Title: Moodle Basics Lesson
Course: Stage 1 - Getting Started with EdTech > Section: 2. Moodle, Course Description & Reflective Learning Journals

Some Moodle Basics

0. Useful Moodle resources

1. Moodle.org various Moodle Docs online
  - Course homepage (v3.11) Moodle Docs
  - Types of ativities (v3.11) Moodle.org
  - Types of resources (v3.11) Moodle.org
2. Moodle Charts/Guides:
  - Moodle2ToolGuide for Teachers (Henrick, 2012) (PDF)
  - Moodle for Motivation (Denmeade, 2013) (PDF)
3. Moodle interactive guides:
  - Moodle 2 Interactive Tool Guide for Teachers - Resources (Part 1) (Ammar Merhbi, 2015) (online)
  - Moodle 2 Moodle 2 Interactive Tool Guide for Teachers – Activities (Part 2) (Ammar Merhbi, 2015) (online)
4. Learn Moodle 3.11 Basics (Moodle.org, 2021) Vídeo Playlist: Learn Moodle 3.11 Basics (Moodle.org, 2021)

1. Introduction

“Moodle is a learning platform designed to provide educators, administrators and learners with a single robust, secure and integrated system to create personalised learning environments” (Moodle.org, 2021)

In Moodle, a teacher has responsibility for the materials in their own course. They often also manage enrolments and are able to change the layout of the course page. (Moodle.org, 2021)  Your course homepage comprises blocks and sections, all of which have associated settings.

When teaching and learning online, you will want your tutors and students to engage with each other and the course resources in a variety of ways to achieve your course outcomes, including communication, productivity, collaboration, administration, assessment, materials development, and resource provision.

The course-building tools within Moodle are categorised into 7 resource types and 15 activity types. As Moodle course designers we need to develop an understanding of which tools serve what purpose within the learning management system (LMS) and how they function.

Some commonly used Moodle tools may be very familiar to you (e.g. discussion forum), but other tools may be relatively unfamiliar, and this is an opportunity to explore their functionality and potential purpose. The detailed settings for each tool within Moodle provide options to customise the way we present an activity, share a resource, or assess our students progress.

To summarise: As a course designer & developer, you can customise the look and feel of your course. The activity tools are used to design learning interactions and are supported by the resources that you provide. You set these up with reference to your learning design for the course.

Lesson Aim: Explore the interface and features of Moodle and how this LMS can support your teaching and learning activities.

Outcomes: On completion of this lesson it is intended that you will have:

  - Orientated yourself with respect to Moodle course layout and navigation
  - Explored the potential purpose of the variety of Moodle tools: Activity and Resource types
  - Identified a tool that you could potentially use for a particular purpose in your blended/online course
  - Experimented with the functionality of your chosen tool within in a free-to-use Moodle site (institutional or Mount Orange School (free Moodle sandpit)
  - Made progress in designing and developing your own Moodle course

This Moodle Basics Lesson was adapted for the EdTech-UEM project (2018-2022) by Brenda Mallinson from: Moodle Basics Tutorial (Brenda Mallinson, OER Africa, 2019).

2. Layout and Navigation

A Moodle course can look very different according to the course theme (a skin that determines the look and feel of your site/course) and course format (determines the basic layout) used.  These may be enabled by your Moodle server administrator and then selected to use (or not) by the individual course developer. You will have been shown some elements of your course homepage via the User Tour that you undertook when first accessing Stage 0 of this EdTech course.

To recap, some basic elements of your course homepage are: (Moodle.org, 2021)

1.  Navigation block - Usually visible on all pages, this block helps you find your way around the course and site.

2.  Administration block - Again, usually visible on all pages, this block gives different levels of access to teachers and students.

3.  Course sections - Here is where the learning materials are displayed. This element may be arranged in one or more weeks, topics, forums, or other (non-standard) layouts.

4.  Other Side blocks - Which blocks you see depend on what the administrator has selected and what you as teacher choose to add.

Click on the hyperlinked text for a more extensive list of useful standard moodle blocks.

Mallinson (Updated 2021)

To do: watch the video  Learn Moodle Basics 3.11 (2021) How to lay out a course

3. Course Homepage

There are many aspects that need to be considered by the academic / teacher in the design stage in order to construct/develop your online course in a way that is logical and easy to navigate, and consistently clear to the learner on how they should proceed.

Home (Landing) Page: This is the front/first page that the learner will encounter on entering the course. First impressions are important, and the page should be uncluttered and prompt the learner to engage with the course.

Examples of what should appear on your homepage include:

1. Course front matter is provided: title, brief description, objectives, outcomes, assessment, licence. (This should reflect the style of your institutional template.)
2. Indication of available support (academic, logistic and technical) and who should provide these.
3. Expectations & pre-requisites - including prior knowledge, and ICT requirements
4. Glossary of terms & Reference/Resources list
5. Establish ‘online presence’ – initially can be via introduction forum (lecturer & studentss)
6. Navigation (through your learning path): indicate how and where participants should start to engage with the course.
7. Consistent look and feel (appropriate to course, level, target audience)
8. Course is divided into logical sections by topic or time (e.g. weekly)
9. No information overload on the homepage – detail in subsequent layer
10. Related course information e.g. calendar, participants, news, indication of accessibility etc.
11. Important block such as latest announcements, calendar, course progress, private files ...

