Managing your content in Moodle
HOW CAN I M ANAGE M Y SUBJECT CONTENT IN M OODLE?
Moodle label
Moodle page
Moodle book
Moodle folder
Organising content in a logical order is good learning and teaching practice. It also meets the UOW Digital Learning
Threshold:
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Content delivery – this site provides information on where students find what they need, and how, and links to
relevant web sources, including Echo360 (if used).
In the Moodle context, management of content means the way that information is presented to students. Although you
may have the same content for both online and face-to-face classes, it is important to consider how students receive and
process the information online.
Cognitive load is our mental capacity to understand content and activities. Learners can only effectively retain
information if it is presented in such as way that it does not overload their short term, or working memory. Cognitive
overload is a situation where learners are presented with more information than their working memory can cope with.
When this happens, the likely outcome is that they will become overwhelmed, make errors, not perform to the best of
their ability or worst case scenario, withdraw from the subject or their degree.
To maximise learning it is important to carefully consider the design of your hybrid or online subject:
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Present the information in a useful sequence (either by topic, weeks, or a schema that fits within your subject
context.
Chunk segments of information together, and try to avoid the learner having to click through layers of
information. Three clicks is more than enough for a learner to have to navigate to get to the information or
activity.
Label sections, activities and documents appropriately (i.e. change the filename of an uploaded document to
something useful for the learner).
Avoid too much text on the front page, which can avoid what is commonly termed “scroll of death”. Students
may be using laptops with small screens, or mobile devices and scrolling repeatedly to reach a section can be
tedious and frustrating.
There are some strategies that you can implement in your Moodle site that can help you organise information, and help
students manage their cognitive load and improve learning outcomes.
TIPS FOR CONTENT DELIVERY IN M OODLE
While every subject context is different, below are some considerations when designing the online presence for the
subject:
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Use collapsible topics – this allows learners to close all but the section they wish to view, avoiding the ‘scroll of
death’ scenario. All but ‘Section 0’, which is at the top of the Moodle page, are collapsible.
Use ‘Section 0’ (top section) for information that is essential for students. Examples may include
announcements, subject outlines, and a forum to ask questions about the topic. Only include the essentials in
this section, as it can easily become the ‘scroll of death’.
Name each section appropriately. For example, you may have a section for assessment tasks, another for
practicals, another for each week, which states the topic of that week, or you may chunk information in each
section, for example; introduction and definitions; National context; global context etc, with resources,
practicals and assessments grouped in the appropriate topic.
Avoid including documents and URLs without including a context or explanation of “what is in it for me (the
learner?”
If providing a number of web links, consider making these available as a Moodle page, which will allow you to
include the context for the site you are recommending, and also a direct link to that site.
Learning, Teaching and Curriculum, Educational Design
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If you have a large number of documents relating to one topic, or within one section, consider placing these in a
Moodle folder.
If including pictures, ensure that they are relevant to the topic, as it can be distracting to have visual stimuli that
does not ‘tell the story’ of the information it is linked to.
Avoid overuse of colour, both in your Moodle site and your documents. If it doesn’t help understanding, do not
use colour.
Use the UOW Digital Learning Threshold guidelines for Digital Subject Pack and Content Delivery to guide
your site layout and content development.
The following tools can be used to organise content in your Moodle site:
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Moodle label
Moodle page
Moodle book
Moodle folder
Moodle label
If used thoughtfully, a Moodle label can be a very versatile resource. It can be used for headings, text and images. A
label should not be used to introduce a large amount of content or information, as it takes up valuable real estate on the
page. If there is a lot of information to present, a better choice is either a Moodle page, or Moodle book.
To insert a label into your Moodle site:
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With editing on, select the section for the label.
Expand the Add an activity or resource menu and select Label.
Type the text of the label.
To change font etc., highlight the text, and select the option for Font family, Font size or Paragraph.
To change alignment, add images or media, click on the icon left of Font family (Figure 1) to see the expanded
menu options (Figure 2). Figure 3 shows a Moodle label highlighting a section.
Scroll to the bottom and Save, then move the label to the appropriate place in the section.
Figure 1 Adding a Label to Moodle
Figure 2 Moodle expanded Moodle options
Moodle label
Figure 3 Moodle section showing Moodle label
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Moodle page
A Moodle page is a good option for content notes, lists of class readings, and other information for students as unlike a
word document, you can easily edit the document online. Note that it is important to provide subject outlines to students
as a PDF document. These legal documents should not be created in a Moodle page.
A Moodle page is created in html, and saves directly to your Moodle site.
To insert a page into your Moodle site:
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With editing on, select the section where the Moodle page is to be located.
Expand the Add an activity or resource menu and select Page.
Give the page a name and add the content.
Scroll to the bottom and Save, then move the page to the appropriate place in the section.
Figure 4 shows the link to a Moodle page, while Figure 5 shows the content included in that same Moodle page when it
is opened.
Figure 4 Moodle page within a section of Moodle
Figure 5 Moodle page showing document contents. Note how Moodle page was used to list URL's and provide
information about each of the sites to put them into perspective for the learner providing the “What’s in it for me”
context.
Moodle book
A Moodle book (Figure 6) allows information to be collated similar to a printed book, with chapters and subchapters.
This is useful if there is a lot of content for the students to read, as it can be broken down into sections so the student is
not overwhelmed by the amount of material to be read. Books can contain both media files and text. It is important to
ensure that you do not include copyrighted material in your book (or anywhere within Moodle). Read about copyright,
and fair use at the UOW Copyright page http://www.library.uow.edu.au/copyright/index.html.
Some common uses of Moodle books are
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To display reading material for individual modules of study.
As a staff departmental handbook.
As a showcase portfolio of student work.
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Figure 6 Moodle book showing table of contents and first page of text
To create a Moodle book:
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With editing on, select the section where the Moodle book is to be located.
Expand the Add an activity or resource menu and select Book then click Add.
Give the Book a name and add the content.
Scroll to the bottom and Save, then move the book to the appropriate place in the section.
Full details for creating a book are available at from the Moodle.org website. Go to the Book settings page to find out
how to create your book, number chapters and enable or disable printing. You can also go her to learn how to add
chapters and sub chapters, and the capabilities of the Moodle book.
Moodle folder
Use a Moodle folder to group and display documents (word, pdf, excel etc.) that should to be grouped together. This is a
neater way that displaying the files one by one in a list, taking up less space in the course page. Students only need to
click on one link to open the folder to view all of the related documents. Note that it is not good practice to have a folder
with only one document, as the benefit is to group information for the students.
There are two ways to create and populate a Moodle folder. This guide discusses the longer way, however for further
information, or to read about a different way, go to the Moodle.org Folder resource settings.
To create a folder and upload documents into that folder:
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With editing on, select the section where the Moodle folder is to be located.
Expand the Add an activity or resource menu and select Folder then click Add.
Name the folder and give it a description. If students are to see the description, tick the checkbox for Display
description on the site page (located under the description box).
Drag and drop the files into the Content box or use the file picker to navigate to your desktop to select the files
(Figure 7).
Change other options as appropriate, scroll to the bottom of the page and Save, then move the folder to the
appropriate place in the section.
File picker
Figure 7 Uploading files to Moodle folders
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