How to create an e-support to your course?

An e-course is a systematic collection of learning materials, activities, and instructions that supports the partial or complete implementation of the learning process online. According to the Guide for Creating Quality E-Courses by the Estonian Quality Agency for Higher and Vocational Education (2021), an e-course:

• Promotes active learning
• Makes teaching more flexible
• Supports the development of learners' study skills
• Facilitates the formation and development of learning communities
• Allows for choosing suitable time, place, and pace for learning
• Takes into account learners' diverse prior knowledge and learning habits
• Considers the needs of learners with disabilities when possible
• Enables providing feedback supportive of learner development

At Tallinn University, e-courses can be created in Moodle. Guides can be found at https://www.tlu.ee/en/tutorials. 

Starting from the spring semester of the 2024/25 academic year, we will use the Tallinn University Moodle platform. Courses from the autumn semester of 2024/25 will be completed in the HTM Moodle and migrated during the spring semester. More detailed information can be found on the intranet.

The Tallinn University Moodle can currently be accessed via TARA authentication or with an HTM Moodle username. In the latter case, after entering the username, a notification about the restored account will appear, and upon clicking the "Continue" button, information about creating a new password will be sent to the email address entered in the HTM Moodle. Note! This login method applies to both students and instructors.

• Moodle serves as the environment for conducting teaching activities, while the Study Information System (ÕIS) is used for academic planning and management.
• When creating e-courses at TLU, it is recommended to follow the "Best Practices for Creating and Structuring E-Courses". More information on e-course quality criteria.
• For assistance and guidance on using HTM Moodle and other learning environments, contact the E-Learning Center at eope@tlu.ee. 

• Courses can be ordered by filling out the form on the website or sending an email to eope@tlu.ee (please include the course code and title). 
• Courses can be reused in the new academic year, but previous year's students must be removed to avoid notifications about new ongoing courses. Guide for course reuse.
• Lecturers cannot create or delete courses themselves, if you want to delete an e-course please write to eope@tlu.ee (send link of the course or exact name).
• Add the course link to ÕIS to make it easily accessible to students. Guide for adding links in ÕIS.

• Include a learning guide providing an overview of the course, supporting learners in planning their studies, and clearly outlining assessment criteria.
• To systematize and structure the course, use various course formats (recommended to use the tiles format), use images and/or text & media area.
• You can add a banner with the TLU logo to the course, to which you can add a welcome message or the name of the course. The banner can also be added without text.

• Learning materials can be added as files, links, folders, or videos (see this guide). 
• Panopto can be used for recording instructional videos both at home and in the self-service recording studio T-323. Guides for Panopto and the recording studio. 
• Course content, including all learning materials and created assignments, can be imported from one course to another.
• For creating interactive learning materials with self-assessment exercises, use H5P. Guide “Interactive content in Moodle”.
• To illustrate learning materials, use free stock photos from www.pexels.com, www.pixabay.com, and www.unsplash.com.
• Recommendations on digital accessibility are provided in the course "Working and Teaching at Tallinn University 2023," subtopic no. 16. 
• University recommendations on using artificial intelligence in teaching can be found here. A study material on "Artificial Intelligence in Studies" was created in September 2023.

• The learner has an overview of the principles of assessment (what, when, and how it is assessed) in the study guide at the beginning of the course.
• For assessment: create assignments, tests, forums, and journals (see this guide). 
• To simplify assessment and feedback, use the marking guide and rubrics.
• Moodle's gradebook offers various options for calculating the overall grade for the course. Contact E-learning Centre for more information.
• Starting from February 2024, it is possible to use StrikePlagiarism for text matching detection. Tutorials are available in intranet (log in with TLU account).

• In Moodle, activities such as forums, glossaries, databases, workshops, boards, groups, wikis, and webinars can be used to involve learners in the learning process (refer to this guide).
• For conducting webinars use available tools: Zoom or Google Meet.
• To engage learners in lectures and webinars, various environments and tools outside of Moodle can be used; guides can be found here (subsection "Active learning").

• In the learning guide, specify how students can contact the lecturer and the time frame within which the lecturer will respond to questions. 
• Each course has an announcements forum “Teated õppijatele / News Forum”, where only lecturer can post messages intended for students. Students have read-only access to this forum, and all posts are delivered to students via email. 
• Each course should have an additional forum where students can post questions in case of problems, and lecturers regularly monitor it.
• Moodle offers various activities to gather student opinions, such as surveys and feedback. Guide.
• An example feedback questionnaire, including specific questions about the course and the subject, can be found in the course "TLÜ Näidiskursus 2024".

• For each learning material and activity, set conditions for considering it completed, i.e., when the learner has finished the activity. To get an overview of student progress (both for instructors and students), add a block “Completion progress” to the course. 
• Access to specific content (learning materials, activities) or topics/weeks can be restricted. Access can be limited to different groups, linked to completion of specific activities, have a time limit, etc. 
• The deadlines for all tasks and activities configured in the course are automatically added to the course calendar - both students and instructors can see the deadlines. 
• In addition, with the "Attendance" feature, lecturers can mark students who attended the lecture/seminar, or they can grant permission for students to mark their own attendance. 

• Moodle logs are retained for 365 days, meaning that almost all reports display content based on this timeframe. 
• Under the “Reports” section, there is a "Activity completion" available - providing an overview of the activities completed by the learner (if it’s configured, see previous subsection "Monitoring Learner Progress").