How to create courses in Moodle

Topic outline

• General
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• First Steps

  1. Log into the Moodle Dashboard.
  2. Before any courses can be added, "editing" will need to be turned on. Go to the settings section on the left and click Turn on editing.
     
  3. Next there will be a button titled Add a New Course. Click the button and the Edit Course Settings page will load.
     
  4. Edit Course Settings: Here the course settings can be set for the basic course description. The fields that are highlighted red must be filled in to add the course. Fill out the course information. This is not terribly critical. If there are any mistakes made, the course settings can always be changed at a later date.
     
  5. Navigate to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes.
     
  6. After saving the changes, on the left in the navigation section of the side bar, the new course will be available.
     

  Once the course is created, there may be settings that need updating. The next Topic is on How do I edit the Course Settings in Moodle.

  
  

  Forum: 1

• How do I edit the Course Settings in Moodle.

  1. log into the Moodle Dashboard
  2. Click Courses on the left in the Navigationsection.

     Important! Keep in mind that Editing must be turned on in the Settings section inorder to edit any of these options.

     
     
  3. Click Add New Category.
     
  4. On the Add New Category page, add the Category Name, Category ID (If the ID is not required leave blank), and Description. Sub Categories can be set in the Parent category drop box. This is if the category is a sub category of an existing Category. When finished click Create Category
     
  5. Click Courses and the New category will appear in the Course CategoriesList.

     If a mistake was made, Click the course name. This will bring up the page for selecting a category to edit.
     

  6. The course can be selected in the Course categories drop box. Click the Edit this Category button to go to the Edit category settings section for editing the existing category. When done click Save Changes.
     
  7. After the Categories are set, the Courses can be set for the categories. The Categories will appear similar to the following snapshots.
     

  Once the Categories are set up, the courses can have content placed in them. The following topic will explain How to set a Course to a specific Category.
  

• How to set a Course to a specific Category in Moodle

  he previous article explained How to create and edit categories in Moodle. When setting up courses, its a good idea to set them to specific categories. In order for the Courses to display correctly, the Category setting within the Course Settings will need to be updated accordingly. For example, in the current tutorial, Chapter 2 for Elementary Algebra is listed under the Miscellaneous Category. Below are the steps to move the course to the Elementary Algebra Category.

  Changing the Category for a Course in Moodle.

  1. log into the Moodle Dashboard
  2. Click Courses on the left side in the Navigation Section.

     Important! Keep in mind that Editing must be turned on in the Settings section in order to edit any of these options.

     
     
  3. Click the Edit settings on the left in the Settings section.
     
  4. Find the course that requires the Category to be changed. Click the Course link.
     
  5. Under the Category drop box select the appropriate category.
     
  6. Click the Save Changes button.
     
  7. Now the Course will show under the Category that was set in the Edit Course Settings.
     

     The final result will look similar to the screen shot to the right.

     
     

  This concludes the tutorial for Changing the Category for a Course in Moodle. The next topic is What are the Moodle Course settings
  

  
  

• What are the Moodle Course settings?

  In the previous article on How do I edit the Course Settings in Moodle, We learned a general outline of where to edit the Course settings. This topic  is a brief description of what each setting does. See the snapshot for a visual aid on the course settings.
  

