Moodle FAQs

To create a new course in Moodle, login to Moodle and from the home page, click All Courses.

Select the prefix of the course that you are adding.

Next, select the year of the course that you're adding.

On the next page, scroll to the bottom and click Add a new course.

On the Add a new course screen, add a Course full name and a Course short name.

I suggest the following formats--

• Full name: [PREFIX] [COURSE NUMBER] [SECTION] [COURSE TITLE] [SEMESTER] [YEAR]
• Full name example: ART 2602 HY Computer Graphics Spring 2020
• Short name: [PREFIX] [COURSE NUMBER] [SECTION] [SEMESTER] [YEAR]
• Short name example: ART 2602 HY SP 2020

Check to make sure that the course category is correct.

Make sure to set Course visibility to Show.

To avoid future issues with students being able to find your course, please make sure that your Course start date and Course end date is correct. These dates determine when and where your course will display within Moodle.

And finally, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save and display. You're done! That's it! You've created your first course shell!

In the Standard forum for general use, the default forum type, both students and teachers can start a new discussion or thread. Both teachers and students can also reply to any existing thread at any time.

In A single simple discussion the teachers posts a question and students are able to reply-only. They cannot start a new topic of discussion. This is useful if you wish to keep a discussion focused.

The Question and Answer forum is best used when you have a particular question that you wish to have answered. The teacher posts a question and students respond with possible answers. By default a Q and A forum requires students to post once before viewing other students' postings.

The Standard forum displayed in a blog-like format works like the standard forum for general use, but the first post of each discussion is displayed (as in a blog) so that users can read it and then choose to respond by clicking the "Discuss this topic" button bottom right of the post. Once you click "Discuss this topic" you'll be given the option to "Reply."

Each person posts one discussion. This one is pretty self explanatory. Everyone can post only one discussion topic. Replies are unrestricted. Everyone can reply to any discussion topic as many times as they want. See the teacher's view of an "Each person posts one discussion" forum below.

For more information regarding the forum activity, see: https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Forum_activity

Go to your course and turn editing on.

 

Add an activity or resource.

 

Select URL under "Resources" (very bottom of the list) and click "Add."

 

Fill in the "Name" field.

 

Paste the Google Doc Address into the "External URL" field.

 

You can get the URL for the "External URL" field by going to the Google Doc, clicking "Share" in the upper right hand corner, and copying the "Link to share." Be sure to set the sharing permissions appropriately. Choosing "Anyone with the link," for example, is a good setting for Moodle. Be sure to set sharing settings for editing, view only, or commenting, depending on whether you wish for learners to be able to just view the document or edit the document.

 

Under "Options," change display to "Embed" (or "open in new window," or "open," or "Automatic").

Coming soon...

You're do not have the ability to delete courses. Please move any course that you wish to delete to the category called "Inactive." The Moodle Manager will ensure that the course is hidden from you and everyone else.

I'm sure that there are many ways to share video in Moodle. This is one way that takes advantage of our access to the Google Suite.

Record a video of yourself.

Upload (or share) your video to Google Drive (via your Greensboro College account). Note: If you use Google Hangouts Meet, your video should upload automatically to your Google Drive.

It may take a bit for your video to upload, even if it is short (although I have found Google Hangouts Meet uploads faster than some videos). Keep checking Google Drive (or your Greensboro College email) until it appears.

Once you see your video in Google Drive, open it, then click the “More actions” option and select Share.

Next, click Copy link

Next go to your course in Moodle, Turn editing on, then click Add an activity or resource. 

I have done this by adding to a Discussion Forum, a URL, or a Page. Below shows you how to add video in a URL. I like this best because I can make the video appear in a pop-up in Moodle (you will see this below). Click URL and Add.

Name your URL/Video, past your URL (from Steps 4 and 5 above), then click to add a link under Description. Yes, you are adding the link twice (under External URL and under Description) – if you do not do this, students may not be able to view your video without your permission.

Paste your link and click Create link. If your link does not paste, simply go back to Google Drive and re-do steps 4 and 5 above.

You should see your link under Page content.

Next, under Appearance, click In pop-up. You may also keep it as Automatic (I like pop-up because it opens a new window for students; however, if students have pop-ups blocked, they may not be able to open it). 

At the bottom of the page, click Save and return to course.

You should see your new URL. Click on it to make sure everything works.

Click play. Your video should play in the pop-up. Students may now watch the video, then simply close the pop-up window when they are finished. After they close the pop-up window, they will still be in your Moodle course.

And you're done! You've successfully embedded video into your Moodle course!

There are a few possible explanations for why students may be having trouble locating your course.

Make sure your course visibility is set to "show."

Under the "Edit course settings" screen from your course, you have the option to set "Course visibility." This option controls whether students can see your course. If you're currently using your course, you will want to make sure that "Course visibility" is set to "Show." If this option is set to "Hide," students will not be able to see your course, including students currently enrolled in your course.

Make sure your "course start date" and "course end date" is correct.

After login, the courses that you're enrolled in are displayed in two places. They will appear in the lefthand sidebar under My Courses and also in your Moodle Dashboard.

The Dashboard can be accessed in the sidebar or beside the word "Moodle" along the top of your screen. A list of your courses will display under "My Courses" near the bottom of the sidebar content.

Your enrolled courses displayed under "My courses" in the sidebar, however, are only the active courses. Active means their start date has passed and their end date has not yet occurred.  If you're finding that your course or courses are not showing in the sidebar, go to "Edit settings" from within your course and check the start date and end date that you have set for the course.

