Moodle

Creating a New Course

For most courses in our setting, the defaults will be used since we are not using Moodle to deliver a full online course. The settings that teachers most commonly consider adjusting are included below.

General

  • Course full name: What is listed in the course category list on the school Moodle homepage. Teachers can change this entry.

  • Course short name: The name in the breadcrumb section; used for navigating back to the course main screen.

  • Course category: This is the category on the school Moodle Home page. Please do not change this.

  • Visible: Toggles the course visibility on and off for students.

  • Course start date: By setting this date, the course is open to students.

Description

  • Course summary: If entered, it will appear to the right of the course names on the Moodle course intro screen. A course summary can be uploaded as a file to be inserted as well (bottom window).

Course Format

  • Format: "Topics format" gives teachers the most flexibility on pacing and opening up units when appropriate. Other choices are weekly and social. "Weekly format" will allow a unit to open automatically each week. "Social format" is based on a single forum for the whole course

  • Number of sections: This is the number of sections/units showing in a course. It can be changed at any time.

Appearance

  • Force Theme: A theme can be chosen for the course; otherwise, it assumes the theme from the school Moodle homepage.

  • News items to show: Select a number of the items to show; remember that the teacher is the only one who can post messages to the News Forum, and that the messages get sent to @jdragonmail.us accounts as well.

  • Show Gradebook: Turn on/off gradebook visibility.

Files and Uploads

  • Choose the maximum upload size – 4GB

Completion Tracking

  • Option to mark an activity when a student completes it or meets criteria (set by teacher)

Groups

  • Set this if there is ONE course and then multiple sections using it. Visible groups will allow students to view other sections entries and separate groups will only view their section entries.

  • Force: This sets all the course components into group mode and overrides the individual activity group settings.

Role Renaming

Entering in these fields will rename those role titles; do not enter a person’s name in the fields.

Guest Access

Administration Block > Users > Enrollment Methods > Guest Access

  • Guests can be allowed to view the course and its materials; you can choose to let guests into the course if they use the enrollment key.