Reporting Moodle courses

Report Moodle course activities in PEARS program activities

Most Extension programs in Moodle fall under the direct education category reported in PEARS program activities.  In addition to face-to-face and other synchronous presentations, this category includes self-paced courses meeting two conditions: (1) there is evidence who participated (e.g. registration or demographic data collected, AND (2) there is evidence that the program was received (e.g. quiz, course completion, or evaluation).  Most Moodle programs meet these criteria.

Moodle courses may need one or more program activity entries, depending on course

Just like other direct education activities, reporting structure follows the educational content structure as well as the participant experience. A PEARS program activity is a direct education event intended as a cohesive, typically sequential program provided to a single participant cohort.   

  • A COURSE that all participants complete in the same way is reported as a single program activity with one or more sessions.
  • A SERIES or CONFERENCE where participants choose which sessions to attend is generally reported as separate program activities for each session, identified as a common event through the program activity name.

Examples

  • The traditional Crop Management Conference is an all day conference where everyone attends the same sessions, and is reported as a single program activity. The Moodle version of the Crop Management Conference includes a choice of sessions so each session is reported as a separate program activity, e.g. Crop Management Conference/Saturated buffers.
  • Master Gardener online training is a cohesive course that all participants complete by attending the same sessions.  There are several registration cohorts each year.  Each registration cohort is reported as a separate program activity with multiple sessions.

Reporting details

Method used to deliver program

Select "Virtual, self-directed and interactive”. 

Dates content available

Enter the date range that the virtual, self-directed content was available.

Courses with a structured start and end date.  List the opening and closing dates of the course.  Example:  For the Master Gardener, online training, list the start date and target end date for each cohort.  

Courses that are ongoing, yearly reporting option.  For previously developed courses, list the start and end dates of the reporting year. If course was launched during the current reporting year, use the actual start date.  

Courses that are ongoing, quarterly reporting option.  If you want to track participation over time, or if you think you will need reports for the calendar year as well as the Extension reporting year, you can choose to report as a separate program activity for each quarter of the year, using 1/1, 4/1, 7/1, and 10/1 as the initial session dates.

Lessons or modules

Enter each lesson or module separately.  Enter a description/title and estimated number of minutes to complete each module or lesson.  For videos, this would be the length of the video.  For other course resource types, use an estimated time of student effort.

Number of participants

Number of participants may be based on Moodle data showing the number who have completed the course OR the number who have accessed the course, depending on course structure and goals.  In general, do not include in the participant count people who have registered but who never accessed the content during the time it was available.

For ongoing courses, pull the participant count for the reporting year only.  Check to make sure no participants are double counted with the previous year.

Demographic information

Demographic data is available for some but not all Moodle courses.  If you need assistance in accessing this information from Moodle, contact Adena Wilson.  If you need assistance on translating Moodle demographic data to the PEARS demographic format, contact the Data Team representative for your program area.