Course Creation

‌How to create a course

Step 1: Go to the Expand.

Step 2: Go to Blocks and then the Site Administration menu. Select Courses > Manage courses and categories (Figure 3)

Figure 3

Add a New Course

Step 1: Click the Create new course (Figure 4).

Figure 4

Enter Course Details (Figure 5):

• Course full name: This is the main course title displayed to users.
• Course short name: A unique, shorter name for the course, often used in navigation.
• Course visibility: Set to “Hide” if you want to keep it hidden from students until it’s ready or “Show” to make it immediately available.
• Course overview: You can add a course summary that appears in the course listings.
• Course image: The course image is displayed in My Courses and in the list of available courses on the Home page.

Adjust Course Format (Figure 5):

• Custom Sections Let course creators organize content into specific sections.

• The Single Activity format is designed for courses that focus on just one main activity or resource, like a quiz, a SCORM package, a forum, or an external tool.

Save and Display (Figure 5):

• Click Save and display to create the course and start adding content.

Figure 5

How to start adding content to your newly created course

1. Turn on Editing:

• Step 1: Go to your course page.

  Step 2: Click on Turn editing on (usually located at the top-right corner of the course page).

2. About Sections:

• Moodle courses are organized into sections (custom sections or single activity).
• To add a new section:
• Scroll to the bottom of the page.
• Click the Add section button (this label might vary depending on the course format you selected).
• You can rename each section to reflect the content or topic it will cover.
• To edit a section:
• Click the Edit button at the section's far right.

The menu options displayed when clicking on the "Edit" button for a section are:

• View: Open and view the selected section or activity.
• Edit settings: Modify the details and configurations of the section or activity.
• Highlight: Mark the section as highlighted (e.g., for emphasis or current focus).
• Duplicate: Create a copy of the section or activity.
• Hide: Make the section or activity invisible to students.
• Move: Reorder or move the section to a different position.
• Delete: Permanently remove the section or activity.
• Permalink: Get a direct link to the section or activity.

3. Add Activities and Resources:

• Within each section, click Add an activity or resource.

  An activity is a general name for a group of features in a course. An activity is something that a student will interact with other students and or the teacher or course instructor.

  • A resource is an item that a course instructor or teacher can use to support learning, such as a file or link.

4. Bulk Actions:

• Bulk actions allow for managing multiple course items simultaneously, saving time and effort.

  • Availability: Adjust the visibility of selected items (show or hide).
  • Duplicate: Create copies of the selected items.
  • Move: Relocate the selected items to another section or order within the course.
  • Delete: Permanently remove the selected items from the course.

Step 1: Click Bulk actions

Step 2: Select You want to move, delete, duplicate, or availability the activity or activities.

Step 3: Select the section to move selected items

5. How to use Restrict Access?

• If the eye is OPEN, the students who do not meet that part of the condition will see the activity, but it will be greyed out and have information about why they can't access it yet.
• The shut eye takes precedence. For example, you could have 2 conditions: one based on the date (with eye shut) and one based on completing a previous activity (with eye open). That way, the activity will not appear until the date; then it will appear, but tell you that you need to complete the other activity. Once completed, you can access it.
• For OR and NOT AND type conditions, you only get a single eye icon instead of one for each condition.
• ALL or ANY Conditions
• Further restrictions may be added by clicking the 'Add restriction' button again, and it is possible to specify that ALL or ANY of the conditions are required before the activity is made available.
• Thus, it is possible to use 'Or' as well as 'And' conditions.
• To remove restrictions on an activity or resource, click Delete.

Restricting whole course section access

It is possible to restrict access to activities and resources within a whole course section by specifying the conditions in the settings for that particular section.

6. What is Activity Completion?

• Activity completion allows course instructors to set completion criteria in a specific activity's settings. The criterion might be viewing, receiving a certain score, or a student marking it as complete.
• Students see a 'To do' dropdown, which when clicked, displays a list of what they must do to complete an item:
• With edit mode enabled, teachers see a similar 'Completion' dropdown with an 'Edit conditions' link taking them directly to the Completion conditions section of the activity or resource.

Note: To make changes, click 'Unlock completion settings,' but note that any existing completion data may be deleted and recalculated. Manual completion can't be recalculated, so students may need to mark it as done again.

A basic example:

Students are required to undertake 4 tasks in a precise order. According to their score in a quiz, the fourth task - a Moodle lesson - is either at a lower or more advanced level. They must:

• View a page explaining the course
• Post an introductory message in a forum
• Take a quiz
• Move onto a lesson tailored to their performance in the quiz. Here is the course instructor view:

Students will only see the first task (the webpage) with the second task (the forum) greyed out. The other tasks only appear once the conditions have been met.

How's it done?

• Task 1: The page must be read (or at least viewed) before students can access the forum. In task 1, make the page available (no restriction). In task 2, set the 'Availability' dropdown to restrict access to the forum to students who have viewed the page.
• Task 2, the forum, needs to have the restrictions set such that the page Read This First must be marked complete. The "open" eye icon means the forum is greyed out until available:
• Task 2, the forum, needs to require students to make a post before they can do the quiz. The activity completion condition is set to " require posts"
• Task 3, the quiz, needs to have the restrictions set such that the forum must be marked complete. The "crossed out eye" icon means the quiz is completely hidden until a student has posted in the forum:
• The student must get a grade in the quiz for the activity to be complete:
• Task 4 is two lessons - either at level 1 (basic) or level 2 (advanced). If the student scores less than 50% on the quiz they do Level 1; if they score more, they do Level 2. In the Level 1 lesson, the restriction is set such that students can only access it if they get under 50% on the quiz.
• The Level 2 lesson has the restriction set such that students can only access it if they get 50% or more: