Tips for Organizing Your Moodle Course
Learn how to organize your Moodle course to make it easy for students to locate information quickly so that they can focus their mental energy on learning.
In this article
- Begin with the Quick Start Course Shell
- Make the course navigation clear
- Provide section overviews
- Reduce visual clutter
- Make information readily available
- Ensure accessibility
- Design for student engagement
- Explore examples
Begin with the Quick Start Course Shell
The Moodle Quick Start Course Shell (QSCS) (example screenshot below) provides a fully customizable basic framework that includes consistent structure and placeholders for organizing content in each section. It’s a great way to visualize how you can organize your course if you don’t know where to start.
- Watch a video walkthrough of the Quick Start Course Shell
- Read the Quick Start Course Shell User Guide for more information about the shell, and instructions for using it.
Make the course navigation clear
Include a “Start Here!” section at the beginning
Provide a “Start Here!” section at the very beginning of the course that includes an instructor welcome letter/video, course overview, video walkthrough of the Moodle course, and links to course documents (course map, syllabus, course schedule, etc.). You may also include an Introduce Yourself forum. Watch a demonstration of a Start Here section (beginning at 4:02).
Use short, descriptive titles for course sections
Concise, descriptive titles make it easy for students to navigate using the Course Index. Including dates helps students locate current content. We recommend the format: “Unit # – [Unit title] (Start Date – End Date).”
Group items under consistent headings
Use Text and Media Areas to separate and preface/describe groups of items. Be sure to use heading styles found in the Moodle editor to ensure the heading is accessible to assistive technologies. When creating a Text and Media Area resource that is intended to serve as a heading, be sure to use heading styles (see screenshot below) found in the Moodle editor to ensure the heading is accessible to assistive technologies such as screen readers.
Use a consistent structure throughout all sections in the course.
Consistency of structure from section to section throughout the course helps to lower extraneous cognitive load. When students don’t have to spend mental energy on navigating an unfamiliar structure in each section, they can focus more on learning. While the number of resources and activities may vary, the overall structure and grouping of items and how they are labeled should be consistent between sections throughout the course.
Use descriptive names for resources and activities.
- Use an all caps action verb as the first work in the name (e.g. WATCH this video on…) to indicate to students what they are expected to do with that item.
- Use consistent naming throughout seections so that students don’t have to spend time deciphering varied descriptions.
- Use the name of the resource a URL points to as linked text, rather than writing out the URL to be displayed as the linked text.
- Make sure file names are unique and descriptive of the content.
Consider indenting items
Use indentation to make their hierarchy and relationship clear.
Provide section overviews
Providing context at the start of each module or section can help learners be more prepared and focused. Consider including:
- What: Provide a brief overview to let students know what to expect in this module.
- Why: List the learning objectives so that students understand the purpose of the resources, activities and assessments.
- How: Provide a task list so that students understand how they should progress through the content.
Reduce visual clutter
A clean, organized interface is less overwhelming. Walls of text can be overwhelming; using subsections and moving content into a Moodle Page resource can help. This is particularly helpful for neurodivergent students who may be challenged to know what to focus on when confronted with a lot of information. Read more information about this topic in the article Supporting Neurodiverse Students Through Course Design.
- Consider the length of descriptions: If the description for an activity takes up more than a couple of lines, uncheck the “Display description on course page” box.
- Put multiple files into a folder: Use the Folder resource to group files together and conserve space on the main course page.
- Move multiple links into a page: Group links together by moving them all to one Page resource.
- Use “stealth activities”: These are available but not shown to students on the main course page. Students can access the activities through links you provide in other locations (e.g., linking to a quiz within a page).
Make information readily available (blocks)
The Block Drawer (video, 2:32) on the right side of the Moodle screen can highlight important information and links.
| Block Type | Function |
|---|---|
| Text block | Displays custom text, links and images. Use this for instructor information (photo and contact info) or links to course resources like the syllabus. |
| Activities | Allows students to view a list of all activities in the course of a given type. |
| Student Services | Contains updated links for academics, technology, and student support services maintained by DELTA. |
| Calendar | Displays indicators and links to course items that have dates or upcoming due dates associated with them. |
| Upcoming Events | Links to activities with upcoming due dates |
| DELTA Testing Services | Links to the website where students can schedule their testing appointments |
Ensure accessibility
Use our Digital Accessibility Guide to learn about common accessible practices:
- Providing alt-text or descriptions for all images.
- Using properly nested heading styles in document and text editors.
- Using descriptive link names instead of the full URL.
- Providing captions and/or transcripts for audio and video content.
- Run the Brickfield Accessibility+ Toolkit to find and fix common accessibility errors.
Design for student engagement
Design for engagement by creating quality interactions between students and the course interface, the instructor, other students and the course content.
- Interact regularly by sending regular Announcements, attending to questions posted in help forums, and giving timely feedback.
- Provide opportunities for student-to-student interaction through Yellowdig, Perusall and Moodle forum activities.
- Ensure rich student-content interaction by using active learning tools like H5P, WeVideo (formerly known as PlayPosit), and Moodle Quiz.
Explore Examples
What does a well-organized Moodle course look like? Take a look at these examples of real NC State courses to see how they effectively organize content and make it easy for students to find information.