Course Pages

1. Blocks
2. Activities and Resources
3. Instructor Options

Moodle organizes course pages into modules of content.  These modules are further broken down into "blocks" - the content along the sides of your course space - and "weeks" or "topics" - the content in the center of your course space.  Not all course spaces are organized with the same elements, so while this guide describes many of the options available, not all will be included in all courses.

Blocks

By default, the following blocks will be added to each course space:

	People This block is the home of your course roster.  Clicking on Participants will give you a list of everyone in your course, as well as links to each individual's bio, photo, and activity logs (instructors only).  This block is required.
	Activities This block creates a list of all activity modules used in your course. Clicking on the activity name (Forum, Assignments, etc) will let you view an aggregate list of all of the individual activities of that type used in your course.  This block is automatically populated with information as it is added to the course space.  This block is required.
	Search Forums This block allows you to perform a full-text search all the forum posts in your class.  This search is not site-wide.
	Administration This block has different options for students and instructors. For students, this block will allow you to edit your profile and view your entry in the course's gradebook (if used).  Instructors, TAs, and Adminstrators will have additional options.  This block is required.
	Latest News This block displays any recent posts made by your instructor in the News and Announcements forum.  This block is required.
	Upcoming Events This block displays upcoming due dates, special events, or other date-specific class announcements. This information also appears on the Moodle calendar.

In addition, instructors can add the following blocks:

• The Calendar block displays assignments and other events associated with a specific date or dates.  Individual users can view calendar events from an individual class or an aggregate of all their Moodle classes.
• The Courses block displays all categories (semester, project, group) of courses.
• The HTML block allows instructors to set up a small webpage or set of links to external resources.  This can be used for materials that the students will need to refer to throughout the course.
• The Messages block displays messages received using Moodle's built-in messaging system.
• The Online Users block displays the name and photo of all users that have signed in within the last five minutes.
• The Recent Activity block displays any changes - including any new forum posts - that have been made to the course space since your last login.
• The Random Glossary Entry block will display a random entry from a glossary in your course space.
• The Remote RSS Feeds block allows instructors to display relevant RSS feeds from external sites (news,etc.) This block does not generate or publish RSS feeds.
• The Section Links block displays numerical links to each week/topic in the course space for quick navigation.

Activities and Resources

So where's the actual course?!  Moodle allows your instructor to create or link the same sorts of content that you would experience or work with in a traditional classroom - assignments, readings, discussion forums, quizzes, and more.  These activities or resources are designated by a little icon, just like you are used to seeing on your desktop or in a file menu.  More information is available on most tools by clicking on the tool's name.

	Assignment This tool allows instructors to set up assignments with due dates. Assignments may be completed online or offline depending on the instructor's specifications. When you see this icon in your course space, you can get more information by clicking on it or the assignment name.
	Choice This tool allows instructors to take a quick poll or have students vote on a limited number of options.  It can be useful for quick in-class feedback.
	Forums This tool allows discussion to continue (or start!) outside of your normal class sessions.
	Glossary This tool allows a group or a class to collaboratively build a glossary.  Glossaries can be used for reading summaries, definitions, fun facts, and more!
	Hot Potatoes Quiz This tool allows instructors to import a quiz in Hot Potatoes format.
	Lesson The tool allows instructors to set up a structured lesson.  Students' progress through the lesson can be linear or branching, depending on the instructor's content and organization.
	Quiz This tool allows instructors to create quizzes that students complete online.
	Resource This tool allows instructors to link to documents or websites. Clicking on a resource will open the linked document within a Moodle window; this allows for easy navigation back to the course page. A different icon may be used in the case of a format-specific document (PDF, DOC, etc.).
	Wiki Moodle wiki is simple to setup and use.  Click Add an Activity to get started.  This tool works like Wikipedia in the confines of your Moodle course.
	Workshop This feature allows for peer and instructor editing and review of student work.

Instructor Options

By default, your course space is set up in weekly format with 16 weeks (less during summer and Jan term) running Monday through Sunday.  For the sake of consistency, these settings are standard across all course spaces.  Special project groups may have different formats.  If there are specific reasons your course should be organized differently feel free to change your course to topic format or whatever works best for you.


To make changes to your course space, you'll need to

Once editing is turned on, the individual weeks will look like this:

The edit icon in the upper left hand corner allows you to add a label to the individual week.  Many instructors use this option to add a caption or header to the individual weeks of the course.  The drop down menus in the lower right hand corner allow you to add resources or activities.  Blocks can be added by turning editing on, then selecting the block name in the Blocks block.  Resources will be discussed elsewhere in LibGuides (coming soon.)

When editing is turned on, a number of icons will appear, allowing you to add, delete, or modify course content:

Icon	Description
and	Indent or outdent content (move left/right)
	Move content up and down in a course space.  Clicking on this icon will cause a box with a dotted outline to appear.  Use this box to select the new location of the item you're moving.  If you see a four-point arrow you can drag and drop your item.
	Edit or modify content
	Delete content
and	Show or hide content.  Hidden items will appear greyed out for instructors, but will be invisible for students.
	Move side blocks up and down in a course space..