Moodle Basics & Refreshers
In this post I will list a few sites that provide some of the basics to the use of Moodle, however a Moodler of any level will find great help in the forums that are offered at the official site.
1. Blogs that will keep you keep up to date on Moodle include: The Moodleman Blog is written by Julian Ridden and contains both beginning level materials on Moodle and news on plugins/formats and other components that will enhance one’s Moodle usage. Human for fellow teachers by Tornaz Lasic posts tutorials along with helps on technology and teaching. Moodle Blog provides a personal experience style blog on Moodle issues that is helpful for the beginner and intermediate level Moodler.
2. Tutorials: Moodle Tutorials contains many YouTube like videos on all the basic aspects of Moodle. On the official Moodle Website is a collections of documents that will assist both the Moodle expert and the novice. The page is unceremoniously called Moodle Docs. Julian Ridden has provided a site called Moodle Playpen where teachers can demo new features, plugins and format.
3. Course Design Issues (relying on The MoodleMan Blog post: “Getting-the-most-out-of-course-design“):
3.1 Accordion compresses in accordion style the blocks of the course so that one can scroll easily through the whole course. This format is helpful if your course runs into many pages . . . a problem that I face in most of my Moodle courses.
3.2 Flexible Page Format. This format makes everything on the page a movable block.
3.3 Study Calendar Format is an enhanced version of the weekly course format.
3.4 Shared Activities Format this format allows any user to create shared activities.
3.5 Project Course Format changes the layout and operations of the main center column of a Moodle course.
N.B. For more Modules and Plugins see the official Moodle site.
4. Moodle Philosophy: The fundamentals of Moodle Philosophy is explained on the official website. The short descriptions is a must read for all that intend to use Moodle effectively. Moodle was designed to follow a constructivist understanding of education, i.e., “people actively construct new knowledge as they interact with their environment.”
