CHINHOYI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT

AND

ACADEMY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

Student Virtual Learning Environment Manual

Version 1.1
Contents
1.0 Preamble ......................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 How to use this manual ................................................................................................................ 2
1.1.1 Key features ..................................................................................................... 3
2.0 Accessing the CUT Website .......................................................................................................... 4
3.0 Accessing the Student Portal ....................................................................................................... 4
3.1 The login account creation process ............................................................................................ 5
3.1.1 Student Signup ................................................................................................. 6
3.1.2 Username creation ............................................................................................ 7
3.1.3 Password .......................................................................................................... 7
3.1.5 Matching password without agreeing to CUT terms .............................................. 8
3.1.6 Either date of Birth or Registration Number is Incorrect Error ...............................10
3.1.7 Successful account creation ...............................................................................11
3.1.8 The new student logging in ...............................................................................12
3.1.9 The student logged on. .....................................................................................13
3.2.1 On successful account creation in step ...............................................................15
3.2.2 Conditions leading to unsuccessful login .............................................................15
3.2.3 Invalid password input ......................................................................................15
3.2.4 Change/Password reset ....................................................................................15
3.2.5 Successful login................................................................................................15
4.0 Portal ............................................................................................................................................. 16
4.1 Chinhoyi University of Technology Virtual Learning Environment (CUT VLE) .................... 16
4.2 Accessing the Portal .................................................................................................................... 16
5.0 CUT- Virtual Learning Environment .......................................................................................... 18
5.1 Viewing courses ........................................................................................................................... 19
5.2 View Announcement for the modules....................................................................................... 21
5.3 View assignments due................................................................................................................. 23
6.0 Uploaded Work ............................................................................................................................. 24
6.1 Viewing marked assignments..................................................................................................... 25
6.2 Assignment Status ....................................................................................................................... 26
6.3 Viewing late submitted assignment .......................................................................................... 27
7.0 To view about a course (This Course) ...................................................................................... 28
7.1 Participants ................................................................................................................................... 28
7.2 Viewing your grades .................................................................................................................... 29

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7.3 View submitted assignments...................................................................................................... 30
8.0 Viewing quizzes (This Course) ................................................................................................... 31
9.0 Writing a Quiz ............................................................................................................................... 32
10.0 User Report................................................................................................................................. 35
10.1 Forum .......................................................................................................................................... 35
11.0 Logging out................................................................................................................................. 37

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 3.1: Student Login……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………4

Figure 3. 2: Student Login ............................................................................................................. 5

Figure 3. 3: New Student signup form ............................................................................................ 6
Figure 3. 4: Mismatch Password ..................................................................................................... 8
Figure 3. 5: Agree to terms of service ............................................................................................ 9
Figure 3. 6: An existing Signing Up .............................................................................................. 10
Figure 3. 7: Successful Signup and agreement to terms ................................................................ 11
Figure 3. 8: New Student Logging In ............................................................................................ 12
Figure 3. 9: Select Modules.......................................................................................................... 13
Figure 3. 10: Class ready ............................................................................................................. 14
Figure 4. 1: E-learning................................................................................................................. 16
Figure 4. 2: CUT VLE ................................................................................................................... 17
Figure 5. 1: VLE home page ........................................................................................................ 18
Figure 5. 2: My Courses to Viewing courses .................................................................................. 19
Figure 5. 3: Choosing a module ................................................................................................... 20
Figure 5. 4: View Announcements ................................................................................................ 21
Figure 5. 5: View Announcements ................................................................................................ 22
Figure 5. 6: Courses Due, Date and time for Submission ............................................................... 23
Figure 6. 1: Uploaded Work ......................................................................................................... 24
Figure 6. 2: Submitted Assignment 2 ............................................................................................ 25
Figure 6. 3: Submitted Assignment 3 ............................................................................................ 26
Figure 6. 4: Assignment Status .................................................................................................... 27
Figure 6. 5: View late submitted assignment ................................................................................. 27
Figure 7. 1:This Course ............................................................................................................... 28
Figure 7. 2: Participants .............................................................................................................. 28
Figure 7. 3 Viewing Grades .......................................................................................................... 29
Figure 7. 4: Viewing submitted assignments ................................................................................. 30
Figure 8. 1: Viewing Quizzes ........................................................................................................ 31
Figure 8. 2: Click the Quiz 1......................................................................................................... 31
Figure 9. 1: Attempt a quiz .......................................................................................................... 32
Figure 9. 2: Quiz time limit .......................................................................................................... 33
Figure 9. 3: Multiple choice Quiz .................................................................................................. 33
Figure 9. 4: Multiple choice quizzes answered ............................................................................... 34
Figure 9. 5: Submit Quiz .............................................................................................................. 34

