Teaching with Moodle: A Beginner's Guide

Introduction to Moodle for Educators Webinar

• The webinar is presented by Mary Cooch, Education Manager at Moodle.
• Anna Krassa, Education Advisor, monitors chats and answers questions.
• This webinar is tailored for complete beginners to Moodle.
• Learning Moodle consists of Moodle administration and teaching.
• Moodle administration involves setting up the site, adding courses, and managing teachers and students.
• Teaching with Moodle focuses on incorporating resources, files, and activities into a course.
• The webinar concentrates on teaching with Moodle.
• A previous webinar addressed Moodle administration; recordings and slides are accessible.

Key Moodle Terms

• Teaching materials and activities are contained within a course.
• A course is a dedicated space on a Moodle site.
• Courses can span weeks or months, divided into sections, or be permanently available.
• Courses are typically created by the Moodle admin or a manager.
• Teachers enrich courses with materials and teaching content.
• The official title for the teacher role in Moodle is "editing teacher."
• Editing teachers can add, delete, grade materials, and manage activities.
• Learners are officially termed "students;" however, this denomination is customizable.
• Alternative names for students include learner, trainee, employee, or pupil.
• A "non-editing teacher" role resembles a classroom assistant, with grading and forum moderation abilities, but cannot add or delete materials.

Webinar Structure

• Part 1 focuses on setting up a course.
• A quick break for questions is scheduled.
• Part 2 involves adding teaching materials.
• Part 3 is about giving learners course access.
• Links, resources, and courses for further learning are shared.

Setting Up Your Course

• Imagine being a teacher (Alex) with a course already set up by the Moodle admin.
• In Moodle 4, the "My courses" page shows all courses where you're a teacher or student.
• Alex has a "Basic French" course that lacks a description and features a basic design.

Course Settings

• Adding information and a photo enhances the course's appearance.
• The central area is divided into sections or topics, mirrored on the left.
• The course navigation links are found under the title "Basic French".
• Teachers can view all course navigation links.
• The "Participants" link displays enrolled students or allows enrollment of more users.
• The "More" link provides teachers with access to the question bank, content bank, badges, and course reuse features.
• The question bank is for creating quiz questions.
• The content bank is for creating H5P activities.
• Course reuse is for saving, sharing, or importing courses.
• The "Settings" link directs you to a page where course details can be modified.
• Change the course full name and short name in settings.
• Adding a course summary provides students with more context.
• A course image (600x400 pixels) can replace the default design.
• "Course format" allows selection between topics, weekly, and other formats.
• The topics format is highly versatile with numbered, renamable sections.
• The weekly format presents sections by week, according to the course start date.
• Completion tracking (activity completion) enables progress monitoring.
• Completion tracking can be disabled if not needed.
• "Role renaming" enables modification of roles like "student" and "teacher."

Course Appearance

• The "My courses" page offers card, list, and summary views.
• Summary view displays the course description.
• The course index mirrors content from the central area in a compact format.
• The course index can be collapsed.
• The edit mode toggle (top right) must be enabled to make changes.
• The block drawer (right arrow) allows adding blocks with information.
• Blocks include activity results (league table) and course completion status.

Editing Sections

• With edit mode enabled, section titles can be changed by clicking the pencil icon and pressing Enter.
• Alternatively, the three dots next to a topic gives access to an "Edit topic" option to change the title and add a summary.
• From the three dots, you can also highlight, hide, move, or delete a topic.
• Save changes by clicking the button at the bottom of the page.
• Add new topics or sections as needed.
• In weekly format, new weeks must be added from the bottom of the page.

Adding Teaching Materials

• Dragging and dropping files from your computer is the simplest method.

