MBEYA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

(MUST)

Virtual Learning Environment

Student User Guide

Table of Contents
About this Guide ............................................................................................................................... i
Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................................ii
1.1 System Setup .............................................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Technical Support....................................................................................................................... 1
1.3 Logging in .................................................................................................................................. 1
2.1.1 Home page .......................................................................................................................... 2
2.2 Profile Management ................................................................................................................... 3
2.2.1 Editing your Profile ............................................................................................................. 3
2.2.3 Change Password ................................................................................................................ 4
3.1 Navigating a Course ................................................................................................................... 5
3.2 Common Course Activity and Resources Icons ......................................................................... 5
4.1 Forums ....................................................................................................................................... 6
4.1.1 Adding a Post to a Discussion Forum ................................................................................. 7
5.1 Submitting an Assignment ......................................................................................................... 7
5.2 Add submission (Uploading file) ............................................................................................... 8
6.1 Quizzes and Exams .................................................................................................................. 10
7.1 Grades ...................................................................................................................................... 14
About this Guide

This guide provides student with an overview of Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) system,
which is a Moodle platform. It helps to give a quick insight and reference while interacting with the
system. The guide can be downloaded and printed on paper, as one will need to refer to it at the
same time observes what is displayed on screen. The guide is designed for Moodle Version4.1+ and
it assumes students have basic knowledge of using digital devices such as computer, tablet, or smart
phones.

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Abbreviations

VLE – Virtual Learning Environment

Moodle – Modular Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment
MUST – Mbeya University of Science and Technology
URL – Uniform Resource Locator

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1.1 System Setup

The VLE system accessibility requires;

i. A digital device (Computer, Smart phone or Tablet) that is installed with the following most
recommended browsers:
 Google Chrome or
 Firefox
ii. Internet connection.
iii. Other supporting software or applications to access course resources which includes:
 Adobe reader
 Media player
 Documents and
 Text readers.

1.2 Technical Support

In case of any problem encountered while accessing VLE system, please contact: MUST
Directorate of ICT

Contact Information
Office Location: Block B 1st Floor
Phone Number: +255 763007740
Email: [email protected]
Hours: 08:00am – 16:00pm
Monday to Friday

1.3 Logging in
The VLE system can be accessed in two ways:
i. MUST website: https://www.must.ac.tz (on the menu bar under ICT services click VLE)
OR
ii. Typing MUST VLE system address (http://vle.must.ac.tz) direct on the URL

Either of the procedure above will direct you to the VLE login page where you will be required to:

i. Enter your login credentials (Your ID number and Password). Both given at MUST
administration office or by your class teacher
ii. Click the Sign in button

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Successful login to the system will take you to the VLE dashboard or the Home page.

2.1 Home Page, Dashboard and My Courses

Successfully login will bring you to the VLE home page, dashboard and my courses (as the image
shown below) where you are now ready to proceed with some minimal settings to make the system
more flexible.

2.1.1 Home page

Here you will find all the courses offered through VLE which are indicated by course title followed
by the names of instructor (Lecturer) enrolled to teach the course. Click the course name to access
your course (see the upcoming sections below).
NOTE: You will only be able to access the course that you are enrolled.

2.1.2 Dashboard
The dashboard contain course time line if present and an event calendar which shows all course
activities (Assignment, Quiz or Forum) that have been posted or reaching close to submission
deadline.

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This is very useful to help you get quick notification on the events that are happening in your
courses.
2.1.3 My courses
This contains the course overview. Only the courses that you are enrolled will appear under this
menu and it will normally provide a quick access to your course/s. You can also accessing your
course by typing its name in a search bar and then click on the search result.

2.2 Profile Management

Upon successful login at the first time, it is strictly recommended to customize your profile and
change the password.

2.2.1 Editing your Profile

Go to your profile located on the upper right corner of the home page, indicated by the initial letters
of you name. (See VLE system image below)
Under this part, you are able to:
i. View and edit profile by clicking the Profile menu item.
ii. View courses activity grades if present
iii. Quickly access an event calendar
iv. Change password by clicking on the Preferences
v. Log out after accessing the system

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NOTE:
You will be able to edit some of the profile details like profile picture, Country, city etc.

2.2.3 Change Password

To change password:
i. Go to Preferences
ii. Under user account click on the change password link(see Preferences image below)

The form for changing password will open and you are required to supply the necessary details as
indicated in the image below.
Note:
i. Current password is the one you used to enter into the system.
ii. New password should be strong and easy to remember (It include Letters in uppercase and
lowercase, numbers, special characters like @,#,?,* ,% and its length should be at least 6
characters)
iii. Repeat your new password

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 iv. Finally click Save changes button
v. The new password will be the one to use when you will next access to VLE system

3.1 Navigating a Course

The opened course (click on the course name to open a course) displays the course in a particular
format. This may be Topic format, section format, or blog like format. However, most used format
is a topic and section format as shown in the image below.

 The left part displays the links and gives a quickly access to the resources and activities.
 The middle part displays the course contents organized in sections or topic.
 To access these contents, click each section or click on the link on the right side of the
middle section labeled Expand all

3.2 Common Course Activity and Resources Icons

Every course section/topic contains resources, activities and instructions. These resources, activities
and instructions may vary within each course. It is important to pass through all topics within a
course, read all instructions.

Normally an icon accompanies each resource or activity link. Below are some of the commonly
icons used in the MUST virtual Learning Environment.

