be able to access each of the files in the ZIP archive individually, or Create file resource if you want students to download the ZIP archive itself.

The process for adding a Zoom meeting to a CLE course is just like adding any activity to a course, and can be done by anyone with an editing role in the course. Anyone with access to the course can view the activity, including students and participants.

First-time users:

If you try to add a Zoom meeting to a CLE course but have not yet used the UCSF Zoom service to schedule meetings, you will be prompted to log in to https://ucsf.zoom.us. This will create your Zoom account. After that is complete, return to the CLE and continue the activity creation process.

Steps for adding the activity:

1. From the home page of your course, click the settings icon and choose Turning editing on from the drop-down menu.
2. From within a topic section, click the Add an activity or resource link.
3. Choose Zoom meeting from the list, and then click the Add button.
4. Topic – provide a name for the meeting.
5. When and Duration – set the start date, time and duration.
6. Recurring – leave the session open indefinitely, no end time.
7. Webinar – N/A, this setting does not apply to our version of Zoom.
8. Password – this is optional. You can also use groups and groupings to restrict access.
9. Host video and Participants video – we recommend leaving these set to On.
10. Audio options – we recommend leaving this set to VoIP and Telephony to allow both phone and device-based audio connections (i.e. your laptop microphone and speakers).
11. Meeting option – we recommend setting this to Enable join before host.
12. Alternative hosts* – add the email addresses (separated by commas) of other users who should be able to launch and facilitate the Zoom meeting.
13. Grade – optional. Enable if you want students to automatically receive points for joining the Zoom meeting.
14. Click the Save and return to course button.

* Important Note: If the Zoom activity is added to the course by a category manager, teaching assistant, or course coordinator, then the actual meeting leader (i.e., the course instructor) must be added to the “Alternative hosts“ field. Otherwise, the meeting can become linked to the wrong user’s Zoom account, or the instructor will not have full control over the meeting. Alternatively, if the Zoom activity is being added to the course by a category manager, they can “log in as” the host user before adding the activity.

To start the Zoom meeting, simply locate the activity from the home page of your course, and click the link.

Then, click the Start Meeting button.

If you do not yet have the Zoom application installed on your device, you will be prompted to do so. On some systems, this installation will happen automatically. The application is small and should download and install quickly.

If you are not automatically prompted to install the application, and Zoom doesn’t launch, you can manually install the appropriate version from the Zoom website: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/207373866-Zoom-Installers

Students and other participants will join the Zoom meeting using the same process.

When the meeting is over, click the End Meeting button or quit the Zoom application.

If you are the host, and would like to leave the meeting open for others to continue, use the Manage Participants pane to assign an alternate host before quitting.

If you need help with Zoom, please select the appropriate support group:

UCSF IT Service Desk: logging in to Zoom, account set up, general questions about the Zoom website, and running a meeting using the Zoom application.

Learning Tech Group: adding the Zoom meeting activity in a CLE course using the Zoom plug-in.

Educational Technology Services (ETS): borrow a Zoom A/V kit, connect your Zoom meeting to the A/V systems built-in to a mediated classroom.

For getting started guides, video tutorials, and help documentation about the Zoom application, please refer to the Zoom Help Center:

• Getting Started Guides
• Tutorial Videos
• Zoom FAQ

Creating Assignment

1. Log in to the CLE (cle.ucsf.edu).
2. Go to the CLE course where you would like to add the Assignment activity.
3. From the Administration block or from the top-right of the CLE, select Turn editing on.
4. Inside the course section where the Assignment should be displayed, click the Add an activity or resource link.
5. Near the top of the window that appears, select the Assignment activity, then scroll to the bottom of the window and click Add.
6. One the new Assignment’s settings page, enter a description, display options, assign groupings and restrict access settings.
7. Scroll down to the Assignment settings area of the page to configure settings for Submitting and Grading the assignment.
8. Most other settings in this section can be safely left to their default configurations. For more information about a particular option, click the grey Help icon next to the option.
9. Continue by scrolling down to the Submission settings area of the page and configure how students submit their assignments and settings related to the size and number of files students can upload.
10. Continue by scrolling down to the Feedback and Grade settings area to configure whether feedback can be provided and how the assignment will be graded.
11. To finish creating your Assignment, click the Save and display button. This will save the Assignment and bring you into the Assignment’s front page.
12. Review the assignment settings you entered to make sure everything is configured correctly.

Grading

As an Instructor, you can grade student submissions easily all in one place. The CLE accepts variety of file types as submissions, and some file types (.pdf, .doc, .docx, .odt and online text entry) can be viewed and annotated directly inside the CLE without having to download them. Your annotations will be saved as a PDF file and becomes available to the students. This feature is called PDF Annotation and was added to the CLE on 7/1/2017. To begin grading using PDF Annotation, open an Assignment activity and then click the Grade button.

What can I do with PDF Annotation?

① View students submissions
② Annotate submissions with annotation tools
③ Switch student to grade
④ Give grades (point scale or rubric)
⑤ Leave feedback comments

Click the image to enlarge

What annotation tools do I have?

a. Comment Tool

a1. Draw text box
a2. Select the color of the text box

b. Selection Tool

b1. Grab the screen to navigate inside the assignment preview area
b2. Select an item to edit, move or delete

c. Shape Tool

c1. Scribble lines
c2. Straight lines
c3. Rectangles
c4. Circles
c5. Highlighter
c6. Select the color of the shapes and the highlighter

c. Stamp Tool

d1. Apply stamp
d2. Select stamp

Offline Grading

If you’d prefer grading offline, downloading submissions is still an option although you won’t be able to use aforementioned PDF Annotation. You can either download a single submission or download all the submissions as a .zip file.

• To download all submissions, go to Assignment > View all submissions > Grading action > Download all submissions
• To download a single submission, go to Assignment > View all submissions > Click a file in the File submissions column

Click the image to enlarge

Grading Worksheet

Grading Worksheet is a spreadsheet that you can download from the grading page in an Assignment activity. You can fill out this spreadsheet and upload back to the Assignment to update the grade.

