1_A3 Introduction to Moodle: Students Guide AIK4ESP2012

Introduction to Moodle:
students guide

Content:
1. What is Moodle? ............................................................................................................ 1

2. How to get started .......................................................................................................... 2

3. How to log in Moodle ...................................................................................................... 2

4. Editing the profile............................................................................................................ 4

5. An overview of the course: main page and blocks .......................................................... 6

6. Navigation ...................................................................................................................... 7

1. What is Moodle?

Moodle is one of the many e-learning environments (Virtual learning environment, VLE),
which presents a variety of opportunities for learning. Simply put, a VLE is content
management software (CMS) developed to support the traditional means for learning,
increasing the learning experience. Moodle serves as an interactive website with a number of
features and activities designed to engage the learners and to make possible collaborative
work in a learner-centered education. The system is divided into courses. Each course
contains a variety of materials, forums, there could be tests, questionnaires and tasks whose
answers to be published online, chats, a system of assessment and a number of other
facilities.

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ESP&EAP 2012 SU, Faculty of Classical and Modern Languages

2. How to get started

Our experience with Moodle showed that this is an extremely intuitive system. How easy it
will be for you to use it depends on your experience, so the principle Try for yourself and see
what will happen works for most cases. In the general course information there is a
Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) section, where you can find the answers of your questions
or you can ask a question if there is no information on what you need. These answers should
be able to help you after you have read this guide.

The Guide contains:

- Editing personal information;
- How to navigate the AW course;
- Activities and resources.

Lets get started by the main issue, however: How to log in?
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3. How to log in Moodle

Moodle is a website by nature so it is accessible from anywhere if there is an Internet

connection. In order to get to it, you need this address, which you may copy directly into the
browser:

3.1. http://moodle.akremenska.eu/

3.2. There will appear the following Screen 1, in which you have to find the category of
English courses. Next, choose your course: English for Tourism (respective academic year
and course), English for Informatics, General English, Academic Writing or Academic Writing
(part-time) respectively.

Fig. 1 Screen 1 main page of the site Moodle, AW

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3.3. Screen 2 will appear which leads to the login: you need to insert a username (1), which
the lecturer should provide, and a password (2), which is Test@123 at the beginning. After
pressing the Login button, the system will ask you to change your password. Dont forget,
that your password needs to be of at least 8 symbols, at least one of which is a digit, at
least one is a CAPITAL LETTER, and at least one is a special symbol (e.g. @, %, $, etc.).
Please, think of a meaningful to you password so not to forget it!

If you have problems or you have forgotten your password, you can enter your username OR
your e-mail (the one you have given for your registration) and you will receive an e-mail with
a temporary password. You will have to change that the way it was described above.

If you still have problems, you can always write to the lecturer at: akremenska[at] fmi.uni-
sofia.bg

NB!!! The first time you log in, the system will require of you to change your password as the
standard one needs to become personal.

1. Username

2. Password
If you have forgotten
your username or
password

Fig. 2 Stages of login into Moodle

When you get into your course, you will see its main page. It will be different for each course
but it will contain the same areas (blocks), which are discussed below. When you enter the
system for the first time, it is a good idea to edit your profile immediately in order to have
easy and enjoyable work in the environment.

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4. Editing the profile

After having entered the course, we would strongly recommend to edit your profile. The
easiest way to do this is by entering the profile by clicking on your name at the upper right-
hand corner, on the banner You are logged in as..

Click on your name to enter

your profile

Fig. 3 Entering the profile

In order to edit your profile, you need to open the second menu, Edit profile. The page that
appears contains a number of fields, which we will describe briefly and will suggest what to
choose. You can always change the profile, however in order for Moodle to function properly,
some of the fields would better stay the way they are. Table 1 contains some of the fields
which you can change and what they could contain.

Fig. 4 Profile - overview

After filling in the categories, press the button Update profile to save the changes. If you
press the Show advanced button, you will have access to the more detailed information fields
(fig. 5), some of which are described in Table 1.

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Fig. 5 Advanced fields of the profile

Table 1 Fields of editing profile and short description

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5. An overview of the course: main page and blocks

The course main page (fig. 6) consists of three columns: two of them contain blocks which
have different functions, and the middle one presents course contents. Apart from the blocks
that can be seen, there are also some which the lecturer may choose to move or hide, others
to make visible. This means that the course may change slightly the way it looks, however it
is easy to get accustomed to it.

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1
5

6
2
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Fig. 6 Introduction to the course environment: view and blocks

Block 1:

The Calendar is one of the most interactive blocks. It allows you to see the events which the

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lecturers enter, and to add your own events. Thus you can use it as a personal organizer
online, which is available anytime, anywhere.

Blocks 2: These contain the personal messages within Moodle, which you can send and
receive from the course participants (short messages). In order to choose who to write to,
search for them in the block Participants the message will appear in their block Messages.

Block 3: This block contains the assessment you have received for each activity which is
marked, you can also update your profile here (this is a second way to get to your profile).

Block 4: Contains important news about the course messages on the procedures, classes,
changes in the schedule, assessment, feedback, etc.

Block 5: Allows you to search the forums for key words, authors, topics, etc.

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Block 6: Contains the activities by type and allows searching within them. For example,
Resources contains all the resources (see fig. 7 and the explanations in the Navigation
section below).

Block 7: Shows the available topics by number an easier way to reach each one of them as
the cannot be seen on one screen.

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6. Navigation

Once you have loged in your course in Moodle, it is not a good idea to use the navigation of
the browser (the arrows back and forward) as this might lead you to get lost. A better way to
navigate is to use the Moodle navigation (fig. 7) breadcrumbs (1) and Jump to (2)

There are two ways to reach the course contents the tasks and resources. One of them is
via the main page of the course by clicking on the relevant link.
: . The second is to use the block
Activities, in which all the activities are organized by type; for example all forums are under
the link Forums. When you open the link of a resource, task or a forum, you will see
additional instruction when needed. It is important to know that there is no way to crash
anything on Moodle, so take a look around and see what happens. Be careful not to do tasks
which are marked (tests, for example) as some of them may not allow to be made many
attempts and you may get assessed without being prepared.

The breadcrumbs are the way you have reached your current place on the website (fig 7 (1)).
They are located at the left-hand upper corner, just below the course banner. If you click on
each section, you can easily go there; the example shows the Resources and if you go there,
you will see all resources listed. The same way, from each page with an activity, you can
reach the page with all activities listed, for example to a test.

The menu Jump in is an easy way to go to any part of the course. By pressing the arrow a
list appears, from which you can choose any place in the course by moving the mouse
pointer down and up. You can also use the back and forward arrows to move a step (level)
backwards or forward in the course.

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Fig. 7 Navigation in Moodle

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So, we are ready to use the virtual environment to study. Dont forget that you can always
find the answer of a question in the FAQ section or you can ask there, or you can contact the
lecturer at akremenska[at]fmi.uni-sofia.bg.

Enjoy your work!

Resources: http://moodle.org/login/index.php