Posting Lectures in Moodle

2. Direct Upload of Lecture notes

As an instructor, the easiest way to use Moodle in increasing learners’ retention is to prepare and
upload your lecture notes. The lecture notes should be up to date and consistent with the course
objectives. Lecture notes are a useful tool for students as they can always refer to the notes in case of
a query or for revision purposes. The lecture notes can be uploaded in various formats to ensure your
students can download and use your content.

To add the lecture notes:

1. On the main page for your course, click on the “Turn Editing on” gear in the upper right.

2. From the “Add activity or resource” menu select “File or Folder.” This will depend on how you
had previously saved your work on your computer.

3. Once “File/Folder” is selected, you’ll notice that the right-hand column populates a description of
the resource (or activity). Click the “Add” button at the bottom, once “File/Folder” is selected.

4. Complete the “Name” and, if applicable, Description fields for your file.

HIDING AND SHOWING RESOURCES IN THE COURSE IN

MOODLE

Hide/Show course contents

Introduction

You now have basic skills of constructing a course in Moodle. During course construction, you may
wish to hide some items from students for various reasons. It may be that the activity/resource is not
complete, or may require modification, or may wish to only make it available to students at a certain
time.

1. Hiding/Showing contents

1. Click Turn editing on at the top right of the page.

2. Select Edit next to the name of the activity or resource. From the drop-down menu
select Hide.
 3. Once the Hide option is selected, hidden from students appear below the activity.

 To re-display the activity or resource to students, select Edit next to the name of the activity

or resource and choose Show for the activity.       

Configuring the course gradebook in Moodle

Introduction

Moodle's grade-book is a powerful tool for allocating, sharing and calculating grades and a feedback
device for students. It is very convenient to include your assessment plans in the course syllabus.
This will facilitate steps to setup a grade-book and easy allocation of assessment categories. The
categories should be comprehensive enough to include the activities in Moodle such as quizzes,
assignments, forums etc.

Moodle will be able to complete all the added categories for you. However, it is possible to add
manual grade items for activities that will be directly handed over to you or things like attendance
and participation.

1. Grade book Setup

To configure your grade book, you will have to access it within the Administration block on your
main course page.

click “Gradebook setup”.

Now you can start by creating and adding your categories in Moodle.

2. Creating and editing grade categories

As discussed earlier, the grade categories can be extracted from the course syllabus. You can have a
breakdown of the course activities and how each is affecting the final grade. This is important for the
learners to understand each section is important. For example, one can have the below categories:

Item Percentage
Continuous Assessment Test (CAT) 30%
Term Paper 5%
Class Participation 5%
Final Exam 60%
Total 100%
1. Click “gradebook setup”

2. Click the “Add category” button at the bottom of the screen.

3. Configure the settings for each new category

a. Give the category a name e.g. Continuous Assessment Test

b. Set the aggregation type. Normally, it is good to use Simple weighted Mean of grades
for grade categories and Weighted mean of grades on the course level.

NB: This is a very crucial area that might have unintended consequences when calculating grades.

4. Under Category total, you can change as desired.

5. Click the “Save changes” button.

You can add up more categories using the same procedure.

Once through you can edit the “weights” section and add the allocated marks on each category
section. Ensure they add to 100%.

3. Editing grade categories

1. Click on the “Edit” button next to the category you would like to edit.

2. Select “Edit settings”

3. Make any necessary changes.

4. Click the “Save changes” button.

4. Exporting the gradebook

You can export your gradebook at any point of the course to either share with colleagues or serve as
a backup. To export a gradebook:

1. Click on “Export” tab.
2. Set options as required.
3. Click the “Download” button.

5. Summary

We have learned how to configure a gradebook in Moodle. The process can be little bit
overwhelming, but gradebook is a very strong tool that organizes your assessments.
Please note Gradebook entries that are not specifically defined in the grading scheme will revert to
the icon showing that the submission needs to be graded.

Now we can learn how to add activities to your course that will captivate your class.

Adding Quizzes in Moodle

Introduction

Feedback on performance is crucial in a learning environment. Therefore, assessment is one of the

most important activities in education. Assessment is a key in learning because it helps motivate
students to work harder and improve in class. When students can see how they are doing in a class,
they are able to determine whether they understand course material.

In Moodle there are various activities that assess learners in a course. We will discuss about quizzes,
assignment and lessons.