Figure 10. 1: User Report ............................................................................................................ 35

Figure 10. 2: This Course ............................................................................................................ 35
Figure 10. 3: General Forums ...................................................................................................... 36
Figure 11. 1: Logging Out ............................................................................................................ 37

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1.0 Preamble

The emergence of adaptive technologies to bridge the digital divide in coming

up with strategic solutions in solving unprecedented challenges require
innovation. As we continuously move to online technologies, we as ICT are
integrating our existing E-portal system with Moodle so as to enable both
lecturers and students to access online teaching and learning resources.

Moodle is a flexible, open source, and free to download learning management

solution. In addition, Moodle is a user-friendly eLearning platform that serves
the learning and training needs of people from all types of organizations and in
particular CUT.

We as CUT ICT are taking up this e learning solution and why:

 This e-learning solution provides online learning in personalised

environments that foster interaction, inquiry, and collaboration where
lecturers can create and deliver online courses so that students can meet
and exceed their learning goals.
 Moodle is feature rich and highly flexible which works well to our
advantage when integrating with our e-portal.
 Moving along with technology in line with the direction of going 100%
online, it is imperative that we embrace such advances in creating an
enabling teaching and learning environment for our university
community.
 Both our e-portal and Moodle will be integrated as we work.
 On login to our e-portal, a lecturer or student may be prompted to
change password according to Moodle. In turn, on successful change of
credentials, a valid Moodle account will be created seamlessly.
 Upon Moodle login, staff can for example create assignments; quiz,
upload documents and students can access assigned work and respond
within the confines.

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  Frequently asked questions will be addressed in a different section to
ease use of the virtual learning environment.
 Moodle’s adaptive learning allows us to deliver customized resources
and learning activities to address the unique needs of each course where
instructional design is aided with the use of technology.
In Moodle through Instructional Design leads to adaptive learning
through flexible course creation features like activity access restrictions,
course completion conditions, lesson activity using clusters, quiz
adaptability etc.

1.1 How to use this manual

This manual is intended for instructors and staff. The following section helps
instructors to make the most of Moodle. The rest of the manual addresses the
instructor. All facilitators and instructors are encouraged to go through the manual
first, familiarise themselves with the contents and understand the instructions.

This manual is in … sections. Section 1 Helps you to navigate around the CUT VLE site
as an instructor. You should be familiar with the terms and actions that you will have
to do. Read through the manual before you start working on your profile. You have to
be clear that your modules, any forums blog entries and link to edit your profiles are
set before you start using the VLE. An important feature is the Edit profile link that
allows you to make certain corrections. You cannot unilaterally change your username.
You have to consult your admin.
Your site allows you to view notifications. These include messages, submissions from
students, new posts including graded assignments.
The second part helps you to post items, assign and collect written and submitted
assignments. Moodle helps you to post resources including electronic journals.

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1.1.1 Key features

 Activity- allows you to add actions you want students to work on

 Backup- This is done by the administrator
 Course- is used interchangeably for module
 Grades- allows you to grade tests, quizzes and assignment of each
registered student
 Logs- shows you all activities in your class for a set amount of time
 Files- allow you view all files and to upload files to your class
 Help- - take you to specific sections of this manual
 Forum- exchanging thoughts, opinion and ideas by posting comments
between instructors and students. The posts maybe images, audio or
media files
 Gradebook- automatically collects scores and feedback from quizzes ,
Assignments, activities and/or manual grades from your Moodle
course.
 Item- is used for grading students with the intention to set aggregate
to measure to performance in the course/module activities.
 Quiz- used by instructors or lecturers to evaluates student
understanding of the module/course.
 Resource- this include journal articles, lecture notes, links,
assignments, quizzes and reading material etc
 Scales- Moodle allows you to create evaluation scales
 Settings- allow you to change the look of your class
 Turn editing on- this allows you to make changes to activities and
resources, quizzes and assignments their appearance and functionality.
 Weighting- from a quiz or assignment they produce a total of points
earned by a student.

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2.0 Accessing the CUT Website

Open your favorite browser and type the following URL (www.cut.ac.zw).That will
direct you to the cut website. There are various activities that you can do from the
website by clicking on the selected item. In this case this manual service to assist the
user on navigating to the Chinhoyi University of Technology Virtual Learning
Environment (CUT VLE).

3.0 Accessing the Student Portal

Form the menu bar click on Student and select Portal. You will be directed to a login
window where you are prompted to enter your login credentials. See Figure 3.1
below

Figure 3. 1: Accessing the Student Portal

This will lead you to a window that requests you to login and create a user account.
Follow the following steps.

