This document illustrates tips on teaching an online course and guildelines used by Maseno university in the facilitation of courses

1. 1
Contents
Logging into the eLearning portal.................................................................................................................2
Accessing my Courses ...................................................................................................................................2
Structure of an eLearning Course .................................................................................................................4
Getting to know the Participants within a course ........................................................................................4
Discussion Forums ........................................................................................................................................5
a. Starting a Discussion .........................................................................................................................5
b. Replying to a discussion Forum.........................................................................................................6
c. Grading a Discussion.........................................................................................................................7
Sending a message to a student (Personalized Communication).................................................................7
Suggested Facilitator Activities and Techniques...........................................................................................9
Before the course begins..........................................................................................................................9
During the First week................................................................................................................................9
During the semester .................................................................................................................................9
At the beginning of each topic..............................................................................................................9
Sample Welcome message .........................................................................................................................10

2. 2
Logging into the eLearning portal
 To Log into the Maseno University’s eLearning portal. The web address is
elearning.maseno.ac.ke
 Log in with your username and password once the portal loads
 When logged successfully your name appears on the top right corner and the first page you will
land on is called the home page
Accessing my Courses
Log in with
the
username
and
password
Your
Name
appears
here
This is the
homepage
Click on the “My courses” link on the navigation
block

3. 3
A page listing the
courses you are
facilitating will
open. To open a
course, simply click
on it
An open Course

4. 4
Structure of an eLearning Course
An eLearning course has two sections:
 Course Information (The first section within the course which contains course wide information)
 10 Topics
The tenth topic is a revision topic which contains topic revision content
Each topic has the following sections:
1. The topic title
2. An introduction
3. Topic Objectives
4. Student tasks (Learning Activities)
5. Assessment
6. Discussion and a Discussion forum
Getting to know the Participants within a course
To know the student enrolled in your course follow the following steps:
 Open the course as shown above
 Go to the navigation block and click on participants
To view the participants within your
course

5. 5
 A page with the list of students in your course will open
Discussion Forums
Discussion forums provide a space for interaction for participants in the course. As a facilitator you will
use the forum to:
 Initiate discussions by posting discussion topics relevant to the topic under study
 Respond to students forum contribution
 Grade their Participation by rating their Discussions
 Summarize topics at the end of the week
a. Starting a Discussion
 To start a discussion, click on the discussion forum you want to post in to open it
 Click on the “add a new discussion topic “
 Type the Topic title under Subject and the content of your contribution under message
List of students enrolled
in your course

6. 6
 Scroll down and Click on Post to forum
b. Replying to a discussion Forum
 Open the discussion forum, If students have posted on the forum it appears as below
 Click on the Discussion topic to open the student’s contribution
 Read the student’s contribution
 Click on reply at the bottom right corner to reply to the student’s posts. Type your message then
scroll down and click on “Post to forum” button
Discussion
Title
The Reply Button

7. 7
c. Grading a Discussion
Discussions can be graded and this will form part of the student’s CAT marks. Grading forums is also a
way of motivating students to participate in discussions within a course. To Grade a forum:
 Open the student’s discussion contributions shown above.
 Read the contribution then rate the student
Sending a message to a student (Personalized Communication)
Messages provide the facilitator with an opportunity to send a personalized message to a student.
Messages offer a facility for private communication
1. Open the list of students (Navigation block>Participants)
2. Select the student by checking on the check box on the left
3. Scroll down and select “Send a message” from the dropdown
Rating a discussion post by a
student
Select the
student

8. 8
4. Type the message, preview it then send

9. 9
Suggested Facilitator Activities and Techniques
Before the course begins…
 review the module materials
 practice using the Moodle Learning Management System (See
Facilitator Guide to Moodle above)
During the First week
 Welcome participants to the module by posting a welcome message in the social forum the
message creates a welcoming presence when participants start to arrive use a friendly,
welcoming, personal tone that invites participation
 Model good messaging technique to establish norms for the course
 use a subject heading that clearly reflects the content of your message
 use a messaging style that is half-way between the informality of spoken language, and the
formality of written communication
 use maximum one screen of information
 be polite and respectful
During the semester
At the beginning of each topic
 Post a message before participants are due to arrive that sets expectations for the topic
 Wait until two or three messages have been posted before responding. Respond with a message
that acknowledges the previous contributions and invite further discussion.
 In a maturing topic dialogue
 e
the discussion as necessary
 Use different strategies to promote reflection and a deeper understanding of the topic
 ring closure to the
discussions
 Grade assignments and give feedback comments to the learners

10. 10
Sample Welcome message
SAMPLE 1
Hi Participants,
I wish to welcome you to the first session of this …… module. You could be feeling a little anxious about
the experience, particularly if it is your first time, but rest assured it will soon go away. You, other
participants and I will jointly undertake the learning process: sharing our understanding, gently expressing
our uncertainties, boldly declaring our expectations, and collectively coming up with solutions thus
constructing knowledge. To start us off, I wish to ask you to introduce yourself to the rest of your course
mates in the social forum and briefly share with us your expectation of the module.
I urge you to make use of the affordances of online resources and those of the learning platforms:
Discussion Forums, Q& A forums, blogs etc to make our learning a rich and enjoyable experience.
Regards,
Your Name
SAMPLE 2
Dear Participant,
Welcome to the Climate Change course! All the materials you need to successfully engage in the
subject are on the portal and now that we have officially launched, we invite you to explore the
site and familiarise yourself with the information in the course outline, as these will give you the
outline for the following 10 weeks. The lectures in the course are delivered over 9 weeks, with an
extra 1 week for revison submission of assignments and finalising our last discussions before the
final examination.
The core activity each week will be our weekly discussion. The nine weeks of the course will be
divided into three specific areas of instruction – the social, scientific, and the economic issues of
Climate Change. You will be able to jump straight from the videos to the discussion threads
accompanying them if you wish, and in-video quizzes appear in some video lectures to help you
retrieve and recall key concepts. These quizzes are not assessable. Each week's activities also
include a selection of open-access materials designed to further your understanding of the
subject matter presented in-video. Assessment information is also set out to help you plan your
learning pathway and schedule, so don’t forget to allow plenty of time each week to keep on top
of the reading lectures, quizzes and assessment pieces, and of course to engage in discussion on
the critical subject matter presented in the course.

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In addition to the more formal aspects of the course, we encourage you to participate in our
General forum. The topics available for discussion within the discourse of Climate Change seem
endless, and given the dynamic nature of the subject, are always developing in new and
interesting ways. Do make sure you share and discuss new and interesting stories or happenings
in your region that will be of interest to other students. As always, mature, courteous, fair and
open discussion will be expected in this course, and we ask that you respect this policy.
Each new week of the course will become available on Monday at 12am, and we wish you all the
best of luck, and we hope that you find participating in Climate Change an interesting and very
rewarding experience.