To use Grading Worksheet,

1. Go to Assignment > View all submissions > Grading action > Download Grading Worksheet
2. A .csv file will be downloaded to your local drive. Open the file, enter student grades and comment, then save.
3. Go back to the View all submissions page in the Assignment.
4. From the Grading Action drop-down menu, choose Upload Grading Worksheet.
5. Upload the updated Grading Worksheet. Wait for the file name to appear in the box.
6. Click Upload Grading Worksheet; a Confirmation box displays the students grades and feedback that will be imported – review this carefully.
7. Click Confirm; a summary of updates displays.
8. Click Continue.

To create a Forum in a CLE course:

1. Log in to the CLE (cle.ucsf.edu).
2. Go to the CLE course where you would like to add the Forum.
3. From the Administration block or from the top-right of the CLE, select Turn editing on (or use the Turn editing on button located in the top-right corner).
4. Inside the course section where the Forum should be displayed, click the Add an activity or resource link.
5. In the window that appears, find the Activities section. Select the Forum activity type, then scroll to the bottom of the list and click Add. This will take you to your new Forum’s settings page.
6. First, enter a Name for your Forum. Whatever you enter into this box will be the link students will click on to enter the Forum. Also, select a Forum type from the drop-down menu; most courses will use the default option (Standard forum for general use), but additional options are available. For a brief description of each option, click the Help icon.
7. You will also need to enter a Description; this is a good place to enter information about which topics you would like students to discuss in this particular forum. The description will be displayed to students after they click to enter the activity; you can also choose to display it on the front page of your course by checking the box.
8. By default, users within a course are given the option to subscribe to a forum, and receive all posts made to that forum by email. Instructors can change this behavior using the Subscription mode drop-down menu. For a brief description of the other options available, click the Help icon next to Subscription Mode. Read-tracking allows a user to quickly see whether there are new posts inside a Forum that they have not yet read.
   • By default, this is set to Optional, which means the system will respect the preferences in each user’s Moodle profile. Instructors can use this option to force read-tracking on or off for all users in a course, regardless of how their individual preferences are configured.
9. Additionally, an Instructor can adjust the maximum attachment size and the maximum number of attachments allowed on an individual post within a forum. The 500KB default attachment limit will accommodate most file types; however, if users are attaching large files (such as video files) to their forum posts, this limit can be increased up to the current file upload limit. Alternatively, an Instructor can use this drop down to prevent students from attaching files to their forum posts.
10. To continue, scroll down to the Ratings area of the settings page. By turning on the Forum Ratings feature, an instructor can also provide grades to students based on the quality or quantity of their participation in the forums.
    • By default, only those with elevated privileges in a course can provide ratings to student postings; if you would like to use the ratings system for a peer-evaluation activity, in which students can rate other students’ postings, please contact the Learning Tech Group for information.
    • First, select an aggregation method from the Aggregate type drop-down menu. This controls how ratings are translated into a grade for each student. Next, select the Scale you would like to use for this forum; this determines what options you’ll see when giving a rating to a student’s post.
11. To continue, scroll down to the Restrict access area of the settings page.
12. To finish creating your forum, click Save and display. This will save the forum and bring you into the forum’s front page. Review your forum’s description to make sure it reflects the information your students need to participate in the forum.

Add a custom certificate to a course

1. Log on to your CLE (cle.ucsf.edu)
2. Go to the CLE course where you would like to add the certificate.
3. From the Administration block or from the top-right of the CLE, select Turn editing on.
4. Inside the section where the certificate should be displayed, click the Add an activity or resource.
5. From the list of Activities, select the Certificate activity, then scroll to the bottom of the window and click Add. This will take you to your new certificate settings page.
6. Enter the following information on the Add a new Custom Certificate page:

Edit a Custom certificate

Once you have added a certificate to your course you have the option to create a custom certificate by adding elements (i.e. background image, student name, title) that will be displayed on your certificate. To edit your custom certificate:

1. Click and open the Custom certificate that you added to your course.
2. From the administration block, click edit custom certificate.
3. Edit the name, height, and width of your certificate.
4. Select the elements to add to your certificate from the drop down box and click the Add element.
   • Background Image – Provide a background image for the certificate.
   • Border – A simple border for the certificate, you can define the color and width of the border.
   • Category Name – Will print the course category
   • Code – Will print a random 10 digit code on the certificate for better tracking and verification.
   • Course Name – Will print the course name
   • Date – Will print the date on the certificate. You can choose to print the course start date, course end date, issued date, completion date or any specific activity completion date.
   • Digital Signature – Add a digital signature of the person issuing the certificate.
   • Grade – Will print the grades obtained in the course.
   • Grade Item Name – Will print the name of the activity for which the student has been assessed.
   • Image – Upload and add an image to the certificate.
   • Student Name – Will print the students name
   • Teacher Name – Will print the teacher name
   • Text – Enter any custom text
   • User Field – Will print the selected user profile field.
   • User Picture – Will print the user profile picture on the certificate.

You can also choose to load a template (see instructions in the load template section below).
5.  When you add an element, a formatting window will open allowing you to edit the font, color and position of the element. Click Save changes when done.
*On the edit page you will start to see a list of the elements that have already added to the certificate. You can edit, delete, and move these elements. The order of these elements determine how they are arranged on the PDF. So, if you plan to add a background image, you should add it first so that subsequent elements are placed in front of the image.

6. Click Save changes when done.

Reposition elements
When editing a custom certificate, under the list of elements there is a Reposition elements link that will take you to a page where you can preview the certificate and drag and drop the elements. While on the reposition elements page you can also double click on elements to bring up the edit element dialogue box, that will allow you to edit its properties without having to go back to the edit custom certificate page.

Load Template

The Learning Tech Group has created a certificate template for you, the template can be used as is or you can load it and then make edits to it. To load a template, take the following steps:

1. Click and open the custom certificate activity that you added to your course.
2. On the administration block and click edit custom certificate.
3. The edit custom certificate window will open.
4. Scroll down to the Load Template section and select Certificate Template and click Load.

