For Staff
...wanting to author e-learning materials
- Using the Course Materials Repository
- Using Online Coursework Submission
- Using the Plagiarism Detection Service
- Using Moodle
- Using WebCT
- Using Perception
- Using a Personal Response System
- SENDA
- Supporting Online Learning
- IPR and Copyright Guidance
- E-Learning Network (Mailing List)
- Training
- Learning and Teaching
In this section:
- Introduction
- What does Moodle offer?
- How to access Moodle
- Requesting a course
- A teacher view of Moodle
- Organising your Moodle course
- Adding resources to your Moodle course
- Adding activities to your Moodle course
- Supporting and monitoring students in Moodle
- Resources for learning about Moodle
Moodle
What does Moodle offer?
Moodle has been built on a social constructivist model of learning, which emphasises that people construct their understanding and learning by interacting with others. This is achieved by different forms of communication and collaborative tasks with others. Therefore, Moodle tools have an emphasis on: group work, collaboration, communication, sharing, activities, and reflection.
Although Moodle is founded on a constructivist teaching approach, it is a very flexible tool and allows for a full range of teaching models, which ultimately depend on your intended audience, your objectives, and the time you have available. It can be used to create wholly online courses to support distance learning, or simply used to supplement existing face-to-face courses.
Some practical examples of how you might use Moodle include:
- To distribute information about the course - such as: course guide, timetables, assessment information;
- To deliver learning material - you can present material in various formats, such as: text & multimedia, lecture notes / slides, additional exercises, past exam papers, etc;
- To communicate with students - you can exchange messages with your students in "real time" (synchronous) using the chat facility or “any time” (asynchronous) using forums. Forums are particularly useful for encouraging online discussions;
- To deliver online quizzes and surveys - you can run multiple choice or short answer tests that provide instant feedback or conduct evaluation surveys that elicit student feedback about their learning;
- To encourage collaboration - you can encourage teamwork and peer support by setting up small groups of students within a course or for a particular tool. For example, allowing groups of students to contribute to a collaborative glossary, or using a wiki for writing group lecture notes.
- To monitor student use and progress - you can monitor your students’ access to the online course and track their activity.
The Learning Technology Team offers an Introduction to Moodle training course.
