Adding a Lesson Activity

A Lesson is a way to make a personalized learning experience for your students. It is a set of questions or prompts that the learners answer. The path of learning depends on their answers. This tool can also be used to produce adaptive learning activities that are suitable for simulations, decision making activities and individual study. This file explains how to create a Lesson activity. 

Courseware Lessons are similar to Action Mazes. An Action Maze is a kind of interactive situation where the user is presented with a circumstances, and a number of choices as to a course of action to deal with it.

It is very important to plan your Lesson on paper or in a graphical app such as Diagrams.net. Lessons can contain content pages, question pages, paths, prompts or questions, multimedia, path ends and jumps (decisions) to different places. If you feel that you can visualize a learning navigation path in your head, this may limit the possibility of alternate routes that may make the lesson more interesting.

The instructor decides the sequence of these pages. They should also consider the following:

• Is the Lesson to be a graded or ungraded?
  
  
• Is it going to be a linear or non-linear learning experience?
  
  
• Is it going to be a repetitive practice session or adaptive?
  
  
• Will students be able to go back and revisit areas, or is it just a once-only opportunity? 
  

There is a Lesson activity in the Stage 2/3 Exemplar Course. It is called Give and Follow Directions.

In this example, Marnia wants to find the National Museum of Art. She needs to take several steps to get there.

On the first slide, she needs to make a decision.

On most Lesson screens, the learners answer a prompt or question to determine their learning path.

Each of these rectangles is a possible screen or response. The arrows indicate path direction. Over the next pages we will build this lesson.

1. On your course, click on the Turn editing on button.

2. In the appropriate Topic, click on the + Add an activity or resource link.

3. In the Add an activity or resource pop-up, click the Lesson icon. 

4. On the Add a new Lesson page, type a lesson title.

5. Expand the Appearance link.

Choosing Yes for the Progress bar will display a visual showing students how much of the Lesson that they have accomplished.

Choosing Yes for the Display menu will display a visual menu of the Lesson.

6. Expand the Availability link.

7. Choose a start date (Available from) for the Lesson activity.

8. Click in the Enable checkbox.

9. To set a date and time limit on the Lesson, set a Deadline date and time and check the Enable checkbox.

Note: In the example, there is no Deadline. 

10. If a Lesson activity Time limit is necessary, check the Enable checkbox and then set the time in minutes hours, weeks or days. 

Note: This time displays as a countdown timer.

11. Expand the Flow control link.

Note: Three elements are displayed. Make choices that work for your purposes.

Allow student review, allows learners to review the Lesson from the start.

Provide option to try a question again, is similar to a retry button. 

Maximum number of attempts, is the maximum number of attempts for each question, not the entire Lesson. 

12. To continue , click on the Show more…. link.

13. Two more availability options appear. For the Action after correct answer option, it is best to choose, Normal, follow the lesson path. 

14. Expand the Grade section.

15. The Grade setting specifies how the Lesson will be graded. 

• If None (the default setting) is clicked, only feedback will be provided.
  
  
• If Scale: Separate and Connected ways of knowing is clicked, a student's approach to presenting his or her ideas and how this comes across in his/her submission will be evaluated.
  
  
• If Point is selected, a number (from 1 to 100) can be selected, and the desired maximum number of points on a 100-point numeric scale can be set.

16. The Grade category setting shows categories or ways of grouping assignment grades. Uncategorised is the default setting.

17. The Grade to pass field allows teachers to set the minimum grade required to pass. This setting will affect how grades are displayed in the gradebook and are used for activity and course completion if set up.

18. The Practice lesson setting hides any attempts from the gradebook.

19. Use Custom scoring can be used if teachers wish to use positive and negative values for each question.

20. The Re-takes allowed option functions the same as a retry button.

21. The Minimum number of questions setting ensures that learners have attempted a minimum number of questions before they can pass the Lesson activity.

22. Settings in the Common module settings section are common to many Moodle activities and resources.

23. The Availability setting is used to Show/Hide the activity. This is identical to using the Show/Hide icons when the Turn editing on function is enabled on a course home page.

24. The ID Number setting sets an ID number for advanced use of the grade book. (This is not used in the LINC courseware.)

25. The Group mode setting enables the use of groups. (More information is available in the Organizing Learners Using Groups article.)

26. The Grouping option enables the use of groupings (a collection of groups).

27. Settings in the Restrict access section can be used to limit access to the activity. (More information is available in the Setting up and Using the Restrict Access Settings article.)

28. Click on the Add restriction... button to display the Add restriction pop-up.

29. Settings in the Activity completion section are used to set completion tracking, grading options and the expected completion date. (More information is available in the Setting Up and Using Completion Tracking article.)

30. The Tags sections can be used to add keywords to the Lesson activity.

31. Click on the Save and Display button to continue making a Lesson. 

In this example, the first page is a Content page. There are no grades associated with a content page.

1. On the Lesson Editing screen, ensure that the Edit tab is active.

2. Click on the Add a content page link.

Note: This will be the Lesson activity introduction page. 

3. Type a Page title. 

4. In the Page contents area type a prompt and insert an image.

5. Check Arrange content buttons horizontally?

6. Check Display in menu?

7. Expand the Content 1 section. Type a Description and choose a place to jump from the Jump drop-down.

8. Expand the Content 2 section. Type a Description and choose a place to jump to from the Jump drop-down menu.

9. Click on the Save page button.

10. The Lesson screen appears. Click on the Expanded tab to preview the Lesson.

Notice the Add options and the page editing icons.