Once you click load, the elements will automatically populate for your certificate. Click the Resposition elements link to view and edit.

Delete Issued Certificates

Issued certificates can be deleted by taking the following steps:

1. Click and open the cerficate activity that you added to your course.
2. Click the view issued certificates link on the right side of the page.
3. Once on the issued certificates page, click the X on the far right to delete the student’s certificate.
   

Create a Quiz

Creating a quiz in the CLE is a two-part process. The instructions below cover the first part – adding a quiz to a CLE course and configuring the quiz settings. The second part of the quiz-making process is adding questions to the quiz, which is covered in the Add Questions tab above. Visit Moodle Docs to view an abbreviated quick guide for managing the Quiz activity.

Let’s create a final exam in our CLE course using the Quiz activity. Here is the criterion for the final exam:

• Students can start the final exam on October 12 at 8am and must finish by October 12 at 5pm
• Students have a 120-minute time limit to complete the final exam and are allowed only one attempt
• Students will be able to see their final exam score after the exam closes on October 12 at 5pm and can review their attempt for 24 hours after the close time

To add a quiz to a CLE course:

Appearance Section

Configure display settings for the quiz. Click the Show more… link to expand the section as shown below.

User Overrides

Add a Quiz

Watch this video to learn how to add a Quiz to your CLE course.

Add Questions to a Quiz

Watch this video to learn how to create and add questions to your CLE Quiz.

Grade a Quiz

Watch this video to learn how to grade a CLE Quiz.

Quiz FAQ

View More CLE Help Videos

Access restrictions (also known as Conditional release) can be applied to a new resource or activity to a course page, or to a resource or activity that has already been added to your course.

To restrict access to an activity or resource:

1. Turn editing on in the CLE course
2. Click Add a new activity or resource, or click Edit Settings for an activity or resource that was previously added to the course
3. From the Edit Settings page, scroll down to the Restrict Access section and expand
4. Click the Add restriction… button to setup a restriction
5. After clicking the Add Restriction button, a choice of conditions appear
6. Restrictions can be based upon completion of activity, date, grade, group, grouping, mobile app, user profile fields, or a set of nested restrictions (see below for more information)

Below is more information on the conditions available for access restrictions:

• Activity Completion: Require students to complete (or not complete) another activity(Note this button only appears if you have Activity completion enabled in your CLE course)
• Date: Prevent access until (or from) a specified date and time
• Grade: Require students to achieve a specified grade on an activity
• Group: Control access based on if students belong to a certain group (Note the groups and grouping button only appears if you have Groups enabled in your CLE course) 
• Grouping: Control access based on if students belong to a certain group
• Mobile App: Require students to access (or not access) using the mobile app
• User Profile: Control access based on fields within the student’s profile
• Restriction Set: Add a set of nested restrictions to apply complex logic

Additional instructions for restricting access to groups and groupings.

After selecting an initial release condition, further restrictions may be added by clicking the Add Restriction button again. It is possible to specify that ALL the conditions or ANY of the conditions are required before the activity is made available. Thus, it is possible to use Or as well as And conditions.

The example below shows an access restriction using a Date condition, preventing students from accessing the activity outside of the designated times (February 17 at 8am until February 17 at 10:25pm).

The example below shows an access restriction using a Grade condition, preventing students from accessing the activity until they have completed the previous activity, Week 1 Quiz, with a score of 75% or better:

The example below shows an access restriction using a User Profile condition, preventing students from accessing the activity unless their first name is Dylan.

Choose how the resource or activity displays on the course page for student both before and after the access restrictions.

Coming soon!

1. Click Turn editing on in the CLE course.
2. Click Add a new activity or resource, or click Edit Settings for an activity or resource that was previously added to the course
3. Click Commons Module Settings to expand and open the section (you can skip the Availability and ID number sections since they are not needed to set restrictions).
4. If you are using Groups, select one one of the three group modes available in the drop down menu:
   No groups
   Separate groups – Each group member can only see their own group, others are invisible.Visible groups – Each group member works in their own group, but can also see other groups.
5. Select the grouping from the dropdown menu. Select none if you will be restricting the activity to groups.
6. Once the grouping is chosen, click the Add group/ grouping access restriction button to add a restriction.

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Dock and Undock Blocks

All CLE users have the ability to customize courses by docking blocks. Any docked blocks appear as vertical tabs along the left margin of the CLE. Blocks remained docked as you move from course to course in the CLE and is user specific.

To dock a block in the CLE:

1. Log in to the CLE (cle.ucsf.edu)
2. While in a CLE course or on the My Home page, navigate to the block that you would like to dock
3. From the top of the block, click the Dock Navigation block icon
4. The block moves to the dock on the left side of the page
5. Access content in the block by hovering over the dock

To undock a block in the CLE:

1. While in a CLE course or on the My Home page, navigate to the dock on the left-side of the course
2. Hover over the docked block and click the Undock Navigation block icon
3. Undock all blocks with a click of a button using the Undock All Blocks icon in the bottom-left of the course page

Collapse and Expand Blocks

To collapse and expand a block:

• While in a CLE course or on the My Home page, navigate to the block that you would like to collapse
• From the top of the block, click the Collapse block icon
• The block will collapse to hide content inside of the block
• Access content in the block by clicking the Expand icon

Video coming soon!

Follow the instructions below to log in to the CLE and access a list of your courses.

1. Navigate to the UCSF CLE (courses.ucsf.edu) in your web browser.
2. Click the Log in button from the top-right corner of the page.
3. Enter your MyAccess credentials.
4. After successfully logging in to the UCSF CLE, you will be directed to your My Home page.
5. From the Navigation block, click on the My Courses link to expand and display all of your CLE courses.
6. Click a course name and the course page will open.
7. If you do not see a CLE course that you expect to be enrolled in, contact the faculty or course manager to check your enrollment status and course availability.

Want to quickly navigate to current CLE courses? Because CLE courses are rarely deleted, you may accumulate a long list of CLE courses. Learn to Customize the My Home Page to quickly access your current courses.

