Chapter 1: Course Structure & Preparation for Launching

 

1.  Brief Overview of Webpage Layout

 

The MScN course web site is divided into three columns, left, middle, and right frames. Each frame is customized to include specific information.

 

Figure 1-1:  MScN Moodle Course Model

 

MScN Course Web Site Template

 

It is recommended that you leave all of the inherent blocks with the following exceptions: You may delete the “Search Forums” or the “Messages” block from the right frame, if you do not find them useful. See next page. The MScN template models the following order.

Left

Centre

Right

The left frame is dedicated to navigational links. 

1) MScN banner
2) Course Details & Session

3) Instructor Information

The right frame is mostly dedicated to calendar and administrative functions.

1) Activities block

2) Quicklinks

3) Search Forums block

4) Library Guide

5) My Courses

4) Welcome message

5) Announcement Forum

6) Content
7) Horizontal rule

8) York University copyright

1) Calendar block

2) Administration block

3) People block

4) Messages block

5) Subject Research Guide


Deleting an Unnecessary Block

 

  1. Click on the  icon in the block you want to delete.  Each block has this icon under the block name.

Figure 1-2:  Deleting Unnecessary Block

 

Moodle provides a number of other functional blocks that can be added to your course web site via the Add Blocks tool. They include Upcoming Events, Random Glossary Entry, Blog Tags, Remote RSS Feeds and others. You may add any of these blocks noting the above-recommended order.

 

Adding a New Block

 

 

  1. Click the “Turn editing on” button.

 

  1. Scroll to the bottom of the right frame for the Add Blocks tool.

Figure 1-3:  Adding Functional Block

 

 

 

  1. To add My Courses block, click on the drop-down menu and select “Courses.”

 

  1. The new block will now appear in the right frame.

Figure 1-4:  Blocks for Adding Other Blocks

 

 

 

Moving a New Block From Right to Left Frame

 

 

  1. To move the My Courses block to the bottom of the left frame as recommended, select the red bar of the block with the left mouse button. The following icon,  will appear. Hold down the left mouse button and drag the block across to the left frame.

 

  1. The new My Courses block will now appear at the bottom of the left frame.

 

Figure 1-5:  Added the “My Courses Block”

 

2.  Types of Course Format

 

Of the two formats that can be used within the MScN courses, the MScN-Template team recommends the Topics format over the Weekly format:

 

Topics format

This is a good choice if you would like to present a clean, one-page, concise, non-scrolling web site. Two (2) topic formats can be selected. See section 3 Editing Course Settings to facilitate Topic Format. The first unit can host all of the course content. The second unit can host forums, assignments, quizzes, and other activities (which can be then hidden for aesthetic appeal). See Section 5 Hiding Multiple Forums in Topic Format for Aesthetic Appeal.

Weekly format

With this format, you specify a course start date and the number of weeks the course is to run. Moodle will create a section for each week of your course.  See Section 4 Editing Course Settings to facilitate Weekly Format. You can add content, forums, and quizzes relevant to each week. The disadvantage of this format is that it demands much vertical scrolling unless you add a “Section block” that allows the student to navigate to each unit.


3.  Editing Course Settings to Facilitate Topic Format

 

The settings page, where you set the course format, also gives you access to a number of important course options.


IMPORTANT

Please leave the following fields at the default selection: 1) Full name, 2) Short name, 3) Course ID Number and 4) Enrolments.

Making Changes to Your Course Settings

 

  1. Click “Settings” in the Administration block.
  2. Select the General course settings from the Format drop-down menus and select “Topic format.”
  3. In “Number of weeks/topics,” select 2.
  4. Scroll down and select “Save Changes.”
  5. Once changes are saved, numbered topic sections are then displayed in the centre frame.

 

Figure 1-6:  Topic Format Settings

 

4.  Editing Course Settings to Facilitate Weekly Format

 

  1. Select the General course settings from the Format drop-down menus and select “Weekly format.”
  2. In “Number of weeks/topics,” select your choice.
  3. Scroll down and select “Save Changes.”
  4. Once changes are saved, weekly section dates are then displayed in the centre frame.

 

Figure 1-7:  Weekly Format Settings

5.  Hiding Multiple Forums in Topic Format for Aesthetic Appeal

 

In order to provide a single, non-scrolling page from which all the course material can be accessed, it is necessary to “hide” the second unit chosen to host multiple forums, chats, assignments. Consequently, only the course content in Unit 1 will be displayed. See Figure 1-3. After you have set your Number of Weeks/Topics to 2 as in Figure 1-2 above, you may add your forums/chats/assignments using the Activity block.

