The course home page is the main page of any Moodle course. It's where the topics or weekly modules display, and the related lists of resources and activities. The Moodle Enhance Project updated the look and feel of courses; introducing new features such as quick links and activity hubs.
This introductory page will help you orient yourself with Moodle, specifically on the front page of any Moodle course by outlining the main features. Additionally, dedicated course settings, releasing Moodle courses to students and viewing course as students will be covered.
You'll also get a few ideas about how you might shape the course you create, and support your students' encounter with that course.
General site navigation bar
The top bar provides links to the most useful and commonly accessed pages. The editing toggle is also visible on this bar if users have the proper permissions for the course.
Course administration bar
This bar sticks to the screen even after scrolling; It is useful for updating course-wide settings and viewing course information from course participants, grades and reports.
Course index
Located at the left of the course page, this expandable bar provides quick navigation for the specific course page. New headings can be added by adding new sections to the course.
Block drawer
This right expandable section allows blocks to be pinned to the screen; Blocks are useful features which academics can choose to add which improve the learning experience for students. Some examples include, teaching contact information, attendance marking and completion progress.
Bulk editing toolbar
After toggling to 'edit mode', the bulk editing toolbar allows multiple items to be edited at once; To use the toolbar, select the checkbox next to available items and choose one of the toolbar's options. Here you can move, indent, delete, duplicate and more.
Quick links
Quick links are located under the course banner and redirects to useful resources or activities academics many want to consider pinning to the top of their course. Default courses provide some useful links which are often requested by students, giving an idea of the types of resources academics should add there. Feel free to customise this section based on specific course requirements and resources. To add new items, select the "add an activity or resource" button located under the icons.
Course hubs and module sections
Two hubs are created by default for every course: the General Course Resources and Feedback Hub allow academics to add key course resources and activities above modules for easier access to students. Consider adding all assessments details and activities to the Assessment Hub to make it simple for students to locate all key information and due dates.
Below the hubs are topics or weekly modules, academics can use this section to add the bulk of the course material such as weekly materials and activities.
Add customised course banner
Moodle courses can be personalised with a course banner to make the course feel more unique. It is recommended teaching staff use a high resolution image with the '.png' file type, if the image does not fit as intended, the guide may need to be repeated with a cropped version of the image to fit the course page as desired.
Click 'Get Started' to view the step-by-step guide.
Editing settings and release the course to students
With the introduction of the Administration Bar, locating the course settings is easier than ever. From the settings page, it is recommended that teaching staff slowly make changes and remember what the settings are previous to saving new changes. This is to ensure changes can easily be reverted in the case of potential errors or mistakes. If students have issues viewing the course, ensure that 'Course visibility' is set to "show" within the course settings.
Click 'Get Started' to view the step-by-step guide.
View course as students
This feature is very useful to see how the course may look from the perspective of a student as teaching staff have additional viewing permissions which students do not have. To learn more, visit our dedicated student view page here.