Basic features of Moodle

Moodle e-course can be edited/designed by all persons in the role of teacher/designer. Design the course according to your preferences and needs. Designing an e-course means designing the course environment, adding necessary tools and materials to the course and determining the course settings. It is not possible to start designing an e-course in Moodle from scratch. You have to have a blank course created and your user account connected with it.  Before designing a course you have to decide for whom and for what the course is necessary. Course design determines the general impression of the course – how it is structured, what tools are added, which blocks can be used. A good design helps to make a course more learner-friendly – in which learners can easily find their way and primarily be concerned with learning, not with technical issues.

Different views and roles

You can have four roles in your course (in the top menu select your name – Switch role):

• A teacher has all the rights in the course. The teacher can create and edit a course, communicate with learners and grade them.
• A tutor can communicate with learners and grade them but not edit the course.
• A learner can participate in the course and do what the teacher has assigned.
• A guest can only view the course but not edit or use any features.

If, as a course creator, you choose another role, the link Switch to default role appears in the role selection block. When you switch back to your default role, you will be again in the teacher’s mode.

Text editor

The Moodle text editor is used to add descriptions of tools and activities, content and forum posts. Like in all usual word processors, the text editor allows changing the font, text size, using bold and italics, lists, creating tables etc.

• No-auto link – to disable automatic linking of a glossary entry (if you use a glossary in which autolink feature is enabled, whenever a keyword appears in the course page or book, it is automatically linked to the glossary definition).
• The Record audio button enables to save and attach an audio clip right into the text, if you have a mic.
• The Record video button enables to save and attach an audio clip right into the text, if you have a webcam.
• Clear formatting – if you copy text from a .doc file or a web page, it is recommended that you clear all formatting and, if necessary, format the text in Moodle.
• Full screen – allows using the text editor in a convenient large size.

It is possible to add pop-up windows that open if you click a certain word. To enable it, click the add pop-up button, enter the word(s) (Pop-up title), which will open the pop-up window and content if clicked on. After the pop-up window has been created, it is added to the page between special tags:

The text between these tags can be edited later – for example, to add text, an image, video clip etc.  

If you want to hide a part of the content from learners and have it opened and then hidden again when a certain word is clicked (for example, to present additional information, hints, answers to tasks, etc.), you can use the feature called accordion.

You can add the accordion from the corresponding button in the text editor. Enter the word(s) (Accordion name), which will open the hidden content if clicked on. After the accordion has been created, it is added to the page between special tags:

The text between these tags can be edited later – for example, to add text, an image, video clip etc.