Watch the video below to learn how to find a CLE course:

This document outlines the basic of the My Home page, including:

1. Customize the My Home Page
2. Configure Course Overview Block
3. Configure the Favorite Courses Block
4. Configure the Recent Courses Block
5. Add/Remove a Block
6. Turn off Customize the My Home Page
7. Additional Help

 1. Customize the My Home Page

Do you want to reorder the courses displayed in the middle of the My Home page? Are there new courses that are hidden below old courses? You will always have access and see courses from previous quarters, but you can personalize the My Home page to quickly access current courses and minimize confusion. Watch a video on Customizing the My Home page.

To begin customizing the My Home page:

1. Login to the CLE (cle.ucsf.edu).
2. Click the My Home link in the Navigation block, or click the Home icon in the breadcrumb navigation.
3. To begin customizing the page, click the Customize this page button in the top-right corner.
4. You can now follow the instructions below to customize the My Home page based on your preferences (this only effects your My Home page, not other users).

2. Configure the Course Overview Block

The Course Overview block is located in the center of the My Home page and displays a list of all the courses a user is enrolled/has an assigned role. To configure or move the Course Overview block and content:

1. Choose to increase or decrease the Number of Courses to display from the drop-down menu at the top of the page (you can select “Always show all”).
2. Using the cross-hair icons next to each course, click and drag to reorder the courses to your preference.
3. You may notice a cross-hair icon in the top-right corner of the Course Overview block. This is used to move the entire Course Overview block, which can confusion as it displays best in the middle column. If you did move the Course Overview block to an area other than the middle column, use the cross-hair icon to move the block back to the center column.
4. If you chose to hide courses in the Course Overview, you can see all courses by scrolling to the bottom of the Course Overview block and select Show all courses.

3. Configure the Favorite Courses Block

The Favorite Courses block is another great way to quickly access CLE courses. To configure or move the Favorite block and content:

1. Click Select courses to add courses to the block – no courses will display until you have selected courses.
2. When configuring the Favorite Courses block, you will see every course in the CLE that you have access to. Courses which have been added to your Favorite Courses block will appear at the top of this list, with yellow highlighting; courses which have not been added to your Favorite Courses block will be displayed alphabetically, without highlighting.
3. To add a course to your Favorite Courses block, click the thumbs-down icon next to its name; yellow highlighting will then display behind the course title to indicate that it has been selected. To change the order that selected courses are displayed in, drag and drop using the arrows icon.
4. To remove a course from your favorite courses, click the thumbs-up icon to the right of the course name. A course has been removed from your Favorite Courses block when the course is no longer highlighted.
5. Return to the My Home page by pressing the Click here to return to your course button.

 4. Configure the Recent Courses Block

The Recent Courses block is another great way to quickly access a CLE course. The Recent Courses block has only one setting – a drop-down menu allowing you to choose how many of the courses you have most recently viewed will be displayed. This number can be set to as few as one course, or as many as ten.

After making your selection, click the Save changes button to return to the CLE Home Page.

5. Add/Remove a Block

• If you need to add a block to the My Home page, turn on customizing, and select the appropriate block from the Add a Block drop-down menu.
• To remove a block from the My Home page, click the gear icon in the block and choose Delete block.

6. Turn off Customize the My Home Page

Click the Stop customizing this page button to turn off customizing. This helps prevent blocks and content from being moved or hidden accidentally.

7. Need Help?

• Click for more information on Block Management in the CLE.
• Contact the Learning Tech Group or stop by CL-240 in the UCSF Library’s Tech Commons.

Watch the video below to see how to customize the My Home page:

Follow the instructions below to post to a forum:

1. Log in to the CLE (cle.ucsf.edu) and navigate to a course.
2. Click the forum link in a CLE course.
3. Click on the Add a new discussion topic button to add a new thread inside of the forum or click the Discussion title link and click the Reply link to reply to a previous post.
4. Compose the forum post.
   • Type in a subject and content of the message – these are both required and it makes sense to keep the subject brief (like in an email) and to word it so that other people know what your discussion topic is about.
   • Choose to receive or not receive notifications for new posts to the forum, unless the subscription mode has been forced by the faculty and everyone will receive notification for new posts. If you have questions about forum subscriptions, contact the course faculty to inquire about forum subscription settings.
   • Add a file as an attachment to the post if you choose or required.
   • Pin Forum posts -Instructors have the option of pinning discussions, to pin the discussion to the top of the list of forum posts. Any forum discussions which come after that will appear underneath this pinned post. If you later untick the box to ‘unpin’ it, it will display as a regular forum discussion, moving down the list when others are posted.
   • Set a display period of a date and time for the forum post to appear.
   • Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the Post to forum button.
5. You will now see a message giving you 30 minutes in which you can edit or delete your posting. After that time, the post will appear automatically in the form and is emailed to everybody subscribed to the forum.*You can bypass the 30 minute email window by checking the box Send forum post notifications with no editing-time delay.

Pin existing Forum posts

Posts can be pinned when posts are created (as listed above) or they can be edited afterwards.

To Pin an existing post:

1. Open the forum activity.
2. Click and open the forum post that you would like to pin.
3. Click the Pin button that appears above the post.
4. The Forum post you pin will now appear with a pin icon and at the top of the list of forum posts.

Permalink

Create a permalink to create a direct link to a specific forum post, the link can be copied from the browser bar and easily shared with others. This is really helpful because if you just link to the forum, your post may be moved down the list as newer posts appear on the list. \

To create a permalink:

1. Open the forum activity.
2. Click and open the forum post that you like to link to directly.
3. Click permalink.
4. The post will be highlighted and you’ll noticed that the URL will be specific to this post.
5. Highlight the link, copy and paste to share it elsewhere.

Forum Notifications

Depending on how the faculty has configured the forum, you may be forcibly subscribed to the forum. This means you will be unable to unsubscribe yourself from forum notifications and will receive an email every time someone posts to the forum. If you have questions about forum subscriptions, contact the course faculty to inquire about forum subscription settings.

