FA 08: September
Moodle Mania Quick Bytes
A Faculty Based Communication
September 2008
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How To!
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Many faculty members have asked for written documentation that walks you through the set up of a class in Moodle and describes the features. Currently the best available documentation is ready and waiting for you online at
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Teacher_documentation .
This is the “official” site for Moodle. The link provided will take you straight to the Teacher Documentation area. Once you get there the right hand side of the screen will show a list of features you can learn more about, such as Assignments, Forums, Surveys… If you click on any of those you will get a nice description of the feature and again a box on the right side to help you navigate where you might want to go such as “adding/editing an assignment.” If you click on something in the box you will get a walkthrough of how to do it. Being able to search online makes finding exactly what you need much easier than having to flip through pages. Also it’s GREEN!
This same documentation can be accessed when you are in Moodle. In the bottom left hand corner of every page you will see “Moodle Docs for this page.” If you click on those words it will bring up the documentation related to the page you are currently on. Let’s say you are trying to create a new forum and want to know more about the various options. Once you are on the page where you would create a forum click on “Moodle Docs for this page” in the bottom left corner and it will take you directly to the teacher documentation related to creating forums with walkthroughs on everything.
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Best Practices
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Before you begin (or as soon as you read this) go in and set up your profile. This helps students but more importantly it allows you to choose options that work for you. Two important ones to set up are Forum tracking (switch this to Yes so you can tell what you have and have not already read) and Forum auto-subscribe (switch this to No and it will stop asking you every time you post if you want posts sent to you).
How to change your profile: Go to your class. Click on “Participants”. When the list appears Click on your name (don’t check the box at the right just click directly on your name). When your profile appears click on the tab that says “Edit Profile.” The two discussed above are about the 8th and 9th options on the list. Note there are numerous other settings listed that may be helpful to you. If you aren’t sure what one of them does click on the question mark.
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Keep the discussion going
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If you have questions about Moodle you would like discussed please e-mail Siobhan [email protected] and we will research the answers.
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About Moodle Mania Quick Bytes
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Welcome to Moodle Mania Quick Bytes, an ad hoc e-news brief published once a month for the Alliant faculty community by the Alliant faculty community to discuss the benefits of switching to Moodle and some of the ways Moodle can be used to improve your online course delivery. This briefing is distributed to Alliant faculty and administrators and is a product of the Learning and Education Technology Committee of the Faculty Senate.