  List of Moodle Course Settings

  General
  Category	The Category selection is to organize the Courses under specific sections to allow the admin to structure the courses in a typical classroom environment.
  Course Full Name	The course full name is displayed in the browser title bar and is listed as a link to the Course section where the users view the material on the Moodle home page.
  Course Short Name	The Short name is for displaying the course without having a long title. For Example Basic Composition or Chapter 1 depending on how the courses are outlined. this will show in the Navigation bar on the left.
  Course ID number	The course ID will separate each course to prevent courses from being confused with each other. This is not critical as the ID usually is not visible.
  Course Summary	The Course Summary will display for the description of the Courses when the course is being viewed. For Example if the Home page is configured to list the courses, the Description will show on the right had side of the Course Full Name.
  Format	The Format value will set the Course to list as SCORM, Social, Topics, Weekly. This is useful to alter how the Course is viewed. For example, if the course is based on Weekly assignment completion by date, the Weekly selection will list the course by date per week.
  Course Layout	Course lay out will simply list the course on one page or it can list them on multiple pages. This only applies to the Course Formats like Topics or Weekly where they can be spread over several pages or just one page.
  Number of weeks/topics	This Setting only can be set for the Weekly and Topic format where the course can be set to a specific amount of weeks that coincide with the class or Course duration. This is goof for classes that are quarterly or semi annual.
  Course Start date	The course Start date can set the starting date for the beginning of the course. Usually the start date is on the first date of the week. This setting will set how the logs are displayed and the topic dates for the Weekly Format.
  Hidden Sections	The Hidden sections are for hiding the Course objectives such as tests or quizzes that the student or user is not supposed to see until the instructor makes them available to the class.
  News items to show	The News items are the News Forum listed at the begriming of the Course. This can be set to 0 in order to hide the News Forum.
  Show gradebook to students	This setting will allow the students to see their grades at the main course page. Depending on the type of course, the grades can be turned of or on.
  Show Activity reports	In some cases, the student activity can be included in the grade. This is usually called "Participation" in the class. If the class has Online participation points, the Show Activity Reports setting can give the student logs of when they visited the site in order to keep track of their participation.
  Maximum upload size	This configuration is to allow file size uploads to be limited. This will prevent students from uploading files that are too large. This can prevent the server from having performance issues when many students are uploading and downloading their files.
  Guest Access
  Allow guest access	This will allow users to view the Courses even though they are not enrolled in the class. The courses will be visible; however, when a guest navigates to the Course there will be a login screen preventing them from actually taking the class. Guests have Read Only access where they will not be able to add any content to the site through the post. User information cannot be viewed as a Guest.
  Password	This can be set to allow access with or without a password.
  Groups
  Group mode	Group mode will configure the courses to have an individual or group visibility of the course content.
  Force group mode	This will make all activities for the course the selected group setting.
  Default grouping	Set default grouping. Default is set to none.
  Availability
  Availability	Hides the course from course listings and makes the course unavailable or available to access.
  Language
  Force language	Overrides any Language option within Moodle Courses. makes only the selected language available.
  Role renaming
  Your word for ’Manager’	Can set the name for Manager to another term like Supervisor.
  Your word for ’Teacher’	Can set the name Teacher to another term like Instructor.
  Your word for ’Non-editing teacher’	Can set the name Non-editing teacher to a term like teachers Aid.
  Your word for ’Student’	Can change the name student to a term like Pupil.

  This concludes the Moodle Course Setting descriptions. The next topic will explain the  Moodle Course Formats - SCORM / Social / Topics / Weekly.

  
  

• Moodle Course Formats - SCORM / Social / Topics / Weekly

  When creating a new course in Moodle, one of the options you will need to configure is the course's format. The course format helps to define the structure of the course. For example, some courses are based upon time (like a semester class in a college), and some are based upon topics (like chapters in a book). The following options are available when setting the course format:

  • SCORM Format
  • Social Format
  • Topics Format
  • Weekly Format

  In this Moodle tutorial (we are testing with version 2.3.2), we will give you an overview of these available course formats. This will help you in selected the appropriate structure for your class. For information on the last tutorial, please see What are the Moodle Course settings?.

   

  SCORM format

  If you're not familiar with the term SCORM, most likely this isn't the course format for you.

  SCORM, short for sharable content object reference model, is a pre-packaged course with the structure already defined. If you use the SCORM format, when accessing your course you will be immediately asked to add a new scorm package before continuing.

   

  Social format

  The social course format was designed to allow students to easily discuss various subjects. For example, if you had a course on psychology, the social format would help your students freely review or debate various topics. You can think of this course format as chatting in a traditional online forum.

   

  Topics format

  If you choose the topic format for your course, it will arrange your course into different topics. For example, If your course was centered around a book, you could create a topic for each chapter of the book. By default you will see topics labeled numerically, such as Topic 1 and Topic 2, but these are easy to change later on.

