Introduction to Moodle

Moodle 2.8: Add Blocks

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Blocks allow the instructor to customize the course sidebar. Blocks have the capability of doing things such as: draw attention to a reading assignment, guest speaker event, or an upcoming quiz; post the course calendar; access specific activity types; see all enrolled students. The HTML block, in particular, is the most versatile because html code can be used to add even more features to the course.

Add a Block

  1. Go to the course you would like to edit and turn editing on using the gear icon or the link in the Administration Block.
  2. In the grey sidebar, scroll down to the bottom and click on the “Add Block” link.
  3. Select the type of block you want to add from the pop-up menu. For this example, we will choose the HTML block.
  4. Find the added block in the blocks column and click on the edit settings gear icon and choose “Configure Block” from the drop-down menu.

Configure Block

  1. Input the block title
  2. Add content. For the HTML block, we can add images, linked images, or customized content here.

Add Hyperlinked Image

  1. To add a hyperlinked image, you need to have the image and the URL to the webpage you want to link.
  2. In the content box, click on the image button.
  3. Click on the “Browse Repositories” button and select upload a file.
  4. Click on the “Choose File” button and choose your image file.
  5. You can add a new title for the file in “Save As” or if the file is already well-named just click on “Upload this file.”
  6. For an image in a block, make sure the image is resized to 200-350px in the first size box. Make sure the checkbox for auto-size is checked. This will make sure the image is resized evenly.
  7. Add description text that will describe the image to people with disabilities using a screen reader. If the image is strictly decorative and does not add any information to the content, then check the box next to “Description not necessary.”
  8. Click on the “Save Image” button.
  9. You should see the image in the content box now.
  10. To link that image to a website, click on the image so that it is highlighted.
  11. Then select the chain link button. This is the hyperlink button.
  12. A pop-up menu will appear, copy and paste the website’s URL.
  13. Check the box next to “Open in a new window” and click on the “Create link” button.

Save Settings

  1. Leave the default settings for the rest of the sections.
  2. Click on the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the page. The image should be added to the block. Go ahead and test the link or go back and adjust the image size until it looks right to you.

Move Block

  1. Turn editing on using the gear icon or the link in the Administration Block.
  2. Find the block you want to move and click-and-hold on the cross-shaped icon to drag and drop the block where you want it.
  3. Or click on the cross-shaped icon. A pop-up box will appear with a list of the blocks you have in the sidebar. You will see them listed as, “To item ‘(insert block name here)’ ”
  4. Click on the block you want to move the block under. For example, if you click on To item “Administration” then the block will appear above the Administration block.

Hide Block

  1. Turn editing on using the gear icon or the link in the Administration Block.
  2. Find the block you want to hide and click on the gear icon.
  3. In the drop-down menu, click on the “Hide HTML block.”
  4. This will make the block invisible to students. The instructor will see the block in the sidebar, but it will look blank.

Moodle 2.8: Add Weeks or Sections

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When creating course content in Moodle, you have to start by organizing your course with sections. Keep in mind the activities and resources students will need to access for each week or topic and include those items in the section to build lessons.

Add Section

  1. Turn editing on using the gear icon or the link in the Administration Block.
  2. Scroll down to the last week/topic/section in your course.
  3. Click on the “+ Add Weeks/Topics“ link.
  4. A pop-up box will appear asking for the number of sections to add. Input the number.
  5. Click on the “Add Weeks/Topics“ button.
  6. The new section will appear at the bottom of the list.

Move Section

  1. Turn editing on using the gear icon or the link in the Administration Block.
  2. Find the section you want to move and click-and-hold on the cross-shaped icon to drag and drop the section where you want it.
  3. Or click on the cross-shaped icon next to the section title.
  4. A pop-up menu will appear with the list of sections in your course. Click on the section to move the section under.
  5. The section will appear under the section you selected.

Hide Section

  1. Turn editing on using the gear icon or the link in the Administration Block.
  2. Find the section you want to hide and click on the Edit link.
  3. In the drop-down menu, click on “Hide Week/Topic.” This will make the section invisible to students, but the instructor will still see it greyed out.

Delete Section

  1. Turn editing on using the gear icon or the link in the Administration Block.
  2. Find the section you want to delete and click on the Edit link.
  3. In the drop-down menu, click on “Delete Week/Topic.”