Depending on the subscription mode used for the forum, you may be able to unsubscribe from the forum by clicking the Unsubscribe me from this forum link located in the Administration block on the left side of the page.

If you are unable to unsubscribe to a forum, but want to receive fewer forum notification emails from the CLE, you can update your CLE email digest settings. Email digest settings are configured in your CLE profile (see instructions below).

To update how many emails you receive from CLE forums:

1. Log in to the CLE (cle.ucsf.edu).
2. To access your profile, click your name on the user menu from the top-right corner of CLE and click Preferences.
   
3. While on the Preferences page and click Forum Preferences.
4. In Forum preferences, you can configure how often you receive emails from the CLE using the Email Digest Type drop-down menu.
5. Choose from the following:
   • No Digest: You will receive one e-mail per forum post
   • Complete: You will receive one digest e-mail per day containing the complete contents of each forum post
   • Subjects: You will receive one digest e-mail per day containing just the subject of each forum post
6. From the Forum auto-subscribe drop-down, configure whether or not to automatically subscribe to forums that you post to.
7. In Forum Tracking drop down, Select Yes: highlight new posts for me and posts will be highlighted in the following places: Dashboard, Course page, Within the forum itself, and In forum discussion threads
8. Click the Save changes to save your preferences.

Searching Forums

Students, faculty, and staff can search forum posts inside of CLE courses using keywords. This search includes all forums in a specific course and is helpful for finding forum content quickly.

To search a CLE forum:

1. Click the forum link in a CLE course.
2. From the top-right corner, enter a keyword in the Search field and click the Search Forums button.
3. For advanced searching, press the search button without typing anything in the search box to access the advanced search form and narrow your search by dates, keywords, author, and more.
4. All relevant posts will display. Click See this post in context to view the entire forum discussion.

Watch the video below to learn how to post to a forum in the CLE:

Watch the video below to learn how to view your grade in a CLE course:

To place a reservation, follow the steps demonstrated in the video.

1. Visit tiny.ucsf.edu/equiploan
2. Click to select a device.
3. Click to select a start time (available time blocks are green).
4. Select a return date.
5. Click the Add to Cart button to continue browsing for additional devices, or click the Add to Cart and Checkout button to finalize your reservation.
6. You will be prompted to log in to MyAccess, if you have not already done so.
7. Review the reservation policies.
8. Provide your contact information and a short description of your project.
9. Click the Submit My Booking button.

Canceling a reservation: After you submit your reservation, you will receive an email notification with the details. There is a cancellation link in the body of that email.

Changing a reservation: Unfortunately, there is no way (yet!) for you to change the items or dates/times of a reservation once it has been submitted. You can either cancel your reservation and create a new one, or contact a Tech Commons staff member, and we can make the changes on your behalf.

Our equipment is available free of charge to UCSF students, faculty and staff, with respect to the following policies:

General – Devices may only be used for UCSF-related projects, and cannot be used in weather conditions or environments that could potentially damage the equipment.

Check-Out and Return – Equipment may only be checked out by the user who originally made the reservation. All items in the kit will be inventoried and missing items will be noted. Check-outs can only occur during our normal hours of operation, in CL240, by Tech Commons staff. Returns can be dropped off by any user, including colleagues of the user who originally made the reservation. However, the user who originally made the reservation will be held responsible for any items that are damaged or lost.

Damaged/Lost Equipment – Users are responsible for replacing any items that are lost or damaged. Replaced items must be delivered to CL240 within 14 days of when they are discovered lost or damaged. Failure to do so will resort in a report being sent to the user’s department or manager, and additional action may be taken as necessary. Make sure that any missing items are noted during check-out, or else you could be held responsible!

Demos and File Transfer Assistance – A basic demonstration of the equipment’s functions can be provided upon request. If you are new to media production and would like a more detailed demonstration, or if you need assistance transferring recorded data to your external hard drive, please schedule time with our staff prior to your arrival.

Late Returns – If you are unable to return equipment by your schedule time, please call us ASAP (476-9426 or 476-4309) so that we can adjust other reservations as necessary. Repeat offenders will be denied service.

Time limits – To ensure that everyone has a chance to use our equipment, the following time limits apply:

• • 4 Days – video cameras, tripods, lights, audio recorders, microphones, backdrops
  • 7 Days – specialty items (Wacom tablet, etc.)
  • 14 Days – external hard drives (for multimedia projects only)

Lease Agreement – When you complete the online reservation process, you will be have the opportunity to review these policies. By completing your reservation, you agree to follow these policies.

To use the Azden Shotgun Microphone follow these basics steps.

1. Install battery – Twist to unscrew the bottom of the mic barrel, and then gently pull it apart. Install one AAA battery, and then screw the barrel back into place.
2. Mount mic – If mounting the mic on the shoe mount of a camera, slide th e mic in to the shock mount holder. If mounting the mic on a boom pole, slide the mic into the boom pole’s mic holder. The back of the mic should protrude just slightly from the back of the mount.
3. Connect cables – Connect the male end of the XLR cable into the back of the mic, lining up the grooved notch, and pushing in until it clicks into place. Repeat and and connect the female end to your camera or recording device.
4. Windscreen – Two windscreens are included in the kit. The small, foam windscreen is for general use, and can be used indoors or out. The larger, fluffy windscreen is for outdoor use, and lessens the noise caused by wind. Gently slide the windscreen of your choice onto the barrel of the mic.
5. Turn on – Flip the power switch on the mic to the ON position.
6. Record – Using your recording device, adjust levels and record!

These additional notes will help you use the H5 smarter and avoid common pitfalls.

• What is “XLR?” – XLR is an electrical connector style commonly used for professional microphones. XLR mics are well protected from interference, and produce consistent, high quality, balanced sound. They generally produce higher quality sound than mics that use a standard 3.5mm connection.

• Mic pickup pattern – The SGM-1X is a super-cardioid mic. This means it is very sensitive sound in the front of the mic element, and rejects most of the sound coming from the sides. It also picks up some sound coming from the rear. Super-cardiod shotgun mics are best suited for focusing in on sound sources from a distance, but can also be used up close. For more information an graphics illustrating the pattern, check out this helpful document, as well as this one.