11. Click on the Collapsed tab to continue.

In this example, the next page is a Question page. There is a point (grade) awarded for a correct answer.

1. In the Actions column, click on the Add a new page… drop-down.

2. Choose the Add a question page option.

On the Question page screen, choose the question type, Multichoice, from the drop-down menu.

Note: There are several kinds of questions including: Multichoice, Essay, Matching, Numerical, Short answer and True/false.

3. Click on the Add a question page button.

4. Enter the following information on the new page that appears.

Page title: Who do you ask?

Page contents: There are several people nearby in the park. Which person do you ask? You can add an image here.

Answer 1

• Type "The toddler" in the Answer textbox.
  
  
• Type "A toddler would not be able to answer questions about directions. You must start over." in the Response textbox.
  
  
• Select Previous page from the Jump drop down menu.
  
  
• Enter 0 in the Score menu.

Answer 2

• Answer: The lady on the bicycle.
  
  
• Response: She is moving too quickly, you will not be able to catch her attention. You must start again.
  
  
• Jump: Previous page.
  
  
• Score: 0
  
  

Click to expand Answer 3.

Answer 3

• Answer: The girls sitting on a blanket.
  
  
• Response: Yes, good choice. They are relaxed and would be able to talk to you.
  
  
• Jump: Next page.
  
  
• Score: 1.

5. Click on the Save page button. 

The next question according to the Lesson path is a True/False, audio question.

6. On the Lesson menu screen, navigate to the Actions column for the Who do you ask? item, and click on the Add a new page… drop-down menu.

7. In the drop-down menu, choose the Add a question page.

8. On the Question page screen, navigate to the Select a question type drop-down menu and choose True/False.

9. Click on the Add a question page button.

10. In the Page title textbox, type Asking politely.

11. In the Page contents editor, click on the Record Audio icon to record instructions for the learners on how to answer the question.

12. If this pop-up appears, select the best Microphone to share, and click on the Allow button.

13. In the Create media file pop-up, click on the Record button.

14. Speak into your microphone.

15. Click the Record button again to end your recording.

Note: A green checkmark appears under the record button to indicate that the audio was recorded. 

16. Click the Play button to listen to your recording.

Note: A green checkmark appears under the Play button to indicate that the audio was recorded. 

17. If the recording is satisfactory, click on the Upload button. If not, repeat steps 13-16.

18. After the audio file has been uploaded, three green check marks will be visible.

19. Click on the Insert button.

20. Enter the following information on this screen. 

Correct response:

• Answer True
  
  
• Response Yes, saying excuse me is a polite way to start a conversation with strangers.
  
  
• Jump: Next page
  
  
• Score: 1
  
  

Wrong response:

• Answer False
  
  
• Response You should be polite when starting a conversation with strangers. Just asking them a question is not polite.
  
  
• Jump: This page
  
  
• Score: 0

21. Click on the Save page button.

According to the Lesson path, the next question is a Multichoice question with one correct response.

22. On the Lesson menu screen, navigate to the Actions column for the Asking politely item, and click on the Add a new page… drop-down menu.

23. In the drop-down menu, choose the Add a question page.

24. On the Question page, choose Multichoice from the Select a question type drop-down menu.

25. Click on the Add a question page button.

26. Enter the following information

Page title: Where?

Page contents: You ask the girls for directions to the National Museum of Art.

Answer 1:

• Answer: Walk down that road for two blocks. It is called Market Street. Then turn left and walk to the end of that street. It is the big red building.
  
  
• Response: Yes, this is one way to get to the National Museum of Art.
  
  
• Jump: Next page
  
  
• Score: 1

Answer 2:

• Answer: Walk along the park pond to the end of the park. Then turn left onto Ash Boulevard. Keep walking until you see a Big Bee Mart. Walk through the parking lot and I think it is there.
  
  
• Response: Yes, this is one way to get to the National Museum of Art but it seems confusing.
  
  
• Jump: This page
  
  
• Score: 0

Click to expand Answer 3.

Answer 3:

• Answer: We are really not sure. I think you just go that way and keep walking. Ask someone on that street.
  
  
• Response: These are not good directions. Ask the girls for better directions politely.
  
  
• Jump: This page
  
  
• Score: 0

• 27. Click on the Save page button.

Next we will set up an End of branch item, according to our Lesson path. This will end a successful session.

28. On the Lesson menu screen, navigate to the Actions column for the Where? item, and click on the Add a new page… drop-down menu.

29. In the drop-down menu, choose Add a content page.

30. Enter the following information

Page title: Enjoy the museum

Page contents: You did a good job asking for directions to the museum. Enjoy your museum experience. 

Note: You can add an image if available.

Jump: End of lesson.

31. In the Content 1 section, type Well done.

32. In the Jump drop-down, choose End of lesson.

33. Click on the Save page button. 

1. Click on the Save page button.

2. Click on the Preview tab.

3. Click on the No button.

4. Try the Lesson by clicking on the grey boxes.

Note: The progress bar or a score is not shown because as a teacher, you have editing privileges for this activity. Only students can see these. 

Students can see the progress bar throughout a lesson.

Students can also see their grade.