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Moodle Teachers – How to add manual graded items in course gradebook

By
Jaswinder Singh
-
Moodle Teachers - How to add manual graded items in course gradebook
Moodle Teachers - How to add manual graded items in course gradebook

Moodle LMS is one of the most popular open source Learning management System in the world. It is having tones of exciting features to meet the learning requirements of various industries. There may be times when teachers might be using few activities outside of the classroom and need to manage its grades in Moodle along with other course grades. Luckily Moodle allows you to add manual graded items. So, let’s see how you can add it in Moodle course.

The manual graded items can be used to assign the grades for physical activities like Practical demonstration, Project work, interview etc. As a Moodle teacher, you can add a new item in the course gradebook and then assign the grades for each students.

When you add certain activity types to your Moodle course, they will automatically be added as grade items within the gradebook. The most common examples are Assignment and Quiz, but you can also have graded Forums and other activities.

To add a new Manual graded item in your Moodle course, please follow the following steps:

  • Go to the course you wish to add a manual item to.
  • navigate to the Grades tab and then go to ‘Gradebook Setup’.
  • Click Add Grade Item button
  • On the new page:
    • Give the item a Name
    • give it a maximum value
    • if applicable place it in a category

Once that’s been created you can view the gradebook normally and click into the applicable cell and enter the grade value for each student.

Have you ever added manual graded items in your Moodle course? Please share your experience with us in the comments section below.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Discovery Education & Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Public Schools Team Up to Support Science Education

By
Jaswinder Singh
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Discovery Education & Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Public Schools Team Up to Support Science Education
Discovery Education & Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Public Schools Team Up to Support Science Education

Minnesota’s Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Public Schools (GFW) has recently announced a new partnership with Discovery Education, the worldwide EdTech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place, to support the creation of engaging science lessons in K-12 classrooms districtwide. In this new multi-year collaboration, educators in every GFW school will integrate Discovery Education’s suite of innovative digital resources into instruction to create dynamic learning experiences that will awaken students’ natural curiosity about science and the natural world.

Discovery Education helps educators deliver equitable learning experiences engaging all students and supporting higher academic achievement on a global scale.

As part of its continuous effort to prepare students for success beyond graduation, GFW sought digital resources that would drive deeper engagement in science. These resources needed to be simple, accessible for all teachers and students, easily integrated into the district’s robust science program, and aligned to Minnesota state and NGSS standards.

Commenting on the collaboration, the Superintendent of GFW Public School, Dr Jeff Horton, said:

At GFW, we work to ensure all students can reach their full potential and become successful, responsible citizens in a diverse society with innovative technology and strong teacher support. This new partnership with Discovery Education supports all educators as they engage students in our science curriculum.

Katelin Greer, National Partnerships Coordinator of Katelin Greer, commented:

We at Discovery Education are thrilled to partner with GFW Public Schools to provide an equitable and quality education to all students. The district’s thoughtful use of available funding is already being emulated across the region, and we look forward to supporting this important initiative as it unfolds.

Discovery Education works with professional, networking, and advocacy groups to attract diverse and skilled candidates. The platform offers popular employee events sponsored by its DE&I council. It serves approximately 4.5 million educators and 45 million students worldwide, and its resources are accessed in over 100 countries and territories. Inspired by the global media company Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. Discovery Education partners with districts, states, and trusted organizations to empower teachers with leading EdTech solutions that support the success of all learners.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Educational Fundraising Platform ‘GiveCampus’ Acquires ‘Community Funded’

By
Jaswinder Singh
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Educational Fundraising Platform 'GiveCampus' Acquires 'Community Funded'

GiveCampus, the world’s premier fundraising platform for nonprofit educational institutions, has announced that it has acquired Community Funded, a leading giving day and crowdfunding technology provider. With this deal, GiveCampus will expand the reach of social fundraising to more schools to help them reach, engage, and mobilize their communities.

Launched in 2015, GiveCampus aims to increase the quality, affordability, and accessibility of education. The platform provides software, services, and expertise that help schools raise more money, from more people, at a fraction of the cost of other fundraising methods. Since its launch, the Washington, D.C.-based startup has facilitated more than $3 billion in charitable giving to 1,200 colleges, universities, and K12 schools. It’s fundraising technology streamlines the critical work schools do before and after a donor makes a gift so one can better identify, engage, solicit, and steward those supporters.

Speaking about the acquisition, Co-founder & CEO of GiveCampus, Kestrel Linder, said:

The acquisition of Community Funded represents a deep commitment to our roots and an ambitious vision for the future. Together with Community Funded, we’ll continue to innovate and offer the best platform for giving days, crowdfunding, and online giving while broadening our work to enable the critical workflows before and after a donor makes a gift.

The Community Funded team is known for its customer-centric approach, and our respective missions and cultures have always been well-aligned. We are excited to welcome the team on board in support of our expanded community of partner institutions.

