Moodle For Dummies

Navigating the Moodle Interface

Moodle is very easy to navigate. Each new course is set up with a default course front page as shown here, to which you (as the instructor) can make changes. This course front page is what you and your learners will come to every time you log into the Moodle course. Familiarize yourself with it, and explain all features to your learners.

The Moodle front page

The course front page is divided into three sections. The center is your main course page, divided into weeks or topics/units containing your course content. Columns on the right and left sides of the center contain blocks that hold the Moodle features and utilities you use to build a great Moodle course. What you see:

What your learners see:

In every Moodle course, you, the instructor, can set up the course as you prefer. Moodle has a number of editing features to help you do this. This is what you see on the course front page with editing turned on:

Moodle resources and activities

Moodle provides you with a number of powerful collaborative activity modules and tools enabling you to add or link almost any type of file (Moodle resources) to your courses. These drop-down lists show the available Moodle resources and activities:

Moodle blocks: Activities, administration, and blocks

The Moodle Activities block is available for you and your learners to see and quickly access all course activity and updated resources.

The Moodle Administration Block enables learners to see their gradebook and profile and instructors to access a variety of tools.

The Moodle Blocks block is available only when you turn editing on; it lists a number of features you can make available for your learners on the course front page.

Moodle Editor toolbar and icons

Moodle enables you to edit your content using a number of different tools, most notably the Moodle editor toolbar and the editing icons. If your browser allows you to use the HTML editor’s WYSIWYG editing tools, you have at your disposal all the features you’re use to with your word processing software, including capabilities to toggle between HTML source modes. This figure shows the editor toolbar with all the tools you can use within Moodle:

Moodle uses specific icons to help you edit the course front page. You and your learners will find these editing tools throughout Moodle when you need to make updates or changes to content or activities:

Finding Moodle Resources on the Internet

Moodlers around the world are a great bunch of people who love to help and share their knowledge and resources. So when you become an expert or find something that has really worked for you, share it with the Moodle community. The following is a (partial) list of useful Moodle resources you can find on the Internet:

• Moodle organization main page

• Moodle documentation for teachers

• Moodle documentation for administrators

• Moodle forums

• Moodle news: This is the official Moodle.org news site, informing you of all things Moodle. It’s a good place to start looking for information or to validate what you read elsewhere.

• Moodle demo site: Here you can look at existing example sites in a number of different languages. You can build your own course and log in as a teacher, as an administrator, or as a student. You don’t have to worry about mistakes because every 20 minutes the server refreshes back to its original form.

• Moodle monthly news: Moodle news, information, and resources, including popular posts, blogs, and many links.

• Moodlers online: Moodle users have created a Ning networking site for a place to share Moodle info. (You must receive an invitation to join the Ning.)

• Thomaz Lasic is an avid user of Moodle, a teacher, and is now also a member of the Moodle development team. His Human blog was a great resource and is now a website.

• Moodle sharing resources

• Copyright issues

Moodle Shortcuts

The following table lists some of the most common Moodle editing shortcut keys you can use in the Moodle HTML editor in WYSIWYG view. (WYSIWYG stands for What You See Is What You Get; it’s the default view in the Moodle modules).

Note: Not all browsers support all the keys listed. The keys in bold font are universal shortcuts.