• Mic positioning – This shotgun mic can be placed at varying distances from your subject, anywhere from a few inches to many feet, depending on the loudness of your subject. It is very directional, though, so be sure to always aim the front of the mic directly at your subject.

• Ruggedness – The SGM-1X is a sensitive device and should be protected in its padded case when not in use. Also, do not expose the microphone to rain or adverse weather conditions!

• Battery life – One fully-charged AAA battery can last up to 1000 hours!

• SGM-1X product page – http://www.azden.com/products/microphones/shotgun-microphones/sgm-1x/

The maximum loan time for this device is 4 days. We are available Monday – Friday, from 8:30am to 6pm, in CL240 of the Parnassus Library. Equipment can only be used for UCSF related activities, by UCSF students, staff and faculty.

The approximate value of this kit is $325. If anything is lost or damaged during your loan, you are responsible for replacing those items.

Reservations can be made using our online reservation calendar.

To make a new reservation, follow the steps demonstrated in the video below. More details about the reservation process, and our policies, can be found here: How to Reserve Equipment.

To operate the Azden devices, follow these basics steps.

Receiver set up:

1. Install AA batteries into each of the two transmitters and the receiver. You will need a total of six AA batteries to power both mics and the receiver. Tech Commons staff do not provide AA batteries.
2. If you are connecting to a Canon Vixia camera, install the Pearstone adapter (included in camera kit) onto the camera’s shoe adapter, and then connect the receiver’s mount to the Pearstone adapter. Secure both snugly by rotating their dials to the right, but do not over-tighten.
3. Connect one end of the 3.5mm audio cable to the MIC OUT port on the Azden receiver, and the other end to the MIC port on the Vixia camera.
4. Flip the channel one and two switches to the ON position. If you are only using one mic, only flip on that mic’s corresponding switch.

Transmitters set up:

1. Connect the lavaliere microphone cable to the MIC port on the transmitter.
2. Clip the transmitter pack to your subject’s belt, or place it in a jacket pocket.
3. Clip the mic to your subject’s shirt. If possible, thread the cable under their shirt for a more clean and professional look.
4. Turn both the AUDIO and POWER switches ON.

Full details of these steps and more are provided in the handout:

Azden Handout

These additional notes will help you use the microphones smarter and avoid common pitfalls.

• No audio – Make sure the AUDIO switch on the transmitter is set to ON and not ST.BY. This is the stand by mode, and equivalent to a mute button!
• Interference – Still no audio, or getting interference? Download the handout provided below, and review the Additional functions section for information about adjusting audio levels and frequency channels.
• Mic placement – Position the microphones between 4″ and 10″ from your subject’s mouth, centered on their body relative to the direction they are facing, and remove any outer layers or necklaces that could bump the mic during recording.
• Concealing cables – To watch a video about how the pros loop and conceal mics in a subject’s clothes, click here.
• Range – The wireless range of the mics is over 100 feet, but obstacles (trees, cars or walls) can reduce that range significantly, or even block the signal completely.
• Antennae positioning – For the best reception, move the receiver’s antennas to an upward / vertical position.

Note about stereo vs mono: This kit is designed to accept two audio sources simultaneously. Unfortunately, this means you will only hear audio from channel 1 on the left, and audio from channel 2 on the right. The Canon Vixia and the Azden receiver do not have options to force these signals to both channels, so it must be done in post-production using video editing software. Using Final Cut Pro, you can adjust the audio track to “dual mono.” iMovie does not have this functionality. Contact us if you would like assistance with this process.

More tips are also provided in the handout:

Azden Handout

The maximum loan time for this device is 4 days. We are available Monday – Friday, from 8:30am to 6pm, in CL240 of the Parnassus Library. Equipment can only be used for UCSF related activities, by UCSF students, staff and faculty.

The approximate value of this kit is $750. If anything is lost or damaged during your loan, you are responsible for replacing those items.

Reservations can be made using our online reservation calendar.

To make a new reservation, follow the steps demonstrated in the video below. More details about the reservation process, and our policies, can be found here: How to Reserve Equipment.

To use the Gitzo Boom Pole, follow these basics steps.

1. Attach Rycote pistol grip mount – Carefully align the Rycote mount with the threaded bolt on top of the Gitzo pole, and rotate/screw it down until firmly in place.
2. Attach shot mic – Slide a shotgun mic into the rubberized Rycote mount holder. The back of the mic should protrude just slightly from the back of the mount.
3. Connect cables – Connect the necessary cables to you mic, and recording device. The Rycote handle provides an indentation for neatly threading the cable down towards the base of the pole.
4. Extend the pole – As needed, rotate the twist-locks to loosen a segment of the pole, extend the pole, and then re-tighten until firmly locked into place. Start with with lower segment, because it is thicker and more stable, and if addition reach is needed, also extend the upper segments.
5. Adjust mount – To angle the mic, loosen the adjustment knob on the Rycote pistol grip mount, and angle the shotgun mic accordingly.
6. Record – Using your recording device, adjust levels and record!

These additional notes will help you use the Gitzo Boom Pole smarter and avoid common pitfalls.

• What is a “boom mic?” – Any microphone mounted on an extension pole, and detached from the video camera. Boom mics are usually operated by an additional person who is working along side the camera operator. Boom mics free the subjects (and camera) to move about more freely in the scene.

• Managing that cable – Your shotgun mic will likely be connected to an external audio recorder, or a camera, via a lengthy XLR cable. To minimize your chances of getting tangled up, or worse yet, catching the cable on something and damaging equipment, we recommend wrapping the mic cable around the length of the boom pole. You can leave a little slack near the base of the pole, and keep that loosely bundled in your hand for flexibility.

• Boom Mic fundamentals – http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/the-fundamentals-of-the-boom-operator-and-location-mic-techniques/

• Positioning a boom mic – https://youtu.be/wJ-4MlBILDI

The maximum loan time for this device is 4 days. We are available Monday – Friday, from 8:30am to 6pm, in CL240 of the Parnassus Library. Equipment can only be used for UCSF related activities, by UCSF students, staff and faculty.

