Moodle

Moodle is the Learning Management System (LMS) used by Occidental College. Moodle is a learning platform that allows professors to connect with their students online. Via Moodle, students can submit assignments, post to forums, take quizzes, and view grades. This guide includes how-to documents, information, and Moodle help. 

The slideshow below will give you a quick overview of how to get started in Moodle, as well as the most used features in Moodle.  If you need more help, then explore the other tabs in this guide.

There are multiple methods for locating your courses. 

Dashboard

From the Moodle home page, click on the Dashboard button located below the Oxy banner.

Use the Filter drop-down menu to choose which courses to display

Filter options:

• In progress – This will list your current courses from the active semester as well as Moodle sites with no specific end date (e.g. administrative or organizational sites such as Faculty Council or Center for Teaching Excellence).
• Future – Course shells for Moodle are usually loaded shortly before the registration period the semester before they start. Once they are loaded and up until the official start of the semester, you can find them in the Future section. This is the easiest way to locate courses you need to prepare before the start of the semester.
• Past – At the end of the semester, In progress courses will automatically be switched over to the Past section. Depending on how long you have been teaching at Oxy, this may get to be a pretty long list.
• Starred – Displays courses you have starred (see below), regardless of their status as In progress, Future, or Past.
• Hidden – Displays courses you have marked as “hidden” (see below) and do not otherwise appear in In Progress, Future or Past displays.

To “star” or “hide” a course in your Dashboard, click on the ellipsis located to the right of the course title to see those two options. 

Consider “starring” courses you need frequently access to and “hiding” courses you don’t expect to need in the future. Note that the status of starred or hidden is specific to you only — it does not change the status of those courses for other people with access to those courses. For example, if you “hide” a Moodle course for an FLC you participated in, it won’t show in your Dashboard (unless you use the Hidden filter), but it will still be shown in the Dashboard of other participants in that FLC.

My Courses Drop-Down Menu

Courses that are both In progress and “published” (i.e. made visible to students) can be quickly accessed via the My courses drop-down menu located in the top navigation bar. This is easiest way to locate your currently active courses that you have published.

 

My Courses Sidebar

On the Moodle homepage down the right side you will also see a My courses sidebar list of your courses. The top of the list will show any currently visible courses (current semester, immediate past semester and any sites with no end date). These are all in orange font. Below that, hidden courses will be listed in reverse chronological order in grey text. In order to determine the semester of a course, hover over the course name with the cursor and text will appear showing the course “short name”. For help interpreting this standard naming convention for courses, see the tutorial on course naming convention.

“Breadcumbs” Bar

Across the top of the top of the course page, you will find the “breadcrumbs” bar. The clickable links in the breadcrumbs bar are hierarchically arranged and indicate the context path for your page. This is useful ensuring which version (i.e. what semester) of a Moodle course you are currently in.