Overview
Moodle contains a Glossary tool for embedding glossaries of terms used by practitioners in your area of study.
This page shows you how to create a glossary, and how you and your students can create glossary entries within it.
When to use
You can import a glossary before the course starts, so that students have a handy reference within the Moodle course. When importing, images will not be copied over.
Glossaries can also be created collaboratively, with students contributing terms and definitions. Consider:
- allowing comments and ratings to encourage interaction
- encouraging students to add images and links to their definitions, for a more dynamic Glossary generally and more "'stickability" of definitions
- automatically linking certain words/phrases anywhere in the course to the glossary entry
- approving glossary entries by default for a self regulated, student-created glossary
- grading this activity, or having the users rate it
- placing a Random glossary entry block on the course home page that displays a different glossary term-and-definition every time a student logs in to the course or refreshes the course home page
- using the glossary for course FAQs, or as an informal peer review tool.
Benefits
Creating a Glossary within a Moodle course provides a ready reference for students. You can set up auto-linking so that all glossary words throughout the course are linked to their definitions, and you can use a glossary as a place where definitions are proposed, discussed and refined with input from students.
Guide
Step by step instructions
Create a Glossary activity
- On the course home page, click Turn editing on.
- In the appropriate section, click Add an activity or resource, select Glossary from the pop-up list and click Add.
- On the Adding a new Glossary page, click Expand all, then in the General section:
- Enter a Name.
- Enter some Description indicating how the glossary is to be used.
- Select the Glossary type. A Main glossary is a glossary into which entries from a Secondary glossary can be imported. There can only be one main glossary in a course. If you won't be needing the glossary entry import function, you can make all the course glossaries secondary glossaries.
- Under Entries, select whether you want:
- entries to be Approved by default, that is, there will be no requirement for a teacher to approve them before users can view them
- to Always allow editing of entries, or to limit editing to a nominated editing time
- Duplicate entries allowed, that is, multiple entries can have the same concept name
- to Allow comments on entries by participants with the right permissions
- to Automatically link glossary entries wherever the concept word/phrase displays throughout the course.
- Under Appearance:
- Select the most appropriate Display format.
- At Approval display format, select the most appropriate display format for entries to be presented for approval.
- Change the number of Entries show per page, if you want to.
- Select Yes for Show alphabet links if you want users to be able to browse the glossary letter by letter of the alphabet.
- Select Yes for Show 'ALL' link if you want users to be able to browse all glossary entries at once.
- Select Yes for Show 'Special' link if you want users to be able to browse using special characters, such as @ or #
- Select Yes for Allow print view if you want to provide students with a link to a printer-friendly version of the glossary—this is always provided for teachers, as shown below:
- Under RSS feed, if you want to enable an RSS feed for this activity, select whether you want the authors' names to display, and the Number of RSS recent articles you want to display (usually between 5 and 20).
- Under Ratings, if you want students to rate glossary entries, select an Aggregate type and Restrict ratings to entries contributed within an appropriate date range.
- Complete the remaining page sections as relevant and click Save and display.
- The glossary displays, and you can now begin adding entries. (If you want to make changes to the way the glossary displays, return to the course home page and click the glossary's Update
icon.)
- If you want to check that students have permission to rate glossary entries, in the Settings block click Permissions.
- On the Permissions page, scroll down to Activity: Glossary > Rate entries. If the Student role is not listed among the roles with permission to rate, click the Allow icon
.
- On the Allow role page, select Student in the drop-down list and click Allow. The Permissions page displays again, with Student also listed; you can use the Prevent icon
to remove the permission to rate.
Create a Glossary entry
- Access the glossary's page, by either:
- creating a glossary activity, as described above, or
- in the course home page, clicking the glossary activity's link.
- Click Add a new entry.
- On the Add a new entry page:
- Enter the Concept (glossary term).
- Enter its Definition. To insert graphics or illustrative videos so that they will display correctly in the random Glossary Entry block, follow the instructions below.
- Enter any Keywords by which you want this concept and definition to be searchable.
- Add any Attachment necessary.
- If you are using auto-linking, specify any Auto-linking rules.
- Click Save changes.
- The new entry displays on the glossary's home page, where you can export, delete or edit it.
Add a graphic or video to a glossary entry
It's important to specify the width of any graphic or video you add to a glossary entry as 260 pixels. Any element larger than this will not be fully visible in the random Glossary Entry block—users will have to scroll to see all of it.
To add a graphic to a glossary entry:
- On the Add a new entry page, in the text editor, click the image icon.
- In the image properties window, upload the image, provide a description and adjust the image. Click Save image to finish.
To add a video to a glossary entry:
- On the Add a new entry page, in the text editor, click the video page icon
- Insert a video link or URL or click Browse repositories.
- Click on YouTube. Search and select the relevant video.
- Click on Save Changes to add the Youtube Video.
- Click on insert media to add the media to the text editor.
- Click Save Changes.
Advanced guide
See the following website for more suggestions about using the Moodle Glossary tool creatively: Moodle Glossary tips.
Additional information
Further assistance
If you experience technical or other issues, consult the Where to get help page.