As part of the acquisition, Community Funded’s customer success, customer support, and product and engineering teams will join GiveCampus, ensuring continuity for Community Funded customers and providing the same level of support and expertise they expect. Danielle Evans, Community Funded VP of Client Success, commented:

We have always admired GiveCampus. They’ve been leading the way in the educational fundraising space for nearly a decade, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to join forces with them. GiveCampus continuously sets and raises the bar for what online giving experiences should look like. We are excited to be able to deliver those experiences to our customers and their donors. We’re also eager to give our customers access to GiveCampus’s portfolio of solutions for other essential fundraising activities, from texting and event registration to volunteer management and prospect research.

Founded in 2011, Community Funded helped schools raise over $500 million. The company provides an opportunity for organizations and individuals to showcase and raise funds for community impact projects, enabling organizations to have access to financial resources. It’s 100-plus customers include the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Utah, the American University, the University of Illinois Foundation, and the University of Colorado system.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Join First MoodleMoot Africa 2023 from 20-22 Aug, 2023 in Johannesburg

By
Jaswinder Singh
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Join First MoodleMoot Africa 2023 from 20-22 Aug, 2023 in Johannesburg
Join First MoodleMoot Africa 2023 from 20-22 Aug, 2023 in Johannesburg

The first MoodleMoot Africa 2023 will be held in Johannesburg from 20-22 Aug, 2023. The edtech conference will be first of its kind for the Moodle users in the Africa region. The edtech event will be hosted by University of South Africa at the Emperors Palace Hotel Johannesburg.

he theme of the conference is: “Reimagining the student walk/journey to achieve improved student success and best user experience in the Post COVID, 4IR era: The Moodle LMS perspective”. The aim of the conference is to bring together the Moodle community in Africa and the rest of the world to share Moodle best practises, experience and improve the quality of online, e-learning education and training in a globally connected digital era for the benefit of the student.

Martin Dougiamas – Founder of Moodle LMS will also participate in the MoodleMoot Africa 2023. Other keynote speakers include – Piera Biccard & Mpine Makoe. The main objectives of the MoodleMoot Africa 2023 are:

  • Build a network of Moodle users in Africa to collaborate on Moodle LMS projects of mutual interest
  • Knowledge exchange in improving Moodle LMS to meet the specific needs of Africanising and decolonising the curriculum and pedagogy in the 4IR era
  • Enabling the UNISA strategic objectives of improving student success, user experience and retention
  • Earn continental and international recognition as Moodle LMS Centre of excellence

The conference will include the following streams:

  • Developers and Administrators
    • Moodle extensions and plugins
    • Moodle Performance Tuning & Stabilisation
    • Database Management and optimisation
  • Education Technology
    • Moocs
    • OERs
    • Cloud computing
  • Moodle LMS Innovations
    • Integrations & Plug-Ins, e.g. online assessments, quality assurance, etc.
    • Data Analytics across the student walk / journey
    • Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to enhance teaching, learning and assessment using Moodle LMS

If you want to present in the MoodleMoot Africa 2023, you can submit your presentation proposal on or before 30 June 2023.

For more details about the edtech conference, please check out the official website here.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Moodle released Minor Moodle version updates – Check them out now!

By
Jaswinder Singh
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Moodle released Minor Moodle version updates - Check them out now!
Moodle released Minor Moodle version updates - Check them out now!

Moodle LMS has released the minor version updates for all supported versions. The new minor version updates are mainly security fixes and improvements. The new versions released are available from the download channels.

The new Moodle minor versions updates includes the following:

You can download the latest version from the official Moodle download repository here.

While the Moodle 4.2 is the latest version in the Moodle version, the Moodle 4.1 is the latest LTS release version. The Moodle 4.0 branch is among the other supported versions while the Moodle 3.11 and Moodle 3.9 branches are just supported for security fixes only.

Here is the latest release calendar for the Moodle LMS:

Release graph summarising the currently supported Moodle releases in a visual form

If you are still running your Moodle LMS on older version, you are advised to plan for the upgrade as soon as possible.

In case you have any questions about upgrading, you can also share with us in the comments section below.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Early Childhood EdTech Platform Raising Superstars Raises $2M in Pre-Series A Round

By
Jaswinder Singh
-
Early Childhood EdTech Platform Raising Superstars Raises $2M in Pre-Series A Round
Early Childhood EdTech Platform Raising Superstars Raises $2M in Pre-Series A Round

Raising Superstars, an early childhood EdTech company offering activity-based educational videos that empower parents to engage and teach children aged 0-6, has raised $2 million in its pre-Series A round led by BLinC Invest, a venture capital fund focused on investing in the EdTech and FinTech space. The Mumbai-based startup has made its first institutional round with this investment.