Edit Section Settings

  1. Turn editing on using the gear icon or the link in the Administration Block.
  2. Find the section you want to edit and click on the Edit link.
  3. In the drop-down menu, click on “Edit Week/Topic.”

General Edit Settings

  1. Check the box next to “custom” and provide a title or topic name for the section in the section name box.
  2. Text in the summary box will show on the main course page. Having a summary is optional.
  3. Click on the “Save changes” button.

Moodle 2.8: Course Settings

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A Moodle course is an online environment where students can learn about a topic either through an instructor-led or a self-paced model. When building your own course, you should consider not only the content, but activities to engage and assess students. Having a plan for your course before filling out the initial course settings will help you choose the best settings to suit your teaching style.

Access the Edit Menu

  1. Login with your NetID and password at moodle.rutgers.edu
  2. Go to the course you would like to edit.
  3. In the administration block, click on the “Edit Settings” link. Here you can edit the details of your course.

General

  1. As an instructor, you will not be able to change certain details of your course because they are set up automatically. These are:

    • Course Full Name
    • Course Short Name
    • Course ID Number
  2. You can edit the course’s visibility or when the course can be seen by students and be found in a search. Just choose Show or Hide from the drop-down menu.
  3. You can also input the course’s start and end date.
  4. Start Date: Input the course start date by day/month/year or select the date from the calendar icon. The time is automatically set to midnight, but you can change it if you would like.
  5. Close Date: First, check the enable box. Then input the close date by day/month/year or select the date using the calendar icon.

Description

  1. The course description/summary is optional, but if you would like to give students an idea of what the course is about you can copy and paste the course summary from the syllabus or upload a document file using the Course summary files box.
    • To use the Course summary files box: either drag the document file from your desktop or folder and drop it on top of the blue arrow.

Course Format

  1. Format: Changing the course format changes the way the weeks/sections are displayed on the course page. Choose the layout that best supports your content.

    1. Weekly Format: Shows your course using dates. The titles can be customized to be a topic title or a weekly title such as, Week 1: Audio Intelligence.
    2. Topics Format: Shows your course by topics not dates. The titles can be customized to be a topic title or a weekly title such as, Week 1: Audio Intelligence.
    3. Single Activity Format: Shows your course one activity at a time. There is a drop-down menu where you can jump to different activities in the course.
    4. Social Format: Shows your course as a discussion forum. No activities or course content.
    5. Grid Format: Displays the sections as thumbnails as a grid gallery.
    6. Collapsed Topics: Displays the sections as drop-down menus.
  2. Hidden Sections: This setting lets you show students the hidden sections as collapsed topics or choose to make the hidden sections completely invisible to students.
  3. Course Layout: This setting lets you choose between having all the sections displayed on one page or split over multiple pages.

Appearance

This section can be left at the default settings because they fit the average course.

  1. Force Language: Do not force language. It is set at English by default.
  2. Number of Announcements: You can change the number of announcements if you like. This is for the announcements forum created in the Getting Started section.
  3. Show Gradebook to Students: If you are using the gradebook feature then keep the gradebook visible to students. If you choose to use your own gradebook tool then make the gradebook invisible.
  4. Show Activity Reports: The activity reports show what students have done in the course.

Files and Uploads

  1. Maximum Upload Size: The default setting for this is 100MB which was the limit in previous versions. You can set this higher, up to 1GB.

Groups

  1. Group Mode: This setting allows students to either see just members of their own group (Separate Groups) or see members of the other groups.
  2. Force Group Mode: This is not recommended unless you want students to automatically be sorted into groups AND use these groups for every activity. If you only have one or two group assignments or want students to be in different groups throughout the semester then you want to set up those groups later.
  3. Default Grouping: This is also not recommended unless you want students to be automatically placed in a particular grouping. If so, you need to create the grouping first and then choose that grouping in this section.


Role Renaming

  1. You can leave this section at the default settings.
  2. OR you can assign custom names to the default roles. For example, if you want the teacher role to be labeled Guide and students to be participants, then you can rename those roles here.

Tags

  1. Tags are keywords used to help find your course in a search engine. If someone needs to find your course and cannot remember the name of it, then using keywords closely related to the course subject will help narrow down the options. This is, of course, optional.

When you have completed all your edits, click on the “Save and Display” button to return to the course main page.