Guidelines for Online Course Landing and Layering within the VLE. (Mallinson, updated 2021)  OER Africa.

4. Layering & Tools

Layering refers to the practice of linking or making available detailed information, resources, and activities at a level ‘below’ the homepage. This is done in order to maintain an uncluttered landing page, and gives the student some autonomy of what they see and when they chose to see or access it. The link to the next layer of detail should be clickable, and possibly provide information around the size (Mb/Kb) and format (text, video, etc.) of the resulting resource in order to faciltiate successful download or link to website.

Examples of layering include:

1. Link to an external URL – make sure the resource opens in a new tab or window
2. Link to an internal (uploaded) resource or embedded web page – click to access  (open in a new window if desired)
3. Link to a rich media object – click to access, transition should be seamless
4. Link to an activity – click to access all guidance and resources needed for the activity
5. Link to an assessment, quiz or evaluation – click to access at time specified by the lecturer
At an tools (activity or resource) level, considerations include:
6. Ensure the pedagogical purpose is driving the use of rich media
7. Any resources or content used should be accessible with the learners context and environment
8. It should be apparent HOW the learner is to return to the course page.
9. See separate activity/assessment structure guidelines document

Guidelines for Online Course Landing and Layering within the VLE. (Mallinson, 2014)  OER Africa.

5. Types of Assessment

In Moodle, assessments are a type of activity. Any activity can be graded within an online course, depending on how the activity is designed. For example, forum contributions can be evaluated for content and attendance and form part of a participation score that has been specified within your evaluation plan.

However, common Moodle tools designed specifically for assessment are shown in Table 3.1. The assessment can be automated (scored by the system) or manually assessed by the teacher, tutor or colleagues. You will test some of these types of assessment in Activity 3.5 using your own Moodle practice course, where you have editing rights.

Table 3.1: Standard Moodle Assessment types (adapted from Moodle.org, 2021)

Tool | Description
Assignment | Enable teachers to grade and give comments on uploaded files and assignments created on and off line
Choice | A teacher asks a question and specifies a choice of multiple responses. For example a rapid poll.
Quiz | Allows the teacher to design and set quiz tests, which may be automatically marked and feedback and/or to correct answers shown.
Feedback | For creating and conducting surveys to collect feedback.
Survey | For gathering data from students to help teachers learn about their class and reflect on their own teaching (only predefined questions are available)
Workshop | Enables peer assessment

Videos on how to configure these tools are available on YouTube at: Learn Moodle Basics 3.11 - Playlist (Moodle.org, 2021)  https://youtu.be/npwA5gt0yv4

Note: A Moodle Quiz is set up in two steps: first set up the framework, then populate with questions.

Common question types include:

Multiple Choice | Two types: single response and multiple response.
True/False | Only two (2) choices for an answer.
Short answer | The student types a word or phrase in response to a question.
Esssay | Option to respond by uploading one or more files and/or entering text online.
Numerical | A numeric answer must contain only numbers (not alphabet).
Matching | A list of terms/statements that must be correctly matched against another list of terms/statements..

6. Course structure and General Design Guidelines

Having used these guidelines in order to design your course or module homepage, you then need to check that ALL of this information is conveyed explicitly to the student in order for them to be able to undertake your course.

Course Structure: Your course will flow using the chosen structure. Now it's time to add:

1. Your course description and ourcomes - make sure they are clearly visible at the beginning of your course
2. Your topic names or schedule/calendar/timeline, setting out the outline of the course. Each Moodle section will be a topic or a week in your course.
3. For now, you can just name the sections, creating the course outline/structure for later filling in.

General Guidelines:

1. Check alignment – of outcomes, activities, resources and assessment.
2. Clear learning pathway - an integration of appropriate content, activities, feedback, and assessment, all of which enable the students to achieve the specified outcomes of the course.
3. All information, resources and activities should be available at the point that the student needs it i.e. embedded into the actual online activity description or via a homepage link within the relevant section.
4. Resources and activities may be linked to from more than one place within the course – anticipate where the student may need them to be available.

Images:

  - When editing a course section, you can also add images.
  - Click on the image icon and a dialog box for inserting/editing images will open.
  - Click 'Find or Upload an Image' and follow the instructions
  - Try it right now by adding an image you already have on your laptop/desktop.
  - Notice the configuration for the image it loads. Adjust size etc and Save.
  - Save and take a look at the result.
  - You can adjust your image settings by selecting it with 'Highlight' and clicking on the image icon in the editor - you will then have the opportunity to change any settings, remembering to save again.

Guidelines for Online Course Landing and Layering within the VLE. (Mallinson, 2014)  OER Africa.

7. Built-in (contextual) Moodle support

Context-friendly support is provided within Moodle in several ways:

- When adding a resource or activity to a section within a course, choose (click) the tool you are interested in and a description of the relevant usage will appear.
- When inside the activity or resource tool and editing the settings, where you see a '?' you can click on it to explore the meaning of the choices for that setting.

When you are on any page and on any Moodle server, you should see an 'i' icon at the bottom of the screen which takes you to contextual assistance from the Moodle.org docs for that exact topic and your exact version of Moodle.