The Basics of Moodle Learning Activities

1. Activities vs. Resources

Resources vs. Activities

Moodle contains two main types of content - called Moodle Learning Activities - you add to your courses to provide instruction to students.

Resources are Moodle Learning Activities that instructors use to provide information to students. Some examples of resource Learning Activities are:

• Text and Media Area- formerly known as a "Label"; add small amounts of text directly into Moodle; this is the activity used to display the text you are currently reading
• Pages- similar to Text and Media Areas in that text is typed directly into Moodle, though this intended for large amounts of text; Pages are accessed by clicking
  
• Books- a combination of pages that are organized into sections creating chapters
• Files- documents, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs. We discourage storing large files directly on Moodle as our storage is limited. Instead, please try to link to documents that are stored elsewhere using the URL learning activity.
  
• URLs- links to content stored elsewhere, usually external to Moodle
  

Activities are Moodle Learning Activities that students submit work to assess their learning such as:

• Forums- allows students to have asynchronous discussions in a discussion thread manner.
  
• Assignments- allow students to submit typed work either via an uploaded file or through a text box. Typically used for submitting essays.
  
• Quizzes- allows students answer multiple choice, true/false, essay, etc. questions; questions are stored in a question bank and can be reused easily.
• Lessons- pages of content and exercises with branching capabilities. The content students see is based on what they choose in exercises.
  

2. Adding Activities: The Basics

View the following materials showcasing how to add some of the most common activities to your courses:

Creating Activities and Resources

Creating a Quiz

Creating an Assignment

Using Forums

3. Adding Interaction, Engagement, and Collaboration

You may find the activities detailed in this chapter especially helpful in fostering interaction and engagement with your students as well as collaboration amongst your students. Engagement with other students, the instructor(s), and the course material is essential to student success.

Click through each of the following subchapters to read more about the Chat, Choice, Database, Forums, Glossary, Lesson, Wiki, and Workshop activities.

3.1. The Chat Activity

Course participants are able to have public (to the whole class), synchronous discussions in Moodle via the Chat activity. Students and teachers who are online at the same time can talk with one another from within their course. The Chat activity can be used to conduct Q&A sessions, hold office hours, encourage communication between students on assignments, and more. Teachers are able to use features for managing and reviewing chat discussions.

3.2. The Choice Activity

3.3. The Database Activity

The Database activity provides a tool for collaborative development of a collection of data within a course. Teachers can build, display, and search a bank of recorded entries about any conceivable topic using the Database activity. The database can collect information such as text, dates, files, and URLs.

By using a Database activity in the classroom, teachers can allow students to structure fields for a project, allow collaboration on building the project and add participation by allowing students to rate each other's entries. In addition, teachers can create templates to control the visual layout of information. The format and structure of these entries can be almost unlimited.

3.4. The Forum Activity

The Announcements forum is available in all courses by default for teachers to post information to students.

3.5. The Glossary Activity

There are several glossary formats available:

• Simple, dictionary style: Looks like a conventional dictionary with separate entries.
• Continuous without author: Shows entries one after another without any kind of separation.
• Full with author: Shows author's avatar next to the entry.
• Full without author: Does not show author's avatar.
• Encyclopedia: Shows author's avatar, but displays images, rather than creating links.
• Entry list: Displays entries as a list.
• FAQ: Appends the words QUESTION and ANSWER in the concept and definition boxes respectively.

3.6. The Lesson Activity

The Lesson activity consists of a series of Web pages that can be used to chunk larger amounts of content into manageable segments to present to students in an interactive fashion. In its simplest form, it contains a button at the bottom of the page that sends students to the next page. However, you can use this activity to create adaptive learning lessons. Here are some of its features and benefits:

• Create branching: Can be used to make self-directed, branching modules that adapt to student choices. Create interactive scenarios based solely on questions and answers.
• Can be graded: While not required, graded questions can be added to lessons.
• Remediation: If students answer a question incorrectly, you can set the activity to branch to remedial content.
• Check students understanding: Ask students questions and provide instant feedback. Question types can be multiple choice, true/false, short answer, numerical, matching, and essay.

3.7. The Wiki Activity

A wiki is a fast method for creating user-generated content and can be used in the classroom in various ways, such as group projects, group lecture notes, and brainstorming.

3.8. The Workshop Activity

The activity coordinates the collection and distribution of these assessments in a variety of ways. Typical workshops take several days or even weeks to complete.