 

If you're able to access your College email account, your Moodle username will be the username portion of your College email address, and the password will be the same password as your College email account. If you are not able to access your College email account, you'll need to contact GCIT at osticket@greensboro.edu and tell them that you're off campus and need to reset your password. They'll be able to reset your password and let you know the new password.

Typically when you're searching for a user (student or otherwise) in Moodle, you're looking for them in order to manually enroll them in your course. If you're unable to find them, that almost always means that they have never logged in to Moodle. When anyone's account for Moodle is created, it's doesn't actually, fully come into existence until the user logs in to the account for the first time. If you're having trouble finding a student in Moodle, please reach out to them and encourage them to log in to their Moodle account. As soon as they do, you'll immediately be able to find them in the user search.

answer

There are many opportunities within Moodle to accommodate students with learning differences. However, if you're giving a quiz or exam in Moodle there is a particulularly easy way to accommodate learning differences!

The instructor will just need to click on the quiz from their course's main page.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From within the quiz screen, they'll click the settings icon like is shown below and click User overrides in the dropdown menu. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click Add user override. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the Override screen, they'll be able to search for the student(s) that they wish to apply the override to, and set the parameters of the override. They'll have the option to open or close the quiz at different times, increase the time limit or allow more attempts for the student or students that the override applies to. 

If you're unable to create a course, it's likely that you are lacking the sufficient roles within Moodle to do so. Please email moodlehelp@greensboro.edu and let them know that you're unable to create courses. They'll be able to quickly make changes to your account that will allow you to create courses.

If your colleague isn't already enrolled in your course, you'll need to enroll them. 

From your course page, click Participants.

From the Participants page, click Enroll users.

From the Enrollment options box, search for the person that you'd like to enroll in your course by name. The search field is across from Select users. When you see the name that you're looking for, click it.

The name of the person will be added above the search field in blue. You can add more than one person at once. Click enroll users.

Once you are taken back to the Participants screen, Look for the small pencil in the Roles column, alongside your colleague's name.

Let's say you wish to add a teacher role to this colleague. In this case, after clicking on the small pencil, start typing the word teacher. When teacher appears as an option in the small dropdown menu, click it. Teacher will be added in blue just above the text field.

Once Teacher is added in blue above the text field, click the small save icon just beneath the text field. This will save your change to this person's role within the course.

That's it! You've now enrolled a colleague in your course and given them teacher access to your course!

 

 

From your course page click Participants. Once on the Participants page, click Enroll users.

In the search field across from Select users start typing the name of the individual that you wish to add to your course.

Click the individual's name in the drop down menu and it will appear in blue alongside Select users. Click Enroll selected users.

That's it! You've add your first student. Repeat the same steps to add additional users.

This depends on what you mean by restrict access. You can (1) hide your course from students, (2) change the enrollment options to restrict access to everyone that you don't manually enroll, or (3) add a password so that only those that know the password can enroll.

Let's take a look at how you can go about accomplishing each of these.

Hide your course from all students

You can hide a course in which you are the designated teacher by going to Edit settings from the main course page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Under General on the Edit course settings page, toggle the Course visibility from Show to Hide. This will make your course invisible to anyone without a course creator role, in other words, it will hide it from all students, even the students that are currently enrolled.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add a password

You can restrict access to the course to anyone that isn't already enrolled in a couple of ways. You can add a password to the course. This will throw up an enter password screen to anyone that that attempted to enter the course that isn't already enrolled.

To add a password, click Participants and then on the Participants screen, click the small gear icon above the Enroll users button.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Select Self enrollment (Student) in the menu like is shown below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the Self enrollment screen, enter a password beside Enrollment key.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the bottom of the page, click Save changes. This will force anyone that attempts to enter your course to enter a password. If they don't know they password, they won't have access to your course or its content.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turn off self enrollment

Alternatively, you can also just turn off self enrollment altogether which means that no one will be given an option to enroll and it will be up to you to manually enroll any and all users that have access to the course.

To turn off self enrollment, go to Participants, click the small gear/settings icon, and select Enrollment methods in the dropdown menu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To turn off self enrollment, click the small eye icon in the Edit column across from Self enrollment (Student). This hides/disables the option for anyone to self enroll / enroll themselves in your course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can remove participants from your course by clicking "Participants" in the left sidebar, locating the particular user that you wish to remove in the list of participants and then clicking the small trash can across from their name.

Please see the following YouTube tutorial on using BBB in Moodle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py1WikgETpQ

Look for the assignment from which you wish to download the submissions. Click the assignment.

From within the assignment, click "View all submissions."

You should see a list of any and all submissions to the assignment. Beside "Grading action" click "Choose" and select "Download all submissions."

Please take a look at the cropped screenshots of two forums below. Both are from the same course. One is a March 23-27 forum and the other is a forum for March 30 - April 3. Notice the icon that looks like a small person beside the Edit option. This icon changes the settings for a Moodle feature called "groups." However, if you aren't using Moodle's "groups" feature, this button doesn't do anything useful in your course, but it's still ridiculously easy to click it by mistake and toggle the settings for groups. Changing the groups options when you aren't using groups will  lock everyone out of the forum because no one is in a group. It is one of many annoying idiosyncrasies within Moodle. The good news is that it is easy to turn it back off by simply clicking the icon twice to bring it back to the default. If you're not using groups, you want the icon to look like the icon that's shown beside the March 23-27 forum.