Moodle Help Guide

Welcome to an updated Moodle! Most of the changes in Moodle 4 are visual and organizational. There are a few new options to share with you!

First of all, you may notice that upon logging in, your Dashboard has had a refresh. Check out our updated information on Finding Your Courses if you're unsure how to find your Fall 2024 courses.

For a quick overview of how to edit your course in this new environment, check out the video below.

The course index in the left panel has been reworked and improved. You can navigate to any activity within your course by clicking on the title in the index. With edit mode turned on, you can also reorganize the order of course items on your page by moving them directly in the index.

When hovering over a title in the course index, you will see a four-pointed arrow appear. Click and drag on the arrow to reorganize your course content.

The navigation menu at the top of each course has a new look, including links to the Settings, Participants, Grades, and Reports pages. 

 The drop-down menu labeled “More” provides access to additional features, such as the question bank and instructor files download. 

In previous versions of Moodle, the button to turn on edit mode in a course was located in the top left corner of the page. 
 

In the new version of Moodle, there is an Edit mode switch in the top right corner of the page, which you can toggle on and off. The first image, where the text and switch are gray, indicates edit mode being turned off. The second image, where the text and switch are blue, indicates edit mode being turned on. 

If you were in the habit of using Labels to add text, images, or other content to the "front page" of your Moodle course, you'll now want to make use of the Text and Media area tool. You can find it under "Resources" when you "Add an Activity or Resource", as shown:

For more on what you can do with the Text and media area, watch the short video below:

While you still have the ability to import material from previous Moodle courses or from backup files, as you did in the past, the terminology has changed. You can now find these options under the "More" menu in your course's navigation. From there, select Course reuse.

For a more detailed walkthrough with screenshots, please see our updated page on Adding Material From Past Courses.

With the upgrade to 4.3, your course will now by default be organized by Topics. Previously, we have created your courses using the Flexible Section format as a starting point, because this format offered our faculty a lot of organizational flexibility. Unfortunately, this course format is no longer compatible with Moodle. All your content has been retained, you can still label each section with your preferred wording, and you can still move your materials around as needed. You may find, however, that managing course content at the week, unit, or section level (depending on how you've described the different components of your Moodle site in the past) has different options than what you are used to!

Course formats now available in Moodle are: Topics, Weeks, Single Activity, Social, and Collapsed Topics. If you would like to explore these formats with a member of the Ed Tech team, please don't hesitate to make an appointment. 

Recent Moodle updates required us to make some adjustments to our content creation options, in order to ensure that Moodle is in alignment with the College's accessibility standards. We encourage faculty to rely on bold for emphasis, and to use

headings

and

to organize and convey information -- and not color. Color changes to text cannot be readily picked up by screen readers, and may not be easily viewable by those with a variety of visual impairments.

While existing content may still feature text of different colors, we are unable to restore this option with the upgrade to Moodle 4.3, so you won't be able to customize text colors when you are editing or creating new content. You're welcome to meet with an instructional technologist to explore alternative means of organizing information on your Moodle site.. You can schedule a meeting with any member of our team from the How To Get Help box below.

The new version of Moodle comes with improved question management in question banks and quizzes. In the question bank, a new ability allows you to edit a question title directly without having to open that question's details. The new columns "Last Used" and "Modified By" assist with question sharing among multiple teachers.

Faculty questions can be directed to edtech@mtholyoke.edu. E-mail support is available Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Our team strives to answer support questions within one business day.

You can also book a 1:1 appointment with a member of the Ed Tech team (below) or check out our support calendar for drop-in sessions, workshops, and additional support opportunities. We look forward to working with you!