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3.1 The login account creation process
As an existing CUT registered students you simply fill in your registration
number and password to Login as prompted by the system. This will allow
you to navigate to CUT VLE as in Figure3.2. If you are new, go to step 3.1.2
sign up and create your account

Figure 3. 2: Student Login

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3.1.1 Student Signup
Signup is a login account creation process for first year students
(undergrads, masters and postgrads). Click on Student Signup as indicated
on Figure3.2 above fill in the signup form as shown in Figure 3.3
Details of your birth day, you enter should match details on your National ID
or Birth Certificate.

Figure 3. 3: New Student signup form

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3.1.2 Username creation
The CUT student name creation convention requires your registration number, date
of birth and a valid e-mail address. If a student does not have a valid e-mail address
they can use a default e-mail [email protected] until they have created one.

3.1.3 Password
Every student is required to create a strong password that should contain
letters of the alphabet (upper and lower cases), special characters excluding
the hash character (#) (! @, $, %, ^, &, *), numbers and be more than eight
(8) characters as per CUTICT Password Policy.
For example,
a. MuraChiZ!mb@2020it@$
b. zAch@eG2020%
c. Dootmat@2020
d. dooRm$15hos@A

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3.1.4 Confirm password
The student retypes the same password as in the password step in 2.1.3. If
the password fails to match you are alerted of the failure as in Figure 3.4

Figure 3. 4: Mismatch Password

3.1.5 Matching password without agreeing to CUT terms

If you clicked Create Account button without reading and agreeing to
terms of service and private policy, you will not be allowed to proceed
as shown in Figure 3.5 below. After reading and agreeing with the terms
of service click the Grey check box followed by clicking the login button
to proceed.

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Figure 3. 5: Agree to terms of service

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3.1.6 Either date of Birth or Registration Number is Incorrect Error
After filling in the sign up form with correct detail as shown in Figure 3.6 below with
an error of either date of Birth or Registration is incorrect visit Registration
Department to correct your registration detail which may have been erroneously
captured or omitted

Student details
have been
erroneously
captured or
omitted

Figure 3. 6: An existing Signing Up

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3.1.7 Successful account creation
Of note are the matching passwords and the agreement to terms of service by the
student. The student is directed to the login window notifying him/her of a
successful account creation as shown on Figure 3.7.

Figure 3. 7: Successful Signup and agreement to terms

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 3.1.8 The new student logging in
The new student can login using the credentials from signup.

Successfully
created
account
message

Figure 3. 8: New Student Logging In

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3.1.9 The student logged on.

After a successful login you should see the window in Figure 3.9. Now you can access
modules, personal profile, and bursary. Click on CUT VIRTUAL LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT IS READY CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE (CUT VLE) as indicated in red
below to go to CUT VLE. See red marked item in figure 3.9 below.

Figure 3. 9: Select Modules

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You can view your modules/courses before you move on to CUT VLE as indicated
below. In the window shown in Figure 3.10 click on modules. Total number of
modules/course registered are shown against TOTAL MODULES under the heading
Module Summary. Below in the boxed indication is a list of module(s).

Figure 3. 10: Class ready

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3.2.1 On successful account creation in step
The student would have terms of service and private policy in line with the
ICT policy.

3.2.2 Conditions leading to unsuccessful login

Invalid student registration number or date of birth an error associated with
erroneous capturing or omission of student personal details.
The student would have logged on with wrong credentials or would have
made an error on typing the user name or password.
3.2.3 Invalid password input
The error is associated with wrong password entered and the user is
reminded to refer to ICT Policy with emphasis on password policy.

3.2.4 Change/Password reset

The user should read the ICT Policy on password change.
3.2.5 Successful login
Overall objective was to create a student login profile and also how to address
issues during login process.

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4.0 Portal

4.1 Chinhoyi University of Technology Virtual Learning Environment (CUT VLE)

This is a system for delivering learning materials to students via the web. The
system functions include student assessment, student tracking, collaboration
and communication tools. It is accessed both by registered Chinhoyi
University of Technology students and staff who are privileged to be having
CUT VLE accounts.

4.2 Accessing the Portal

On CUT website www.cut.ac.zw click on student and then select e-learning
from the menu bar. You will be directed to a login window where you are
prompted to enter your login credentials or signup if you don’t have an
account with Chinhoyi university of Technology. The steps are shown in above
and below to repeat.

