Creating a New Moodle Course

1. Go to the main Moodle server page. If already in Moodle, get there by clicking on the far left link in the breadcrumbs area. If not in Moodle, open Firefox web browser and type in appropriate URL for your Moodle host server.
2. Login with a username that has been granted “teacher creator” or higher permission.
3. On the main page you should see a block called “Courses.” Click on “All Courses” link.
4. At the bottom of the next screen, you should see a button called “Add a New Course.” (If you don’t, you may not have “creator” privileges so see your Moodle administrator to correct this.) Otherwise, click the button to display new course setup options.
   • Category: Use the dropdown menu and select an appropriate category from the list
   • Full name: This is the course title (title of the workshop), e.g. “Jacobs English 11”
   • Short name: Short title (this will show up in the “breadcrumbs” listing) e.g. “Eng11” This must be a unique name on the Moodle server on which it resides. If it is not unique, the system will prompt you for a different name when you try to save your settings.
   • Summary: A paragraph explaining the “course” (this is mainly for your own reference when later reviewing the courses you have created.)
   • Format: In this 1.8 version you have six choices here. For most purposes, the “Topics” format works best, though the “Social” format might be good for some purposes. Scorm and LAMS refer to specialty course design and are rarely used in K-12 settings.
   • Number of weeks/topics: If you know how many different sections you want to divide the resources and activities into for your course, you can make a choice here, but since you can easily get back to this to add or delete sections, we recommend you leave it alone.
   • Course start date: Default shows this as the day after today. Change this to today’s date.
   • Hidden sections: When adding content to your main course page, you have the option to make sections invisible to students. This setting choice determines whether you leave a message that it is not visible, or to just make them completely invisible. We recommend the latter choice.
   • News items to show: You can leave this alone for now. Click [?] button for more info.Show grades: Default is “yes.” Leave it for now. Click [?] button for more info.
   • Show activity reports: Defaut is “no.” Leave it for now. Click [?] button for more info.
   • Maximum upload size: Default is the maximum set by server admin. You can restrict this further for individual activities with upload requirements. Leave it alone here, usually.
   • Force theme: Do not force is the default. (You may not see this setting choice if your system admin has not enable themes–color scheme choices–for your Moodle server.)
   • Is this a meta course: Default is no. Click [?] button for more info.
   • Default role: Site default is “Student.” Leave this alone for most course designs. In the next section are some choices about “Enrolments”. Leave these alone for now. Rarely would you want to make a change here, at least not until you have had some time to work with and test your new course. Also, for now, don’t make any changes in the “Enrolment expiry notification” section. You may want to make some changes here, dependent upon the nature of the course being created.
   • Group Mode: There are three choices here: “No,” which is the default puts all enrolled students in the same group; “Separate,” allows you to assign students to various groups for the entire course, and means that students will not see input from other group students; “Visible,” also means you separate students into groups, but they will be able to see input from students in other groups. In any case, you will have further options when you design certain activities for your course to address all or differently assigned groups.
   • Force: This setting applies to groups. Typically, leave this as “No.” If you choose “Yes,” then this will override any later settings you make for individual activities.
   • Availability: Make sure this says, “This course is available to students,” at least for the time being. You can change this later, if needed.
   • Enrolment key: This is a way to control who is allowed to view or enroll in your class. Typically, the students must enter this key code just once, when they first enter the class. Without a key, and dependent on overall Moodle settings, outsiders may be able to enroll themselves in your class without your specific permission.
   • Guest access: This is a setting you may want to change to allow others to easily see what you are doing while developing a course. Once your course is in use, you will probably want to further restrict access, particularly if you have uploaded copyrighted materials for your student use. (Perhaps, “Fair Use” for a class, but a copyright violation if shared with those not officially enrolled.)
   • Language: Dependent on what your server administrator downloaded for use in your particular installation of Moodle, you may have more than the default “do not force” which will yield “English” language for all directions and headings. Moodle is implemented in dozens of countries around the world. Language modules in virtually any popular language can be downloaded. If you have French installed on your system, for example, you might choose “French” to help immerse your students in the language. Instructions they will view in the course will be rendered in that language. (This option does not translate things you type into that language.)
5. Click on the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the list.
6. The next screen will ask you to assign roles for the class. You can choose yourself or others as teachers, and/or choose to add students from a list that has been previously entered into the system. Click the link on the breadcrumbs trail that is second from the left to see your new course’s main page.

At any time during the development process or ongoing use of your course, you can return to the page to adjust course settings by clicking on the “Settings” link in the Administration block of your course’s main page. The one change there that might create the most problem, is changing the format of your course. The system may not know where to place certain activities, for example, if you change from a Social format to a Weekly or Topics format and you may have to reorganize and/or re-link certain resources.