The course home page is the main page of any Moodle course. It's where the topics or weekly modules are displayed, 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.
Our resources will help you orient yourself with the course home page by outlining the main features. Additionally, dedicated course settings, releasing Moodle courses to students, and viewing courses as students are 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.
What's on the Course Home Page
The course home page is split into key areas storing specific content.
Add customised course banner
Academics can add a course banner to uniquely personalise the course.
It is recommended to use a high-resolution image with the '.png' file type for the course banner. If the image does not fit as intended, the banner will need to be re-added with a cropped version of the image to fit the course page as desired.
Click 'Get Started' to view the step-by-step guide.
Set up the Quick Links
The Quick Links section (icons at the top of the course - section 0) and customised icons are used to deliver key course information in a more intuitive way. The icons are rendered via special keywords in the name of the Moodle activities/resources placed in this top section (i.e. the icons are not tied to particular activities/resources). Keywords and icons are given below in the quick links library.
The following list describes the standard quick links included by default. If you do add additional elements, we ask that no more than 10 quick links (2 rows of 5 elements) are visible to students at any one time.
- Announcements and Forums is a Moodle page resource that automatically summarises all Moodle forums (apart from "Open forums") in your course.
- Virtual Classroom is a Blackboard Collaborate (External tool) link in the template. If you do not use Collaborate, feel free to delete this and, if applicable to your course, replace (use a Moodle URL resource) with your preferred synchronous video platform, but make sure the relevant icon appears by including in the name one of the associated keywords from the library.
- Course Outline is a Moodle file resource to deliver this document as a PDF. Again, feel free to replace with your preferred or faculty/school-required delivery format (URL, LTI), but again, make sure the relevant icon appears by including the associated keyword(s) in the name.
- Course Schedule is a Moodle page resource with a fully customisable HTML table, including the capability of delivering an interactive timetable with hyperlinks to specific course resources. As before, feel free to replace with your preferred delivery format, but make sure the relevant icon appears by including the associated keyword(s) in the name.
- Student Life is a Moodle page resource fully customisable with course, school and faculty specific support resources. Make sure the icon appears, if applicable to your course, by including the associated keyword(s) in the resource name. NB Institution-level support is available in the Header > Help dropdown menu. Student Life is for support below this level. Your faculty support team may have added relevant content to this in the course shell template site prior to the course rollover.
Click 'Get Started' to view the step-by-step guide.
Set up the Hubs
The placement and names of the two standard hubs are essential to meet the Moodle Enhance minimum standard and future automation plans and should not be changed. However, the elements within the hubs (while strongly recommended) can be adapted to suit specific course needs.\
The second template element is the General Course Resources Hub (section 1) with its standard location immediately under the Quick Links (section 0). Among other general course resources which you may want to relocate here (full flexibility is allowed), this section is meant to deliver in a centralised way:
- Getting started information
- General course materials
- Communication channels
- Course evaluation, including institutional surveys
The third template element, and highly appreciated by students, is the Assessments Hub (section 2) with its standard location immediately under the General Course Resources Hub (section 1). This standard section is meant to deliver in a centralised way:
- Summary table of assessments
- Links to grades and special considerations
- Assessment briefs and submission tools. If your submission boxes are better placed in line with the (e.g. weekly) learning content or in independent sections, make sure that instructions and, if desired, hyperlinks to them are available in this Assessments Hub.
Using the bulk editing toolbar
The bulk editing toolbar can be found when editing mode is enabled. It can be used to edit multiple sections or Moodle items at once. Editing options include: move, indent, hide, disable from course page, duplicate and delete.
Click 'Get Started' to view the step-by-step guide.
Edit settings and release the course to students
Course settings can be edited and released via the administration bar on top of the course home page. To release a course or if students have issues viewing the course, ensure that 'Course visibility' is set to "show" within the course settings.
If making multiple changes, it is recommended to make changes slowly and remember the previous settings to ensure changes can be reverted in case of errors.
Click 'Get Started' to view the step-by-step guide.
View course as a student
Visit our dedicated page on student view to learn how to view your course from the student's perspective. This is important to have an idea on how course content will appear to students.