1. Quizzes

Creating a Quiz

1. Click “Turn editing on.”

2. Select “Add an activity”

3. Select Quiz from the list of activities

4. Write the name of the quiz and a description

5. Select special instructions such as the quiz timing, display options and grading. For grading, you
will notice that the categories displayed are those that you added in a gradebook setup.

NB: Therefore, it is good to configure a gradebook at the beginning of a course.

6. You can add overall feedback to learners after they have completed the quiz.

7. Click the “Save and display” button

1. Quizzes

1.1. Adding questions to a Quiz

Once you have saved your changes, you will see an editing screen where you will click on the “edit
quiz” button. Now you are ready to add questions to your quiz.

1. Select “add” button

2. The “add” button will display a drop-down menu that you will be required to select a single option
of ‘a new question’, ‘from question bank’ and ‘a random question’.

1. Quizzes

1.2. Adding New questions

1. Select “new question”

2. A drop-down menu that contains a list of question types will appear.

Each question type has its own form and options. You will need to familiarize with all of
them.

3. Select the type of question and fill in the “question name” and “question text”. You can
change the marks and provide a general feedback that will appear after students attempt
the quiz.

Select the options that suits your assessment.

4. Once through, Click the “Save changes” button at the bottom

5. You can preview the question by clicking  + button

The preview helps in checking for corrections.

6. You can continue adding more question using the same procedure.

NB: Always prepare a list of questions at the earliest stage to make your work easier in adding the
questions in a quiz. The marks should match those stated in the syllabus for each grade category.

1. Quizzes

1.3. Adding Random Questions

To add random questions to the quiz:

1. Select the number of random questions you wish to add from the drop-down menu and the
question category.

2. Click the Add button

Try to provide enough questions to avoid receiving error messages for questions that do not exist.

NB: When a quiz allows multiple attempts for each student then each attempt is likely to contain a
new selection of questions. The same question will never appear twice in an attempt. You need to
have enough questions in a category to enable this work. The more questions you provide the more
likely it will be that students get different questions on each attempt.

1. Quizzes

1.4. Adding Questions From the Question bank

You can use questions that exist in a question bank. The questions can be from another relating
course or previously used in a quiz. For you to add these questions on your current quiz:

1. Click “Add” and select “+ from question bank”.

2. Click the + sign next to one question you want to add it

NB: It is always good to have named your questions in a manner that can easily be traced.

3. If you want to add all the questions or want to add more than one question, tick the box of each
question and then click 'Add selected questions to the quiz'.

To guarantee all previously made questions are available, make sure to tick the boxes "also show
questions from sub-categories/old questions". If you want to randomize questions, ensure the box
at the top of the screen labeled “Shuffle” is checked.

1. Quizzes

1.5. Edit, preview and deleting questions in a quiz

When a question is added in a quiz, you can edit, preview or delete by clicking at the symbols
respectively.

1. Quizzes

1.6. Summary

Quiz is a great tool in Moodle that provides a way to test knowledge comprehension in a course.
Quizzes can be set up to be automatically marked or saved for later grading by instructors. Building a
quiz in Moodle can be done by either creating a new quiz or selecting pre-existing quiz questions
from the Question bank in Moodle.

We have also learnt that it is upon the instructor to select question types correctly.

Adding Assignments in Moodle

Assignments give you an easy way to allows learners to upload digital content for grading.
Assignments can be submitted as a single file, online text and offline activity. This flexibility feature
makes it the most convenient tool for assessment in Moodle.

1. Creating Assignments

To create an assignment:

1. Click “Turn editing mode on” on the course main page

2. Click “Add an activity or resource”

3. Select an assignment from the drop-down menu and “add”.

4. Give your assignment a name.

5. You can describe your assignment in the description area.

6. On the general settings, set the availability of the assignment i.e. “Available from” date and “Due
date”.
7. Decide whether to prevent late submissions.

8. Choose the options for the submission type of assignment and check in the box

Set the maximum number of uploaded files, size for a file upload and type of file accepted. Choose
whether students may delete uploaded files at any time before grading.

NB: Students can’t see this number, so it’s a good idea to write the actual number of requested files
in the assignment description.

9. “Save and display” if you are through with the desired settings. Now the assignment is open for
your students.

