Moodle Tools to Build Learning Activities: A Basic List in Alphabetical Order

Assignment Module

• Assignments can be specified with a due date and a maximum grade.
• Students can upload their assignments (any file format) to the server - they are date-stamped.
• Late assignments are allowed, but the amount of lateness is shown clearly to the teacher
• For each particular assignment, the whole class can be assessed (grade and comment) on one page in one form.
• Teacher feedback is appended to the assignment page for each student, and notification is mailed out.
• The teacher can choose to allow resubmission of assignments after grading (for regrading)

Blogs

• Access from profile
• Options for individual entries to be private, public, or viewable by other users on the site

Calendar

Displays the following events:

• Site (event viewable in all courses - created by admin users)
• Course (event viewable only to course members - created by teachers)
• Groups (event viewable only by members of a group - created by teachers)
• User (personal event a student user can create - viewable only by the user)

Chat Module

• Allows smooth, synchronous text interaction
• Includes profile pictures in the chat window
• Supports URLs, smilies, embedded HTML, images etc
• All sessions are logged for later viewing, and these can also be made available to students

Choice Module

• Like a poll. Can either be used to vote on something, or to get feedback from every student (eg research consent)
• Teacher sees intuitive table view of who chose what
• Students can optionally be allowed to see an up-to-date graph of results

Database

• Allows the teacher and/or students to build, display and search a bank of record entries about any conceivable topic.
• The format (images, files, URLs, numbers and text) and structure (layout options, number of fields, etc) of these entries is unlimited.

Forum Module

• Different types of forums are available, such as teacher-only, course news, open-to-all, and one-thread-per-user.
• All postings have the authors’ photo attached.
• Discussions can be viewed nested, flat or threaded, oldest or newest first.
• Individual forums can be subscribed to by each person so that copies are forwarded via email, or the teacher can force subscription for all
• The teacher can choose not to allow replies (eg for an announcements-only forum)
• Discussion threads can be easily moved between forums by the teacher
• Attached images are shown inline
• If forum ratings are being used, these can be restricted to a range of dates

Glossary

• Participants create and maintain a list of definitions or any other information
• Supports attachments
• Comment feature can be enabled
• The entries can be searched or browsed in many different formats.

Journal Module

• Journals are private between student and teacher.
• Each journal entry can be directed by an open question.
• For each particular journal entry, the whole class can be assessed on one page in one form
• Teacher feedback is appended to the journal entry page, and notification is mailed out.

Lesson

• A lesson delivers content in an interesting and flexible way.
• It consists of a number of pages.
• Each page normally ends with a multiple choice question.
• Navigation through the lesson can be straightforward or complex.

Messages

• A one to one text messaging tool.
• History of conversations are maintained

Quiz Module

• Instructors can define a database of questions for re-use in different quizzes
• Questions can be stored in categories for easy access, and these categories can be "published" to make them accessible from any course on the site.
• Quizzes are automatically graded, and can be re-graded if questions are modified
• Quizzes can have a limited time window outside of which they are not available
• At the teacher's option, quizzes can be attempted multiple times, and can show feedback and/or correct answers
• Quiz questions and quiz answers can be shuffled (randomised) to reduce cheating
• Questions allow HTML and images
• Questions can be imported from external text files
• Quizzes can be attempted multiple times, if desired
• Attempts can be cumulative, if desired, and finished over several sessions
• Multiple-choice questions supporting single or multiple answers
• Short Answer questions (words or phrases)
• True-False questions
• Matching questions
• Random questions
• Numerical questions (with allowable ranges)
• Embedded-answer questions (cloze style) with answers within passages of text
• Embedded descriptive text and graphics

Random Glossary

• The random glossary block can be used to display random entries, such as tips or quotes.

Resource Module

• A range of different resource types that allow you to include almost any kind of digital content into your courses.
• Files can be uploaded and managed on the server, or created on the fly using web forms (text or HTML)
• External content on the web can be linked to or seamlessly included within the course interface.
• External web applications can be linked in with data passed to them

RSS feeds

• Enables RSS feeds from external websites or from within Moodle (i.e. from a blog) to be displayed.

Survey Module

• Built-in surveys (COLLES, ATTLS) have been proven as instruments for analysing online classes
• Online survey reports always available, including many graphs. Data is downloadable as an Excel spreadsheet or CSV text file.
• Survey interface prevents partly-finished surveys.
• Feedback is provided to the student of their results compared to the class averages

Wiki

• Anyone can add to or edit.
• It enables documents to be authored collectively

Workshop Module

• Allows peer assessment of documents, and the instructor can manage and grade the assessment.
• Supports a wide range of possible grading scales
• Instructor can provide sample documents for students to practice grading
• Very flexible with many options.

This handout was compiled using information from Moodle.org

Teacher Documentation

Features Demonstration Course