   

  Weekly format

  When you set the course format to weekly, the course will be divided up by date. You'll set a start date and an end date, and Moodle will automatically configure the weeks to show on the page. This is common in traditional colleges where you have a set time frame to complete the course. Please check the next topic on Editing the sections for Topic, Weekly, and Social Formatted courses.

  
  

• Editing the sections for Topic, Weekly, and Social Formatted courses.

  The previous topic explained the Moodle Course Formats. Once the basic course set up is completed, the sections within the course will need to be set up according to the course outline. This article will focus on editing the Weekly, Topic, and Social formatted courses. The SCORM format will not be discussed as it is not the scope of the tutorial. The Moodle version used in this article is Moodle 2.3.

  Changing and Adding the Section name and summary

  1. log into the Moodle Dashboard

     Important! Keep in mind that Editing must be turned on in the Settings section in order to edit any of these options.

     
     
  2. Select the course on the left in the Navigation section and click the Edit Summary icon. The Weekly and the Topic format will have the same edit icon. The Social format will have a button named Add a new discussion topic.
     
  3. For Topic Format, uncheck the Use default section name box. Enter the section name and the Summary and click save changes.
     

     For Weekly formatted courses. Leave the Use default section name box checked. If the Use default section name box is unchecked for the Weekly format, the date will be removed from the section.

     
     

     For the Social formatted courses, click the Add a new discussion topic and enter a subject and Message to start a discussion topic.

     
     
  4. The Final result should look like the following snapshots.

     Topic Format
     
     

     Weekly Format
     
     

     Social Format
     
     

  This Concludes the tutorial on editing the Topic, Weekly, and Social sections in Moodle. The next topic will focus on Changing the Course defaults in Moodle.

  
  

• Changing the Course defaults in Moodle.

  When setting up courses in Moodle 2.3, Teachers can set the Course defaults for their courses to a specific configuration. This allows the teacher to use the same course settings over again without having to manually change the settings, every time the course is created. For example, if the courses the teacher creates are always going to be topical and exactly 5 sections, the teacher can set the course default format to topic and the Number of weeks to 5. The following article will explain how to change the course defaults in Moodle 2.3.

  Changing the Default settings for Moodle Courses

  1. Log into the Moodle Dashboard

     If setting up a course with the default settings, the course will look like the snapshot to the right.
     

  2. Navigate to the Site Administration > Courses > Course default settings in the Settings.
     
  3. On the Course default settings page, the Course defaults can be set to a configuration that will make the Courses easier to create. Below is a table with the Course default settings that can be changed.
     

     Course default settings Outline
     Format	The default course sections can be set to either Topics, Weekly, SCORM, or Social. The default is Weekly format
     Maximum for number of weeks/topics	The default quantity of options for the Number of Weeks and Topics setting. The default is 52
     Number of weeks/topics	This sets the default number of Weeks or Topics displayed. The default is 10
     Hidden sections	The default Hidden sections can be set to be invisible or collapsed. The default is Hidden sections are shown in collapsed form
     News items to show	Sets the default number of news items displayed. Setting the number to 0 will not display the news box. The default is 5
     Show gradebook to students	Hides or Shows the gradebook by default. The default is Yes
     Show activity reports	Allows the user activity reports to display or not to display by default. The default setting is No
     Maximum upload size	Sets the default upload sized for the course, The default is 8MB
     Course layout	Makes the default setting for the course to display the sections on one page or multiple pages. The Default value is Show all sections on one page
     Group mode	Makes groups default on courses. The default is No groups
     Force	Makes the default setting for the course to make groups a part of every activity. The default is No
     Visible	The course can be available when initially created or set to not available. The default is This course is available to students
     Force language	Sets the default Language. The default is Do not force
     Completion tracking	The default course setting can be set to tracking completion of the course or not. The default is Disabled, not shown in activity settings
     Completion tracking begins on enrolment	Sets the default course setting to begin when the user is enrolled in the course. The default is No

     In this tutorial, the following will be changed for the Course defaults.

