1. What is Moodle?
Moodle is a learning management system which allows users to remotely retrieve learning materials and engage in online activities such as discussions, assessments, questionnaires and collaborative tasks. Moodle can be accessed via the following address http://moodle.solihull.ac.uk/ . No special login details are required, students are asked to use their existing network account details to get into the system.
2. Open and secure courses
Some courses within Moodle are locked, notice the key icon shown below. If a course has been locked it denotes that a special password is required to gain access. Details of how to obtain an enrolment key will be covered later in this guide. Conversely there some courses (Resources for all) which are open to all and required no enrolment key entry. First time users are requested to sign up immediately for the elibrary, learning objects and student resources.
3. Accessing Moodle for the first time within the College.
When you access the internet from within College this is the typical screen that you will be presented with. Select Moodle as shown.
First time users may be required to key in a username and password as illustrated below, simply use your existing network login details.
Once you have logged in, this is the view that you will be presented with.
As mentioned earlier, you are requested to sign up for the three courses shown below. Simply click onto to each link in turn.
For this example we will choose the elibrary. If this is the first time that you have accessed any Moodle course you will be asked to accept the Site Policy Agreement. This agreement spells out what will be expected of you when you start to use the site. Having read through it select, Yes. You will only ever have to do this once.
Having agreed to the site policy you will then be prompted to confirm that you are sure you wish to enrol yourself to this course. Select Yes.
This is the typical view of what you will see next. Details on navigating a Moodle course can be found later in this guide.
4. Accessing an enrolment key protected course.
Many courses in Moodle are enrolment key protected. This means that if a Moodle course has been specifically set up for you by your tutor, it will be listed on the Moodle home page and have a key icon along side it.
If this is the case, then once a course has been selected you will be asked to input an appropriate enrolment key – your tutor will provide you with this alphanumeric code. When requested type in your enrolment key then select 'Enrol me in this course'.
When prompted selected, Yes.
5. What does a typical course look like?
This section contains your grade book and edit profile area
This is a self-explanatory calendar section.
Green highlights show cross college events and pink markers show course events.
This section shows the courses that you currently signed up to.
This block provides news updates and important messaging.
This middle section is where you will find all your course materials and learning activities.
6. Finding your way around Moodle.
When you begin to open up files or move to different parts of the course, a file path or series of breadcrumbs start to emerge towards the top of the page. Simply click anywhere along this breadcrumb path to navigate back to your chosen location.
For example if you are in the elibrary and have opened a discussion forum, you can move back to the homepage by selecting elibrary as shown below.
If the course itself is divided into many different sections it can be tiresome constantly scrolling up and down the page. Moodle allows you to collapse the topic boxes and automatically create a 'jump to' pull down menu. The jump menu literally allows you to quickly display the topic box of your choice.
Jump to other topics here
Collapse topics here
Simply open the pull down menu and select the appropriate topic box.
7. Course appearance
When entering a course for the first time you may be presented with some icons that you have not seen before. The table below may help you identify them more easily.
A discussion forum
A questionnaire activity
A wiki (a file that two or more users can jointly edit )
Assignment release
A text file
An adobe acrobat file
A hot potato quiz
The contents of folder
A webpage
A word document
8. Languages
It is possible to change the language settings on your Moodle homepage as shown below.
Again using the drop menu select the language of your choice.
9. Editing your profile
Your profile describes who you are, what you can do and how you can change the way you perform some Moodle activities. By selecting Edit Profile on the left of your screen you will be presented with a small number of options that can be changed.
10. Frequently asked questions.
Q. Every time I try to open a file the pop-up blocker kicks in.
A. In order to overcome this locate the trusted sites section within your browser, ( for IE6 this is usually found in, Tools, internet options, security, trusted sites, sites, add then OK – it must be pointed out however that by adding any trusted site to your home PC you do so at your own risk ).
Q. I am unable to view certain Microsoft Office files that appear in Moodle.
A. If you are having difficulty in viewing certain Office files types then try downloading the relevant application viewer. These can be found at the following site.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/000/viewers.asp
Q. Who can see my grade book?
A. Only you and your tutor(s).
Q. If I leave my system for 30 minutes my course times out.
A. A time out setting has been activated to ensure that if your desktop is unattended for 30 minutes, users are prompted to log back in again. Whilst not a fool proof security safe guard, it does act as a further preventative measure against unwanted users misusing your Moodle account.
Q. Having problems printing documents located in your Moodle course.
A. Right click on the grey icon display bar at the top of the document, then select 'Standard'. The print icon will now be fully visible.
See the image below for further guidance.
Right click here, then select 'Stardard'.
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