Simmons Moodle is the home for your online classroom. Dive into your courses, explore new resources, and connect with your peers and instructors. Be sure to download the Moodle App for iOS or Android to stay updated. If you have any questions or need assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out via the question mark (?) icon at the bottom of your Simmons Moodle homepage.
After two years of pivot, campus-based undergraduate coursework has transitioned back to Simmons Moodle. Faculty and Students login with their Simmons credentials and no longer use a separate password to access their coursework. Simmons Moodle is very similar to the Learning Management System of previous years and the transition from one to the other should be smooth.
If you need technical support, please reach out to [email protected]. All support is now provided by Simmons Staff. The Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE) provides instructional design assistance for faculty and can be reached at [email protected].
We’re also excited to introduce Gradescope, a cloud-based grading tool. Gradescope allows faculty to save time grading and provides analytics on how students are doing in class. Gradescope can be used to grade a variety of assignments: quizzes, bubble sheets, exams, worksheets, projects, problem sets, projects, and programs. Integrated with Moodle, Gradescope works with Gradebook to manage students’ grades.
Beginning with the upcoming Summer semester, on-the-ground Undergraduate courses will transition back to Simmons Moodle Learning Management System from the Digital Campus supported by 2U that was utilized during the past two years. Courses will be made available by faculty just prior to the first meeting of the class.
Students may contact instructors about accessing courses in Moodle. Additional information about navigating the platform is available at Moodle for Students. For technical difficulties or issues accessing your account, please contact the Simmons Technology Service Desk.
Last month, we mentioned that our pilot test of the new eLearning system, Simmons Moodle, was getting under way. We’re happy to report that one month into the semester, we have received positive feedback from faculty members involved in the pilot. Last week, the team released a survey within Simmons Moodle to gather feedback from their students.
One of the major highlights pilot testers have been pointing out is improved communication, both between professors and students, and between students themselves. Simmons Moodle makes it easier to send, and reply to, class-wide announcements and has additional tools for collaboration and sharing of information.
Simmons Moodle is also structured more like other web services and many members of the pilot have found it easier to use than Blackboard and have responded positively to the enhanced communication and interactivity it provides.
Rex Krajewski, Head of Library Information Services for Simmons, and a faculty member, said he has found his experience with Simmons Moodle to be “overwhelmingly positive.” He also mentioned that, “It is easier…to use as an instructor, and it seems as though the students are having an easier time using it, as well. It feels less like an add-on or extra thing to do ‘just because,’ and more like an integral part of the course.”
In the near future, we will be working with members of the Administration and representatives for each school to outline a plan to make Simmons Moodle available for all classes at Simmons. Keep an eye on upcoming issues of TechNews for more about Simmons Moodle.
If you read last month’s TechNews, you know that Simmons is engaged in a project to replace Blackboard-based Simmons eLearning as the College learning management system (LMS). Because this project will affect most of the Simmons Community, we want to keep you informed of its progress while highlighting some of the exciting things it will make possible.
The new LMS, currently called Simmons Moodle, has been made available this semester to a pilot group of professors who have volunteered to use it in their classes and to provide feedback. During spring semester, there will be ten courses and more than 250 students using Simmons Moodle and sharing their experiences with us. In preparation for these courses, the Simmons Moodle Team has created tutorials, videos, and FAQs for both faculty and students. We will use what we learn from the pilot to help us plan and prepare for the campus-wide roll out.
We are very excited about Simmons Moodle and the capabilities and improvements it will bring to a technologically integrated learning experience. Among these are more customizable features and increased communication between students and professors. In the coming months, we’ll provide updates on our progress and share with you the experiences of some of the students and faculty using Simmons Moodle.
As we integrate our experiences from the pilot into a plan for campus-wide roll out, you can expect to hear more about this project. Additionally, you are welcome to visit lmsproject.simmons.edu, to read our blog and stay on top of updates as they occur.