The approximate value of this kit is $300. If anything is lost or damaged during your loan, you are responsible for replacing those items.

Reservations can be made using our online reservation calendar.

To make a new reservation, follow the steps demonstrated in the video below. More details about the reservation process, and our policies, can be found here: How to Reserve Equipment.

To use the Shure SM58 microphones, follow these basics steps.

1. Connect cables – Connect the male end of the XLR cable to the Sure SM58 microphone. Line up the grooved notch, and seat the cable until it clicks, locking in place.
2. Mic stands – If using the table-top mic stands, place the cable through the opening in the stand, and then slide the mic back into place until it is held firmly in place. DO NOT try to press the barrel of the mic down into the holder (it slides into place, it does not “snap” into place).
3. Pop filter (optional) – One “pop filter” is included in the kit. The filter helps to minimize the sharp “p” sounds that some speaker make when talking. Loosen the bolt and then attach the pop filter’s bracket to a mic stand. Loosen the filter holder, attached the screen, and re-tighten. Position between the mic and the speaker’s mouth.
4. Record – Using your recording device, adjust levels and record!

These additional notes will help you use the H5 smarter and avoid common pitfalls.

• What is “XLR?” – XLR is an electrical connector style commonly used for professional microphones. XLR mics are well protected from interference, and produce consistent, high quality, balanced sound. They generally produce higher quality sound than mics that use a standard 3.5mm connection.

• Mic pickup pattern – The Sure SM58’s record in the “polar cardiod” pickup pattern, meaning the space directly in front of the mic is most sensitive, the sides are less sensitive, and the rear is ignored. For more information an graphics illustrating the pattern, check out this helpful document, as well as this one.

• Mic positioning – Professional voice actors and singers are generally very close to the mic when performing, anywhere between 1″ and 6″. This may seem uncomfortably close, and for our uses, it’s not always necessary to be that close, but closer is usually better. It is also important to physically move your head closer to the mic when speaking softly, and back away when speaking loudly.

• Ruggedness – The Sure SM58 mics are widely regarded for their solid construction. That being said, never drop the mic intentionally, knock against it during a “sound check,” or expose the microphone to rain or adverse weather conditions!

• Shure SM58 product page – http://www.shure.com/americas/products/microphones/sm/sm58-vocal-microphone

The maximum loan time for this device is 4 days. We are available Monday – Friday, from 8:30am to 6pm, in CL240 of the Parnassus Library. Equipment can only be used for UCSF related activities, by UCSF students, staff and faculty.

The approximate value of this kit is $350. If anything is lost or damaged during your loan, you are responsible for replacing those items.

Reservations can be made using our online reservation calendar.

To make a new reservation, follow the steps demonstrated in the video below. More details about the reservation process, and our policies, can be found here: How to Reserve Equipment.

Set up is relatively easy and takes about 10 minutes. The step-by-step process is listed below. More detail and images are provided in the handout.

1. Light stands – Loosen the bottom-most knob on the light stand, pull the legs out and down until they form a medium-to-wide base of support, and then re-tighten the knob.
2. Magic Arm mount – Loosen the silver knob on the bottom of the mount, set it on top of the light stand, and then re-tighten the knob. Matching connections are  marked with green paint.
3. Light matt and frame – Loosen the silver knob on the top of the mount, attach to the gold-colored stud from the light frame, and then re-tighten the knob. Matching connections are marked with blue paint.
4. Dimmer – Slide the mounting slot on the back on the dimmer box onto the mounting bolt, which protrudes from the left side of the light frame. It should seat firmly into place.
5. Dimmer cable – Connect the dimmer cable to the light matt. Matching connections are marked with neon yellow paint.
6. Power adapter and cable – Connect one end of the power adapter to the bottom of the dimmer, and the other end to a wall outlet. Matching connections are marked with orange paint.
7. Turn on – Flip the gray switch on the bottom of the dimmer to the On position. If the dimmer doesn’t turn on, make sure the power cable is pushed all the way into the dimmer, and then turn the silver ring to screw it into place.
8. Adjust brightness – Press the BRIGHTNESS button on the dimmer, and then rotate jog-shuttle (dial) to increase or decrease brightness of the light. Range is from 0 to 100%.
9. Adjust light temperature – Press the COLOR TEMP button the dimmer, and then rotate the jog-shuttle (dial) to increase or decrease temperature of the light. (See color temp graphic on the Tips tab.)
10. Adjust and aim light – Loosen the lower tripod extension knob, and raise the light up. There are four segments. Start with the bottom rod and work your way up, because it is the thickest and most stable. Next, loosen the Magic Arm adjustment lever, tilt and pan the light to aim at your subject, and then re-tighten.

NOTE:

There are two additional items that you can use with the light kit.

Softboxes

Using the softboxes is optional, but highly recommended because they allow you to better focus the light on your subject. Without them, light spills out of the frame in a wider, less-concentrated shape. You will find the softboxes strapped into the top of the travel case.

1. Assemble softboxes – Unfold two of the softbox segments, and velcro one corner the pair together (leave the other end open). Each pair should include one segment that has two holes punched into it.

2. Attach softboxes – Starting at one corner, and working your way around the frame, velcro the softbox to the back of the light frame. Make sure to align the holes in the softbox with the studs on the side and bottom of the light frame. You will have to remove the light frame from the light stand before you can attach the softbox.
3. Attach diffusion panel –  Attach the diffusion panels using the velcro strip inside the softboxes. Using the diffusion panels will soften the light, creating a light pattern that is evenly distributed on your subject, while also reducing the chance of hotspots on your subject.

NOTE: There are two sets of diffusion panels included in the kit. The smaller panels are for the light frames, and the larger panels are for the softboxes. If you are short on time, you can simply attach the smaller diffusion panels directly to the light frame, and forgo the use of the softboxes.

Battery Kit

We also offer a battery kit, which is reserved separately. The batteries allow you to power the lights without the need to plug into a wall outlet, making you 100% mobile!   