     - Format to Topics
     - Number of weeks/topics to 5
     - Course layout to Show one section per page
     - Completion tracking to Enable
     - Completion tracking begins on enrollment to checked

     Click Save changes.

     
     
  4. Now when a Course is created without changing any of the settings in the Edit Course section, the page will look like the snapshot to the right. When users enrol they will immediately be able to track their completion.
     

  Now that the course defaults are set, we can move on the next topic to How to create and edit categories in Moodle.

  
  

• How to create and edit categories in Moodle
  Once you have a firm grasp of previous topic Changing the Course defaults in Moodle, the courses can be organized according to categories. This tutorial will outline how to create and edit categories in Moodle. Moodle version 2.3.2. was used for tutorial.

  Creating and Editing Categories in Moodle

  1. log into the Moodle Dashboard
  2. Click Courses on the left in the Navigationsection.

     Important! Keep in mind that Editing must be turned on in the Settings section inorder to edit any of these options.

     
     
  3. Click Add New Category.
     
  4. On the Add New Category page, add the Category Name, Category ID (If the ID is not required leave blank), and Description. Sub Categories can be set in the Parent category drop box. This is if the category is a sub category of an existing Category. When finished click Create Category
     
  5. Click Courses and the New category will appear in the Course CategoriesList.

     If a mistake was made, Click the course name. This will bring up the page for selecting a category to edit.
     

  6. The course can be selected in the Course categories drop box. Click the Edit this Category button to go to the Edit category settings section for editing the existing category. When done click Save Changes.
     
  7. After the Categories are set, the Courses can be set for the categories. The Categories will appear similar to the following snapshots.
     

  Once the Categories are set up, the courses can have content placed in them. The following topic will explain How to set a Course to a specific Category.

  
  

• How to set a Course to a specific Category in Moodle

  The previous topic explained How to create and edit categories in Moodle. When setting up courses, its a good idea to set them to specific categories. In order for the Courses to display correctly, the Category setting within the Course Settings will need to be updated accordingly. For example, in the current tutorial, Chapter 2 for Elementary Algebra is listed under the Miscellaneous Category. Below are the steps to move the course to the Elementary Algebra Category.

  Changing the Category for a Course in Moodle.

  1. log into the Moodle Dashboard
  2. Click Courses on the left side in the Navigation Section.

     Important! Keep in mind that Editing must be turned on in the Settings section in order to edit any of these options.

     
     
  3. Click the Edit settings on the left in the Settings section.
     
  4. Find the course that requires the Category to be changed. Click the Course link.
     
  5. Under the Category drop box select the appropriate category.
     
  6. Click the Save Changes button.
     
  7. Now the Course will show under the Category that was set in the Edit Course Settings.
     

     The final result will look similar to the screen shot to the right.

     
     

  This concludes the tutorial for Changing the Category for a Course in Moodle. The next topic is Removing or deleting a Category
  

  
  

  
  

• Removing and deleting Categories in Moodle

  Now that the Categories can be created and edited, there may be an occasion when a category needs to be deleted or removed. The last article explained How to set a Course to a specific Category in Moodle. This tutorial will explain how to remove a category in Moodle 2.3.

  Removing or Deleting a Category

  1. Log into the Moodle Dashboard
  2. Select the Courses link in the Navigation section in the left side bar.

     Important! Keep in mind that Editing must be turned on in the Settings section in order to edit any of these options.

     
     
  3. Find the X in the Edit column of the Course Categories for the Category that is to be deleted.
     
  4. The Delete Category page will load asking for what to do with the Contents of Website Design, if there are any courses in that Category. If there are no Courses in the Category, the page will display This Category is empty. At this point, the courses in that category can either be moved to a different category or deleted altogether. Select from the What to do drop box whether to Delete All or Move contents to another category. If moving the contents to another Category, select that category in the Move into drop box. Then click Delete.
     
  5. Click Continue and the Category will be gone..