Founded in 2020 by Raghav Himatsingka, a Stanford University alumnus and former co-founder of Truckola Technologies, and Shraddha Himatsingka, a Leeds University alumna and former parents’ consultant, Raising Superstars conceived pedagogy for early childhood development focuses on nurturing positive relationships and a conducive environment for the child’s learning and growth. It claims to have over 500,000 parents as customers and has a presence in over 150 countries with a strong growth trajectory.

According to the company, the fresh capital will be utilized to broaden its management team, increase its global presence by localizing content, and invest in its technology. Speaking about the fundraising, Co-founder & CEO of Raising Superstars, Raghav Himatsingka, said:

This fundraising is an important milestone for us because it will help us expand our offerings (both vertically and horizontally) and serve our customers better around the world. We thank the BLinC Invest team for expressing confidence in our product. We are excited about what lies ahead.

Founder & MD of BLinC Invest, Amit Ratanpal, commented:

The Early Childhood Care and Education report 2021 by BLinC Invest depicts a tremendous opportunity in this sector. We believe that Raising Superstars has created a new category in Early Childhood Development by providing a well-researched pedagogy for overall brain development in children between the age group of 0 to 6 years. Our research shows that the activities created by Raising Superstars for early brain development are profoundly engaging and will contribute to the student’s future success in school, the workplace, and beyond.

The platform has created an app – “Prodigy Baby” – amongst the top 3 Parenting App on the Play Store and a featured app on iOS App Store. It demonstrates various activities to be performed by parents for their babies, toddlers, and kids without any screen time for the child and with no pressures of any testing or benchmarking. The activities take less than 5 minutes a day but may lead to superior long-term developmental benefits for the child.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

BYJU’S Launches Byju’s Wiz – Three Generative AI Models for Hyper-Personalized Learning

By
Jaswinder Singh
-
BYJU’S Launches Byju's Wiz - Three Generative AI Models for Hyper-Personalized Learning
BYJU’S Launches Byju's Wiz - Three Generative AI Models for Hyper-Personalized Learning

Indian EdTech giant, and most valuable startup, BYJU’S, has announced the launch of BYJU’S Wiz, a suite of three cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) transformer models—Badri, MathGPT, and TeacherGPT. According to the company, the new suite aims to reshape learning, providing students with personalized and compelling learning experiences.

The AI suite, which BYJU’S claims has a 90 per cent accuracy rate, can accurately predict a student’s knowledge state and identify misconceptions, learning gaps, or mistakes. Badri is a predictive AI model which leverages AI technology to pinpoint a student’s strengths and weaknesses at a granular level. Another model, MathGPT, employs advanced machine learning algorithms to provide highly accurate solutions for complex math challenges, including trigonometric proofs, a first in the industry. The other tool, TeacherGPT, is an AI-driven assistant that ensures students are guided toward the correct answer and offers personalized guidance.

Speaking about the latest development, Chief Innovation & Learning Officer of BYJU’S, Dev Roy, said:

Innovation is at the heart of BYJU’s approach to learning and teaching. We are thrilled to introduce these innovative models, which embody our commitment to becoming an AI-powered student-centric education company. We believe BYJU’SWIZ will usher in a new era of personalized learning, taking a significant leap forward in the way we educate our future generations. Its launch is a definitive event in our constant endeavour to teach students ‘what to learn’ and ‘how to learn’.”

In an interview, the co-founder of BYJU’S, Divya Gokulnath, said:

This is our secret weapon. We’ve made so much headway regarding research, development and training. This has been a global endeavour to leverage large language models, develop our own (models) and better how we help students learn.

The AI suite’s ability to accurately predict a student’s knowledge state, and identify misconceptions, learning gaps, or ‘silly’ mistakes, are a huge step forward in freeing learning from the constraints of space and time. Providing 24×7 hyper-personalized learning experiences tailored to each student’s unique needs anywhere in the world will make learning more engaging, effective, and enjoyable for students worldwide while optimizing internal systems such as teacher audits to improve offerings such as LIVE classes. The AI team at BYJU’S, working under the guidance of Dev Roy, has ensured that the AI suite is not just hyper-personalized but also safe, reliable, and curriculum-aligned.

These pioneering models are undergoing rigorous testing at BYJU’S Labs, equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and staffed by a dedicated team of researchers, data scientists, and educational experts. Given their unparalleled potential to effectively cater to diverse educational needs, they are set to be integrated across the entire product portfolio of BYJU’S, from Pre-K to Gray. This comprehensive integration will ensure that students of all ages can benefit from these models’ cutting-edge advancements and transformative impact throughout their learning journey.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

What is Diffit? How you can use instantly get leveled resources for any lesson

By
Jaswinder Singh
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What is Diffit? How you can use instantly get leveled resources for any lesson
What is Diffit? How you can use instantly get leveled resources for any lesson

Diffit is a new AI based edtech tool which can really help you save a lot of time. You can easily convert literally any content to adapt for any reading level. In addition, it can give you complementary vocabulary, comprehension checks, Multiple choice questions, short questions etc.

