Moodle Help Guide

What templates for Moodle exist? 

Faculty are encouraged to follow the arrangement of items in the Moodle Template* so that students have a consistent layout and student experience from course to course. Innovative and engaging arrangements and course styles that enhance the student experience through increased navigation, and improved usability and accessibility are encouraged. 

• Moodle Template version 1 (3-week layout)

• Moodle Template version 2 (19-unit layout)

• Baking and Pastry (B&P) Lab Course Template
• Culinary Arts (CULA) Course Template

*Templates can be adjusted to fit a 6, 7, 12 or a 15-week course format.  

Moodle Course Design Exemplars
Every instructor’s Moodle course site is unique, but individual faculty members are strongly encouraged to build their Moodle course site for their particular course sections upon the Moodle Design Checklist and Moodle Design Template.

Choosing a Course Format

You can change how the topics are displayed in your course through Course Settings.

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Course showing all sections on one page

Course showing One-section Per Page

Private Files

Every Moodle user has a private area to upload and share files. You can access your private files in your Profile.

You can add files from your private area to your Moodle course using the File Picker. If you create a link to a file and use it within a course any updates you make to the original file will carry over. This can save time and ensure consistency. 

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Adding Files from Your Private Files to Your Course

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Restrict Access (Restrictions)

Types of Restrictions

There is a Restrict Access section in each activity. This section provides different options for restrictions that you can add to your Moodle course.

Activity Completion

Access can be restricted according to an activity’s completion tracking.

Date

Access can be restricted from or until a certain date and time.

Grade

Enter a minimum or maximum for an activity in which the student is required to score in order for this activity to appear.

Group

If groups or groupings are used in the course, you can restrict an activity to only a specific group.

User profile

Restrict access according to a user profile field.

Release Code

Set a specific code that the student must enter to view activity.

Restriction set

Set complex logical restrictions.

All of Any Conditions

You can add multiple restrictions to a single activity, and you can control whether the student matches any or all of them.

Hiding Conditions

• If the eye is crossed out, then the activity is hidden for anyone who does not meet the criteria.
• If the eye is open, then everyone will be able to see the activity, but it will be greyed out for those that don’t meet the criteria.

Opening and Closing Dates Using Restrictions

Every Topic, Activity, or Resource has a Restrict Access setting that restricts access to dates, grades, and activity completions. 

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Date Restriction 

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Completion Conditions

Set Up the Required Course Settings

To use Completion Tracking, you first need to enable it under course settings.

1. Click on the Actions Menu and go to Course Settings

2. Go to Completion Tracking settings and Enable Completion Tracking.

Create Completion Conditions Through the Activity's Settings

Completion Conditions allows the teacher to set completion criteria in a specific activity's settings. A check (tick) appears against the activity when the student meets this criterion. The criterion might be viewing, receiving a certain score or a student marking it as complete.

A teacher may mark an activity complete on behalf of a student from the Activity completion report if they can Override activity completion (which is enabled by default.)

Why Use Activity Completion?

• If this feature is enabled, it is a helpful way for students to be able to track their progress in a course. The student has an easy to see checklist of what they have done so far.

• It can also be linked to Course completion to allow both students and teachers to monitor progress through a course. As each activity is checked off as "complete," the student moves further towards the final completion of the course.

• It can also be linked to Restrict access, which allows the teacher to set criteria for allowing a student to progress through a course and access materials.

• It is possible to edit the default activity completion settings within a course and to update the settings for existing activities in bulk. See Activity Completion.

Activity Completion has a variety of different settings.

View this Example of the Student Online Orientation with Activity Completion and Restrictions set.

Opening and closing items using Activity Completion

Using Activity Completion, you can set up specific criteria for activities that students must complete. The criterion might be viewing, receiving a certain score, receiving a grade, or a student marking it as complete.

Every assignment or resource will have an Activity Completion setting. 

You can use Activity Completion with Restrict Access to control student progress throughout your course. 

