Starting your course from scratch

January 2012

Outline

• Should already know Moodle basics• Layout best practice• Moodle course formats• Using blocks• Key Documents

Moodle courses

• Moodle courses have a number of topics

Numbered or Dated

topics

Layout best practice

• Use one topic per unitKeep all of the relevant quizzes / questionnaires / documents etc in one place

• Use one topic for general courseOne place for general course documents such as scheme of work etc

• Use news items regularly?The noticeboard is an excellent way of sending messages to students. When you place a new news item on the noticeboard it is emailed to students.

Note: Only effective if used regularly

Layout best practice cont..

• Don’t use more than 3 font styles per pageKeep your fonts the same where possible, there is nothing worse than having a number of different colours and sizes on one page

• Make sure your content fitsThe new Moodle layout is fixed so it will never expand. Therefore make sure that your content is small enough to fit the width of the page without having a scroll bar along the bottom.

• Don’t force users to scroll and scroll Break your pages up with Chapters (if using a book) or links to other pages so students do not have to scroll forever.

Demo

Course Formats

• Grid format – changes your course into a number of buttons

which students can click on

• Topics format – Simply gives you a number of topics allowing you

to organise your course by topic

• Noticeboard format – is similar to the topics format however it also has a

news box at the top of the page allowing you to easily post news to your classes.

Topics Format

Organised by topics

No news post

Noticeboard Format

Organised by topics

Latest news post

Grid Format

Organised by topics but with image representing it

No news post

White space if no blocks

Demo

Using Blocks

• Keep blocks to a minimum– Speeds up pages– Keeps consistency– Gives you more space for content

• Block with Teacher details?• Block with Quick Links?

Demo

Lastly….

• Have a departmental “house style”• Use images in place of text• Come to me with your ideas…..• Use social media?

– e.g. Have a block with a relevant Twitter feed– e.g. Have a block with relevant RSS feeds

• Keep courses up to date…..– If nothing changes on your course for a while

then student will switch off

Questions?

• PowerPoint file • Video online by next week• Help sheets from this session• Other sessions still available to book• Evaluation form (anonymous)

moodle.leggott.ac.uk/help