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NOTE:
 File, Page, Book, URL and Glossary resources contain course materials organized in varying
format to give you flexibility.
 Forum, Assignment and Quiz provides activities such as discussions, Assignment, exercises
and tests

This icon represents a file. Clicking this icon will enable you to download
text resources uploaded as files like PDF, word document and other.

This icon represents a page. Clicking this icon will open up a page with the
intended topic content

This icon represents a book. Clicking this icon will take you to a page
displaying a collection of text or resources organized by chapters.

This icon represents a Glossary. Clicking this icon will take you to the list
of defined terminologies organized in a dictionary like format

This icon represents a URL. Clicking this icon will take you to an external
link

This is a forum icon. Clicking this icon will take you to a forum where you
can communicate with your instructor and/or other students. See more
about forums in the Forums section

This is an assignment icon. Clicking this icon will take you to a page where
you will submit your work. See more about assignments in the
Assignments section

This is a quiz or an exam icon. Clicking this icon will take you to a quiz or
an exam within your course. See more about quizzes in the Quizzes and
Exams section

4.1 Forums
Forums in a course allow students to communicate with one another as well as instructor. This
happens as an assignment, post questions or concerns. The presence of an image link as shown
below indicates the available forum in the course.

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4.1.1 Adding a Post to a Discussion Forum
i. Click the link to the forum (Discussion forum) to open the forum
ii. Depend on the forum type; you can either start/initiate a forum or reply to a forum
a) Start/initiate: Click Add a new discussion topic at the top of the list of threads then
give your post a title.
b) Reply: requires you to reply by posting a message on the started discussion topic.
iii. Type (or paste from a word processor) your post in the Message section.
iv. When finished, check your post for errors, and click the Post to forum button at the bottom
of the page. Note: If you leave this page without hitting Post to forum, the post will not be
saved.
v. After you have posted, you have 30 minutes or less to edit your post depending on the forum
settings.

5.1 Submitting an Assignment

The assignment feature in VLE allows instructors to easily collect external documents from
students. Instead of physically printing out a document and handing it to your instructor, you upload
a file into VLE for your instructor to view and grade. To open or submit an assignment, click the
name of the assignment in your course.

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After clicking on the assignment as shown on the image above.A description of the assignment and
a box showing the submission status, date and time due, and time remaining for the assignment will
appear. In addition, you will find the assignment questions presented in text on that page or the file
that you will download to access the questions.

5.2 Add submission (Uploading file)

i. Click on the add submission button as shown on the image above. Then it will open the file
submission form. The maximum upload size for files and number of attachments are listed
above the submissions box under the File submissions heading as shown below.

ii. Clicks add file icon on the left corner of the submission box.

iii. The file picker will open, then click on the upload file button on the left of the panel, then
click on choose file button. This will open your device (computer or phone) file system. Go
to where you saved you file then upload it.

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iv. Click the upload this file button at the bottom of the panel. Now the file uploading box will
show the uploaded file.

v. Finally, click the save changes button to submit your work.

vi. You will see the message submitted for grading and the submission status will change as
shown in the image below.

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NOTE:
In case you need to edit the submitted file, click on the edit submission button as shown on the
image below, the system will display the submission box. Click on the file present on the box then
delete that file. After deleting the file you will follow the no procedure of uploading file as shown
above. Remember you cannot delete and leave without replacing with new file.

6.1 Quizzes and Exams

To take a quiz or exam, click the name of the quiz next to the quiz icon. The quiz link will look
similar to the following image.

Once opened the quiz description page will open as shown below on the image.

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The important things to note here is the number of attempts indicated, how long will it take you to
attempt, and other instructions provided by instructor.

Click the Attempt quiz button to open the start attempt dialog, the system will give you alert
message to warn you if you clicked the button by mistake or if you are not ready for the quiz. If you
are sure with this action then click on the Start attempt button to start answering questions as
shown on the image below.

NOTE:
 Once you start attempting quiz, the timer will start to count down and cannot be paused.
Make sure that you submit your work before this time expires.

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 The quiz will show Quiz Navigation panel that displays the numbers of questions presents
in the quiz, you can go to the next or previous question by click on the number.

 Once you finish attempting all questions, click on the finish attempt…button as shown on
image below.

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 The system will display the attempt summary, you are supposed to cross check your work
and make sure all answers are saved
 Finally click Submit all and finish button.

 You are done the system will display the summary of your work and sometime will display
the results of your attempt. Depending on the quiz setting made by your instructor.

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7.1 Grades
Once you have completed assignments or quiz in VLE and your instructor has posted grades, you
can view them by clicking on the Grades link on the course top menu after the course title. See
image below.

Once you have clicked on Grades, a table (see below) will appear with the following column
headings:
 Grade item - the name of the assignment, quiz, forum, etc.
 Calculated weight - the number of points available for the grade item divided by the total
number of points available in the course (this will vary according to course grade
aggregations).
 Grade - the number of points you received for this grade item.
 Range - the range of points (minimum and maximum points) available for this grade item.
 Percentage - this is the number of points you earned divided by the number of points
available.
 Feedback – The message feedback the instructor wants you to know about this grade item
NOTE:
You can also view grade from all your courses by clicking on the Grade link under you Profile (see
Profile Management on section 2.2).
All courses on which you attempted the activity will be displayed. Click the link on each item to
view details.

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