1. Verify battery charge level – Press the CHECK button. Green lights will appear to indicate current charge level.
2. Charge battery – If necessary, connect each battery to a power adapter (provided with the light kit), and then plug into a wall outlet until fully charged.
   
3. Connect battery to light – Using the D-Tap cables, connect the battery to the light matt. The D-Tap cable is only a few feet long, but you can use the dimmer extension cables for added reach.

NOTE: We will do our best to keep the batteries charged, but cannot promise that they will be fully charged when you pick them up. Therefore, please check out the battery kit with enough time to charge the batteries, which can take up to 3.5 hours to charge. If you are running the lights at 100% brightness, a fully-charged battery should last for 2.5 hours.

These additional notes will help you use the light kit smarter and avoid common pitfalls!

1. Won’t turn on – If the light does not illuminate when you flip the On switch, check the connection between the power supply and the dimmer. This connection can be touchy, and it may be necessary to turn the metal, silver ring on the power cable to connect the two cables together more firmly (look for the orange-colored dots!).
2. Basic lighting strategies – This kit only includes two lights, but the basic lighting principles of a key and fill light still apply:
   • Key light – Brighter light, slightly closer to camera.
   • Fill light – Dimmer light, fills in shadows created by key light.
   • Key and fill lights are typically placed on 30 degrees angles from camera, but can be varied for creative effect.
   • Position lights slightly above eye-level of subject, to simulate natural look of sunlight.
   • 2-point lighting basics: https://youtu.be/R9FaYS2GWPA
   • General lighting tips: https://youtu.be/w-OPfV-kq6Y
3. Background shadows – To reduce shadows cast on backgrounds, move subject away from walls and bring lights closer to subject.
4. Light reflectors – White poster boards can be used to reflect light, filling in shadows under subject’s chin and near their eyes.
5. Shaping the light – The LED light panel mats are only Velcroed to the light frames, and can easily be removed. They can then be placed in compact spaces, and even (gently) shaped for creative effect!
6. Light temperatures – Avoid strange-looking skin tones on your subjects by dialing-in a light temperature that matches the primary ambient light source of your environment:
   
   
   
7. Westcott product page: http://www.fjwestcott.com/flex-1-x-1-bi-color-travel-kit
8. B&H product page: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1174908-REG/westcott_7557_flex_1x1_bi_color_2_light.html

The maximum loan time for this device is 4 days. We are available Monday – Friday, from 8:30am to 6pm, in CL240 of the Parnassus Library. Equipment can only be used for UCSF related activities, by UCSF students, staff and faculty.

The approximate value of this kit is $3000. If anything is lost or damaged during your loan, you are responsible for replacing those items.

Reservations can be made using our online reservation calendar.

To make a new reservation, follow the steps demonstrated in the video below. More details about the reservation process, and our policies, can be found here: How to Reserve Equipment.

To operate the H2n, follow these basics steps.

1. Install two AA batteries (not included), or use the USB cable and A/C adapter (included).
2. Pull the HOLD/Power button down to turn the device on.
3. Select a recording format: Menu button > REC > REC Format.
4. Select a recording mode using the dial on top of the device. Modes “XY” or “2 Channel” are recommended for most recording situations.
5. Adjust input levels using the Mic Gain dial.
6. Press the red record button once to start, and then once to stop recording.
7. Using the USB cable (remove the a/c adapter), connect the device to your computer, then drag-and-drop the audio files onto your local hard drive.

Full details of these steps and more are provided in the handout:

H2n Handout

These additional notes will help you use the mic smarter and avoid common pitfalls!

• Batteries – The H2n can also be powered by two AA batteries. However, we recommend using the USB cable and a/c adapter that is provided in the kit, because the battery door is difficult to open and could be damaged by frequent use. The USB cable is 4ft long, so you may need an extension cord.
• Red lights – The red lights on top of the device indicate which mics are active, front, back, or both. If they are blinking while recording, that means your levels are too high, and you need to lower the gain.
• Advanced features – To learn more about the device’s advanced features, refer its official operation manual.

More tips are also provided in the handout:

H2n Handout

The maximum loan time for this device is 4 days. We are available Monday – Friday, from 8:30am to 6pm, in CL240 of the Parnassus Library. Equipment can only be used for UCSF related activities, by UCSF students, staff and faculty.

The approximate value of this kit is $250. If anything is lost or damaged during your loan, you are responsible for replacing those items.

Reservations can be made using our online reservation calendar.

To make a new reservation, follow the steps demonstrated in the video below. More details about the reservation process, and our policies, can be found here: How to Reserve Equipment.

To operate the H5, follow these basics steps.

1. Supply power – Install two AA batteries (not included), or use the USB cable and A/C adapter (included).
2. Turn on: Slide-and-hold the Power button on the side of the device.
3. Recording format – MENU button > REC > REC Format. MP3 and WAV formats of various qualities are available.
4. Recording mode – MENU > REC MODE.
   • Select Stereo File if using the built-in XYH-5 mic module; creates one audio file.
   • Select Multi File if using multiple inputs, including XLR inputs; creates multiple audio files.
5. Channel – Active the channel that matches the mic input you wish to use.
   • Press L/R channel button if using the built-in XYH-5 mic module.
   • Press the 1 or 2 channel button if using XLR inputs.
6. Adjust levels – Turn the corresponding levels dial to set the input levels (a.k.a. volume), from 1 to 10.
   • Sounds should peak at about the -12dB mark.
7. Record – Press the Record button to start recording, and then again to stop.
   • Pressing the play/pause button will pause or resume the recording, maintaining the same audio file.
   • Stopping and starting creates a new file.
8. Transfer files – Copy the digital audio files to your computer.
   • If using an SD card reader, turn the H5 off before ejecting the card.
   • If using the USB cable, choose SD CARD READER on the H5 display screen after connecting to your computer.
   • Drag-and-drop to copy files onto your computer’s hard drive.

Full details about the contents of the kit and the device’s main functions are provided in the handout:

H5 Handout