Diffit is really one of the coolest tool I came across which can give you leveled resources for any lesson, saving tons of time and helping all students access grade level content. It is pretty easy to get started with it as it is a web based tool so you can use it through any device with browser access. All you need is to login with a working Google account.

To get started with Diffit, you can head straight to this link – https://www.diffit.me/ Then you can click the “Get Resources ” button on top right corner or click the “Teachers Start here” button. It will take you to the editor window where you can choose to enter your information:

  • Paste your excerpt in text
  • Paste a URL to get the information
  • Search for a topic, topic or question.

For all the three options, you need to select the Grade which will define the reading level and language for the output content.

Then click “Generate Resources”.

It will take a few seconds to create the content for you. The output content will have the following:

  • Adapted Reading Passage
  • Summary
  • Key Vocabulary Words
  • Multiple Choice Questions
  • Short Answer Questions
  • Open-ended Prompts

On top of each section after the first two, you can click the Generate More button to create additional content.

Best part is that you can also convert the output in any other language which can make your life easier especially for language teaching courses.

You can also export the content into Google Docs by choosing the sections which you would like to export.

As a teacher you can use Diffit to:

  • Adapt any text or article for any reading level
  • Generate quick informational texts for any topic – with vocabulary, comprehension checks, and more
  • Tweak to your liking and share with students

Overall, it is a perfect tool for the modern educators who want to stay ahead in using the technology. The Diffit tool is certainly one of the tools which you can use on daily basis for your classroom.

What’s your opinion about the Diffit tool? Please share your views with us in the comments section below.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Moodle users Association – Final Voting is open now, Cast your votes!

By
Jaswinder Singh
-
Moodle users Association - Final Voting is open now, Cast your votes!
Moodle users Association - Final Voting is open now, Cast your votes!

The Moodle users Association’s January-June 2023 Project Development Cycle is in the final voting stage. The final voting option is open for the MUA members now until 19 June 2023. All the Moodle Users Association community members can cast their votes for their favorite projects.

The Preliminary votes for each project have been reset and you can cast your votes again. Voting on project proposals is a key MUA member activity. Let your voice be heard! Individual members can cast 100 votes. Only the lead participants of Gold, Silver, and Bronze members can cast votes for their organization. If you have already voted, you can change your votes at any time until the deadline.

Now there are only 5 projects left to vote, which are as follows (with current votes against each name):

  1. Add the Ordering question type (qtype_ordering) into Moodle core – 12750
  2. Allow Activity Completion Settings for Topics/Weeks – 5150
  3. Show information for teachers about submissions on the course main page in the Boost theme – 4499
  4. Improve availability of activities and resources overview pages in Boost theme – 1300
  5. Allow session stores to fully manage the session ==> never touch mdl_sessions table! – 301

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

San Francisco-Based Swing Education Raises $38M in Series C Funding

By
Jaswinder Singh
-
San Francisco-Based Swing Education Raises $38M in Series C Funding
San Francisco-Based Swing Education Raises $38M in Series C Funding

Swing Education, an online staffing marketplace that connects substitute teachers with schools, announced that it has raised $38M in its Series C Funding. The round was led by funds advised by Apax Partners LLP (“Apax”), a leading global private equity advisory firm, and by edtech investment firm Reach Capital. The San Francisco-based company will utilize the Capital to grow the pool of qualified substitute teachers and school district partners across the areas in which it currently operates, including California, Arizona, Texas, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C., as well as to expand to new regions in 2024..

Founded in 2015 by Mike Teng, Oz Feng, and Asha Visweswaran, Swing Education aims to connect reliable, high-quality substitute teachers with the schools and students that need them. The startup believes in the power of technology to improve how people work together and address challenging human problems – like classroom vacancies caused by the teacher shortage. Since its inception, the platform has worked to enhance the experience of being a substitute teacher and made it easier for K-12 schools to grow and manage their substitute teacher pools.

Speaking about the Capital raised, Co-founder & CEO of Swing Education, Mike Teng, said:

We’re thrilled to have Apax Partners and Reach Capital as strategic investors. The need for substitute teachers is acute. This additional funding highlights the current strain on our schools and positions Swing to grow our impact, placing even more substitute teachers in even more classrooms.

Swing Education currently works with over 2,800 school partners and, in the 2022-23 school year, has supported these schools in filling over one million instructional hours with substitute teachers. David Su, Partner, Apax Global Impact, added:

Swing Education is a truly impactful business, bringing much-needed digitalization to the substitute teacher staffing marketplace and making matching talent with schools easier and more efficient. We’re incredibly excited to partner with Mike and the broader team to help grow the business and execute our joint vision for the company.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

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