 

Figure 1-8:  Topic Format Displaying Unit 1 Area Only With Unit 2 “hidden”

 

Once you have completed adding all the forums/chats/assignments needed, go back to your Administration/Settings as in Section 4 Editing Course Settings to Facilitate Topic Format and change the Number of Weeks/Topics to 1 instead of 2. Save your changes.

 

Those instructions have been duplicated here for your convenience.

 

  1. Click “Settings” in the Administration block.
  2. Select the General course settings from the Format drop-down menus and select “Topic format.”
  3. In “Number of weeks/topics,” select 1.
  4. Scroll down and select “Save Changes.”
  5. Once changes are saved, numbered topic sections are then displayed in the centre frame.

 

This will result in Unit 2 of the Topic Format being hidden. Both students and instructors will now be able to access the hidden material from the Activities block. See Figure 1-9 below.

 

Figure 1-9:  Displaying Activities block

 

6.  Editing Course Settings to Make Course Available to Students

 

Once you have satisfactorily built your course, and you wish to make it available to students,

 

1.      Click “Settings” in the Administration block.

2.      Scroll down to the Availability section

3.      Choose “This course is available to students” from the Availability drop-down menu

 

Figure 1-10:  Making Course Available to Students

 

The once “grayed out” course web site has now been launched and is available to students.

 

7.  Editing User Profile

 

In establishing your unique course, you may edit the settings in your User Profile. For instance, you may decide to use another course e-mail ID instead of your personal e-mail. Please note, however, that whichever e-mail you identify in your Profile will apply to all your Moodle courses.

 

  1. Click “Profile” in the Administration block.
  2. Click the “Edit profile” tab.

Figure 1-11:  Editing Profile Settings

 

On the right side of the profile from, you’ll see a “Show Advanced” button.  There are a number of profile options that are hidden by default.  These are not changed very often and can be a bit confusing for a new user.  They are indicated with a green asterisk.  The mandatory fields are marked with a red asterisk and must be filled to submit the form.

 

  1. Click “Show Advanced.”

 

Figure 1-12:  User Profile Settings

 

General Options

Email address

Make sure it is an email address you check frequently and that it is correct.

Email display

If you choose to hide your email from other people, they will not be able to send you email directly from Moodle.

Email format*

Here you can select whether mail sent from Moodle is formatted using HTML or is sent in plain text.

Forum auto-subscribe*

You have the option of “subscribing” to forums, which means that new forum posts will be sent to you via email.  This is a great way of keeping current with your course discussions without having to log in and look at the forums every day.

Forum tracking*

If you choose to enable forum tracking, Moodle will highlight posts added since the last time you read the forum.

When editing text*

This option lets you choose whether to use Moodle’s native HTML editor to enter text or to use plain text. Moodle’s HTML editor is an easy way to enter formatted text into your course site.

Ajax and JavaScript*

Ajax is the set of programming tools that enables dynamic web interfaces.  Leave this on default settings.

Screen reader*

Selecting this option lets Moodle know you are using a screen reader. In the near future, this will change the layout of Moodle pages to make it easier for the screen reader to interact with Moodle.

Time zone

Be sure to set the time zone to your local time, not the server’s local time.

Preferred language

Setting your language here makes it your default language for all pages.

Description

Tell your Moodle community a little about yourself.  If you don’t want to, just put a space in here so you’re allowed to submit the form.

 

  1. The remaining optional fields allow you to include personal details about yourself including your photo or a representative image and contact information. Your picture will appear by your postings in the forums, in your profile, and on the Participants page.

 

  1. Click the “Update profile” button at the bottom of the page.

Figure 1-13:  Editing User Profile

 

Disabling Forum Post Forwarding to Email

 

You may change your choice about receiving forum posts in your e-mail. In order not to receive each forum post via e-mail, there are two methods to do this:

 

Method 1

Method 2

1.  Click “Profile” in the Administration block.

2.  Click “Edit profile.”

3.  Click the “Show Advanced” button.

4.  In the drop-down menu next to “Forum auto-subscribe” select “No: don’t automatically subscribe me to forms”

1.  Click “Forums” in the Activities block.

2.  Click “Unsubscribe from all forums.”

 

Uploading a Profile Picture

  1. Click on “Profile” in the “Administration” block.
  2. Click on “Edit Profile” tab.
  3. Scroll down to the “Picture of” section.

 

Figure 1-14:  Uploading Profile Picture

  1. Click the “Browse” button to locate the picture file.
  2. Locate the file in the pop-up window.
  3. Click “Open” and the pop-up window will disappear.
  4. Enter a description of the picture.
  5. Click the “Update profile” button.