Figure 4. 1: E-learning

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After clicking on E-learning the following window appears and click on CUT VIRTUAL
LEARNING ENVIRONMENT IS READY CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE (CUT VLE) to go to
CUT VLE.

Figure 4. 2: CUT VLE

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5.0 CUT- Virtual Learning Environment

Welcome to Chinhoyi University of Technology –Virtual Learning Environment. Figure

5.1 below shows the home page, dashboard .events and my courses. VLE for
student our focal point is MY COURSES.

Figure 5. 1: VLE home page

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5.1 Viewing courses

Go to My Courses and Select a course. Click My Course to see your course as shown
in Figure 5.2 below.

Figure 5. 2: My Courses to Viewing courses

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Figure 5.3 below is showing how to choose a module for My Course drop down
menu

Figure 5. 3: Choosing a module

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5.2 View Announcement for the modules
The interface below shows the selected modules/course. The blank space shows that
the lecturer has not uploaded any work for the module/course. The student can view
announcements for this course if any by clicking on the purple Icon. The next interface
below will show the student if there any announcements or not. Note; the logged
student name will always appear on the top right of the screen in the golden bar.

Figure 5. 4: View Announcements

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Figure 5.5 is a result of the above. In this case there are no announcements loaded
for the course.

Figure 5. 5: View Announcements

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5.3 View assignments due

If you clicked on events the interface you would view courses that are due and date
and time for submission.

Figure 5. 6: Courses Due, Date and time for Submission

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6.0 Uploaded Work
Once the lecturer uploads some work for the students for that particular course, the
work appears on the screen as shown below indicating dates of submission. If the
students attempts and submits an assignment, the submitted assignment button turns
green with a tick an indication that it has successfully been submitted. The student
can edit his/her assignment before final submission. Underneath the green button
there is a feedback available announcement label, you can either click the green
button to view the feedback.

Figure 6. 1: Uploaded Work

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6.1 Viewing marked assignments

Figure 6.2 below shows the second assignment submitted for the course.

Figure 6. 2: Submitted Assignment 2

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Figure 6.3 shows the third assignment submitted.

Figure 6. 3: Submitted Assignment 3

6.2 Assignment Status

After clicking the green button or the feedback label the Figure 6.4 below appears
with all details for the assignment including the grade that the student scored.

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Figure 6. 4: Assignment Status

6.3 Viewing late submitted assignment

If the student did not submit his/her assignment on time the system indicates to the
student that the submitted late with magnitude of lateness precisely shown.

Figure 6. 5: View late submitted assignment

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7.0 To view about a course (This Course)

To view fellow classmates, students report, grades, assignment and forums the
student should click “This course” and select what the student desires to view. The
selected item will be shown on Figure 7.1 and the details pertaining to that item.

Figure 7. 1:This Course

7.1 Participants
If the student selects participants from “This course” the Figure 7.2 below comes up
showing the students and their lecture.

Figure 7. 2: Participants

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7.2 Viewing your grades

If the students selected ‘Grades”, she/he will see what she/he scored for every
assignment.

Figure 7. 3 Viewing Grades

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7.3 View submitted assignments

The student can view all the assignment she/he submitted, the dates submitted and
the grades attained.

Figure 7. 4: Viewing submitted assignments

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8.0 Viewing quizzes (This Course)

If the student selects quizzes from “This course” from Figure 8.1 below
.

Figure 8. 1: Viewing Quizzes

Figure 8. 2: Click the Quiz 1

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9.0 Writing a Quiz

When the student wants to write the quiz click attempt quiz now shown on Figure
9.1 below

Figure 9. 1: Attempt a quiz

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NB: The Click start on the time limit to attempt the quiz as shown below.

Figure 9. 2: Quiz time limit

NB: Figure 9.3 below shows an example of multiple choice quiz.

Figure 9. 3: Multiple choice Quiz

NB: Answer to Figure 9.3 multiple choice quiz marked.

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Figure 9. 4: Multiple choice quizzes answered

NB: After answering all quiz questions, answers are saved and also showing time
limits of submission.

Figure 9. 5: Submit Quiz

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10.0 User Report

User report summaries student attempted assignment and quizzes for the period
including weighting, grades, percentage, contribution to course total and feedback

Figure 10. 1: User Report

10.1 Forum
You can check for any announcements for this course by selecting the Forum item
from “This course” menu.

Figure 10. 2: This Course

NB: There is no news or announcements in general forums in Figure 10.2 below

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Figure 10. 3: General Forums

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11.0 Logging out

On the golden menu bar at the top right most is an icon against the logged-on
student. Click on to select an activity or log out the of CUT VLE.

Figure 11. 1: Logging Out

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