An Introduction to Moodle
An Open Source Learning Management System (LMS)
Moodle enables the creativity of individual faculty to develop their own course; however, a Moodle course is more than a repository for materials. Activities like forums and workshops can promote student engagement and help build relationships in the classroom. Utilizing announcements, calendars, and feedback forms facilitates a higher degree of communication. Automatic grading, built-in rubrics, and attendance save faculty time. Let's explore how Moodle can help you.
Before creating your course in Moodle you'll need to get prepared. It's best to have a completed course map, course policies, a grading rationale, due dates and have prepared all supporting documents, videos, links and assessments before you begin. Other things to consider:
How many students are in the class?
If it is a small class you may prefer to take attendance manually to get to know each student by name versus a large class where taking attendance via QR Code creates efficiency.
How familiar are students with Moodle?
If they are Freshman you may need to incorporate time in your lesson to show them how to use the activities and resources in Moodle that support your objective. For example, how does a student submit an assignment and what file types will you accept.
Is there group or project based work?
You can set-up assignments, grading, and forums to support group work.
Below is a list of resources containing curated how to videos, articles and guides to help you build a student centered Moodle course. Due to various themes and customizations your instance of Moodle may look a little different but the concepts are the same. If you're feeling stuck it's a good idea to work directly with your Moodle administrator.