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Recurring Teams Class Link

If you teach a synchronous online course, you can create a meeting link series and then share the link on Moodle.

Groups

Adding Groups to Your Course

Creating a Group

Auto-create Groups

A premise of the Constructivism Theory of learning is that it takes place in a social context. Group activities and discussions can engage students in a social learning atmosphere.

Group Levels

A group or grouping can be used on two levels:

• Course level - The group mode defined at the course level is the default mode for all activities defined within that course. To use groups you need first to set a group mode in Administration > Course administration > Edit settings.
• Activity level - Each activity that supports groups can also have its own group mode defined. If the course setting "Force group mode" is set to "Yes" then the option to define the group mode for individual activities is not available. If it is set to "No", then the teacher may change the group mode.

Group Modes

There are three group modes

• No groups - There are no subgroups, everyone is part of one big community
• Separate groups - Each group can only see their own group, others are invisible.
• Visible groups - Each group works in their own group but can also see other groups. (The other groups' work is read-only.)

For example, enabling either separate or visible groups on an assignment drop-box enables staff to filter the student submissions to see only those from a particular tutor group. With visible groups, students can see which other groups are doing the same activities as they are; with separate groups, they do not know which other groups are doing the same activities.

Using groups with discussion forums allows teachers to restrict interaction between students. Separate groups mean only students in the same group can see and participate in discussions within a particular forum. Visible groups allow students to see other groups' discussions but only participate in their own group's discussions.

Adding Groups to Your Course

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Select Participants from the Main Course Navigation bar.

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Select Groups, from the drop down menu on the page.

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Click on the Create Group or Auto-Create Groups button.

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Select the Group Name from the list of groups and then click on Add/remove users.

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Select the students to move over into this group and then click Add.

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Creating a Group

1. Click the Create group button:

   1. (using the Boost theme) select Participants from the navigation drawer, click the ⚙ (actions menu) on the right, then Groups.

   2. (using the Classic theme) Administration > Course administration > Users > Groups

2. Add a group name and optional description (displayed above the list of group members on the participants page), enrollment key and picture (displayed on the participants page and next to forum posts)

3. Tick the box Enable group messaging if you wish to enage in group conversations. You will then be able to send group messages from the messaging drawer. Make sure you are in the group as well as your students. See Messaging for more information.

4. Click the 'Save changes' button

5. Select the group to which you want to add participants, then click the 'Add/remove users button

6. In the "Potential members" list, select the users you want to add to the group. Multiple users may be selected using the Crtl key.

7. Click the Add button to add the users to the group

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Auto-create Groups

Groups may be created automatically via the 'Auto-create groups' button in Administration > Course administration > Users > Groups. To see all the settings, click the Expand all link top right.

General

A naming scheme can be created automatically. # is replaced by sequential numbers, and @ by letters. For example:

• Group @ will create group with a naming scheme Group A, Group B, Group C . . .
• Group # will create group with a naming scheme Group 1, Group 2, Group 3 . . .

You can specify if you would like to create

• x number of Groups or
• each group contain x number of students.

Preventing last small group

When selecting Members per group, depending on the number of users in the course, the last group can end up with significantly fewer members than expected. You can select Prevent last small group to avoid the situation. If the last group would be smaller than 70% of the expected size, it will not be created. Instead, Moodle will allocate additional members to existing groups rather than create a new group with few members.

Group Members

Select members from ... allows you to choose from roles assigned within the course, available cohorts, groups or groupings. Specify and Group/Member count work together.

The setting 'Select members from cohort' lists all cohorts in which users enrolled in the current course are members. The number in brackets is the number of users enrolled in the course in that cohort.

The 'Ignore users in groups' checkbox should be ticked to select only group members from users who are NOT already in a group in the course.

The 'Include only active enrollments' checkbox allows users to choose whether to include suspended users in groups. It is only displayed to users who can view suspended users.

Grouping

Create in grouping: the grouping name allows you to create a new grouping and allocate the new auto-created groups to be created for it. Prior to making the groups, you can view the groups.

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