You will see a description box as shown above on the grading summary.
Adding lessons in Moodle
A lesson has several pages that contain content or questions for students to answer. As an instructor,
you will arrange the order of which the pages will appear. Before you begin creating a lesson in
Moodle, it is a good idea to note down how you want the lesson to flow. This can be best done by
drawing a flowchart. The flowchart should have the pages well displayed and its branches well
labeled. The key to minimizing the number of pages is to reuse as many as possible.

1. Creating Lessons in Moodle

To create a lesson:

1. Click the “Turn editing on” button and “add activity or resource”.

2. Select Lesson from the “Add an activity” drop-down menu

3. Give the lesson a name. You can as well give a brief description.

4. Under ‘Availability’, choose whether a lesson attempt should be timed, and if so, what the time
limit should be.

 If a time limit is used, then a student may finish the lesson activity after the time is up, though any
questions answered after the time limit is up are not counted.

 5. Choose the maximum number of attempts and whether you want students to review the contents
again from start.

6. Select the grade options

7. Click “save and display.”

A dialogue box requesting you to choose what you want to do next will be displayed as below
The most used are the content page and question page. Therefore, we will discuss the two in detail.

2. Adding a content page

This is where you can add information about a subject and allow students to move ahead and read
through everything without answering questions.

You can add as many pages as possible by clicking “add a new page” then add “content page”.

3. Adding a question page

1. Select “add a question page”.

2. Select a “question type” and add.

Your options are multiple-choice, essay, Matching, multi-choice, Numerical, Short answer and
true/false.

3. Give the page a title. The title will help you in organizing your lesson.
3. Enter the page contents. You will need to enter the question here.

4. Enter the right answer to the question in the Answer 1 box.

6.  Enter the other responses in answer box 2,3 and so on. By default, the first response takes the
student to the next page while all other responses return the student to the same page. The choice will
be randomly displayed by Moodle

7. Click the “Add a question page” button at the bottom of the page. You will see the lesson
construction page

You can add more questions or content by selecting “add a new page”. You will click on what you
want to add from the drop-down menu. The drop-down menu contains add a cluster, add a content
page, add an end of branch, add an end of cluster and question.

Add a cluster

A cluster is a set of question pages from which one or more may be randomly selected.

Add an end of cluster

 Clusters should be finalized with an end of cluster page.

Add an end of branch

If you use branch tables, you should end each branch with an end of branch page, which takes the
student back to the last branch table page so she can select another alternative.

When through, you can consider the options available above the table.

Previewing the page shows the whole lesson from the student’s point of view. You can answer
questions and interact with the lesson. The only thing you won’t be able to see is the final grade.

You can as well use the icons to move, delete or preview a single question.

3. Adding a question page

3.1. How to grade an essay question

To grade an essay question:

1. Click the “Grade essays” tab at the top of the lesson page.

2. Click the essay link which appears in the middle column of the page

3. Give the essay some marks and add some comments.

4. Click the “Save changes”.

5. When you are through with grading essays, click “Email ALL graded essays “link to inform your
learners.

4. Summary

Adding Lessons in a course can be fascinating to change the pace for your students. They maybe
involving in terms of the construction time as they require more upfront development time than many
other types of tools, but when done correctly they do offer some benefits to students.

Reports in Moodle
Introduction

Moodle provides you with detailed reports on participation, activity completion and logs. Once you
are through in setting up your course and students are enrolled and working on the course you can
gather important information from the reports. For example, logs can tell you which resources and
activities students find most valuable (most visited).

1. How to access Reports

1. Click “Reports” in the Course Administration block

2. You can choose from the drop-down menu under reports

3. Click on Logs and Select any combination of group, activities, actions and sources then click the
“Get these logs” button.

You can see what pages the student accessed, the time and date she accessed it, the IP address
she/he came from.

2. Users Participation report

To generate a participation report:  

1. Select an “activity module”, the time period to “look back” over, to “show only” student reports,
and the actions you are interested in, then click the Go button.
2. A list of all instances of the selected activity module in the course will be generated.

NB: If your system administrator has enabled site statistics, you can also get thorough summary
reports from the statistics menu.

3. Summary

The logs and participation reports are useful for tracing students’ activity participation in class. If a
student does not spend time with the course material, it will be tough for them to succeed in the
course. Normally, most students who do not do well in a course may not have spent quality time
working with the material.