In this third part of our series on using LMS (learning management systems) we will cover making a course on the Moodle. We will present exactly how and why we use certain activities and how we structure our courses as a whole.
If you missed our text on initial Moodle setup, feel free to check that one also.
Moodle Course structure
Just as the proper category setup for your courses is important, so is inner look and feel of a course.
You can choose between two options: present your course trough time or present it trough material and activity sections. Let us explain.
If you are making course that will last for days or weeks, choose “weekly format”. That way you can set it up to reveal “week sections” at the certain, predefined time as your teaching program demands it. This is great way to prepare whole course in advance but reveal it by your curriculum.
On the other side, if your courses are short and don’t have timetable material have to follow, use the “topics format”. This is a great way to present your materials in a logical fashion.
First things first
We always start our course wit a General information section.
We use here simple Label resource.
It might be simple but it can contain a nicely formatted short text and picture presenting in brief what your education is all about.
Reading anyone?
Now, what of the materials?
Yes, you could just drop a number of .pptxes and .pdfs but that would be just rude. 🙂
We mostly opt for the edited video recordings of the lessons.
You could upload your video material directly to the Moodle (if you set your max upload size and max post size on your server to high enough value) but if you have a lot of users, we recommend you to upload your videos elsewhere and embed them into your page.
If you want to give an extra effort in your education use the "Lesson" activity.
Lessons will allow you to separate your materials into the pages but add question pages also.
You can branch your materials out according to what user have answered to the questions set. This way you can set explanations if someone have chosen a wrong answer accordingly.
Evaluation, both ways
Next section we use for test and an education evaluation form.
Test is quite straight forward thing to set up.
Main thing is to set minimal grade as a pass mark and number of possible attempts to pass the test. You can set a arbitrary number of attempts here but we use ability to set unlimited attempts and taking only the highest score out of all of the attempts into the account.
When making the test for the sake of God don't copy/paste question by question, answer by answer into the question base! Use the aiken format to import all of your questions.
It would not be fair if you wouldn't let your user evaluate your education.
We use simple questionnaire activity here. Just don't forget to set this activity to be finished only when the questionnaire is submitted. This will make it mandatory for the certificate to be issued. Of to the last section we go!
Self-issuing certificate
At the end you can let your users receive certificate stating their success in passing your education. We use Custom Certificate plugin. It came out of the Certificate plugin developed for almost ten years. You will find it easy to set up and tweak.
Do not forget to setup your Certificate to be accessible only if users have passed minimum on the test and submitted your evaluation questionnaire!
Clean simplicity
There you have it!
Clean and simple course for your users. Start with an overview, followed by education materials, your users testing, your education evaluating and, at the end, certification.
Author
Dr Nikola Ilic - MD and Biomedical informatics PhD