Dragging and Dropping Files

• Documents can be added quickly by dragging and dropping in the central area
• Files can also be dragged and dropped from the course index
• Sections can be dragged and dropped to reorder
• Click the crosshair icon to move items  

Adding Activities or Resources

• Access the activity chooser by clicking "add an activity or resource" in any section.
• The activity chooser presents options for teaching within Moodle.
• Extra features like attendance may be available depending on the Moodle host
• Activities involve student engagement and interaction
• Resources are static content for students to read, listen to, or watch without interaction e.g: URL (link to website), files, and folders
• Click the eye icon for documentation on any resource or activity
• Click the star to favorite/bookmark resources and activities for quick access

Moodle Page Resource

• The Moodle "page" resource is useful for text and multimedia content.

Adding a Page Example: About Your Teacher

• Name: Used to create the link students use to access
• Description: Can be displayed on the course page
• Page Content: Use the Atto text editor to input the page content
• The Atto text editor lets you add links, images, and multimedia
• Option to notify students when the page is added or updated

Books

• Books are a series of connected pages
• Books can contain embedded videos, links, and images
• A Table of Contents provides the structure for the book

Moodle Activities

• Activities are graded content where students have to do something
• Forums are used to start discussions
• Choice is used to create quick polls
• Quizzes have many question types  

Assignment Activity

• Assignment settings include typing instructions for students
• Students can submit various file types, links, or online text
• Word limits can be set for online text submissions
• Students can be required to accept an agreement stating the work is their own

Assignment Settings

• Submission Types: Choose whether students type online or upload a file
• Feedback Types: Select how to give feedback (typing, audio, video, or uploaded files)

Restrict Access Setting

• Restrict access, hides activities or resources until a specific date or until other activities are completed
• Can hide content completely or display a teaser message

Activity Completion Setting

• Activity completion allows tracking of student progress
• Can be set to manual marking or automatic based on conditions
• Conditions may include receiving a grade or submitting an activity
• Forum activity completion criteria may include posting or replying to discussions

Enrolling Learners

• Gaining access to a Moodle course is a two-step process
• First, users need accounts on the site (managed by the administrator)
• Second, they need to be enrolled in the course (managed by the teacher)
• Authentication: The process of getting people onto the site and creating accounts
• Enrollment: The process of getting people into specific courses

Manual Enrollment

• Click "Participants" in the course, then "Enroll Users"
• Search for and select users from the site to add to the course
• Assign roles to the enrolled users (e.g., Student, Non-editing teacher)

Course Enrollment Methods

• Access enrollment methods via the drop-down menu for enrolled users; this also enables configuring group messaging.
• Enable self-enrollment by making the "eye" icon visible in the edit column for self-enrollment.
• Add an optional enrollment key (password) by clicking the cog icon.
• Limit the number of enrollees and personalize the welcome message received by students upon enrollment.
• Students can find and self-enroll in available courses on the homepage.
• Admins can use a CSV file (spreadsheet) to enroll students in a course.
• Admins can use cohorts (groups of students) to enroll them into courses.
• More information is available in the introduction to Moodle webinar for administrators.

Q&A Highlights

• The admin can assist with student uploads from CSV files and adding cohorts.
• The maximum number of self-enrollments depends on the Moodle site's user limit.
• The social format is a message board with activities on the side.
• Moodle 4 hides less useful blocks.

Additional Resources

• Help can be found via the question mark icons and at the bottom of the page.
• Comprehensive guides in multiple languages are available on moodle.org.
• Explore the educator pathway for courses designed for both beginner and experienced teachers.
• Access the Moodle Teaching Basics program and certificate on Moodle Academy.
• Access the Moodle Teaching Skills program and certificate if you are an experienced Moodle user.
• Suggest topics for future webinars and courses by clicking "get involved".
• Co-present webinars or co-create courses on Moodle Academy.
• Promote Moodle Academy.
• The Moodle Educator Certification is a high-quality program for experienced Moodlers run through certified service providers.

This webinar provides an introduction to teaching with Moodle, focusing on adding resources, files, and activities for students within a course. Learn about key Moodle terms like courses and how they function as teaching spaces. This session complements a previous webinar on Moodle administration.