Glossary

Glossary is an alphabetically systemised list of terms/dates/foreign words etc. and their definitions, which can be created collaboratively by the teacher and students, which can be commented and assessed.

To add a glossary:

• in the drop-down menu that opens under Add an activity or resource, select Glossary
• add a name and description to the glossary
• review and if necessary, edit the settings for entries and appearance
• if grading is enabled in the glossary, specify the aggregation type and scale
• to add entries, open the glossary and click Add a new entry.

If each learner should make, for example, five entries in the glossary, it is convenient to assess if the scale type is numerical and the maximum score 5 and the aggregation is based on the sum or the number of ratings.  In this case you can score one point for each entry and the number of graded entries or the sum of ratings will be entered in the gradebook.

To assess a learner, open the entry made by the learner and select an appropriate grade from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the entry.

In the glossary settings you can determine (Glossary auto-linking), whether new terms in the glossary are auto-linked in all html texts in the course (e.g. books, pages, quizzes, etc.). If you do not prefer glossary auto-linking, open the quiz, select Filters the administration block and turn off the Glossary auto-linking feature.

This requires converting entries from a text or Excel file into the xml format for Moodle. There are several ways to do this:

1. If you have a Facebook account you can use the application at http://vletools.com/converter/glossary

The entries in the text file should be in the following order:

Concept1

Definition1

Concept2

Definition2

2. Without Facebook account it is possible to convert entries from Excel file into xml format using the application http://www.focusedonlearning.com/share/glossaryimport.html

Entries in the xls file should be in two columns

Concept1	Definition1
Concept2	Definition2

To import entries into the glossary:

• add a Glossary to the course and open it
• click in the settings block Import entries
• select the file and specify the destination

The glossary can be exported as xml file to the same or another course. An export file in csv format includes a tale, in which concepts, definitions and categories are in different columns.

To export entries:

• open the glossary
• click in the settings block on the left Export entries
• select Export entries to file, which saves the glossary to xml format
• In File download menu. use Export to portfolio to save the glossary for personal use in csv format.

If you want keep the entries added by learners after the course is emptied, you should untick the checkbox at Delete entries by users not enrolled. If you use the default settings (only the checkbox at Delete all glossary entries is unticked), the entries made by all students unenrolled from the course are deleted.