Moodle’s Hidden Gems: Top 7 Lesser-Known Features You Shouldn’t Miss
While Moodle’s reputation as a premier learning management system (LMS) is well-established, there are still untapped resources within its arsenal that could significantly elevate your e-learning endeavors.
With a massive user base spread across over 166,500 registered sites, Moodle’s versatility in creating and managing dynamic online courses is no secret. Yet, beyond the visible horizons of its robust features lies a treasure trove of underutilized tools.
These hidden gems are more than just enhancements; they are game-changers that promise to refine and redefine the Moodle experience for both educators and learners.
In this blog, we will reveal seven of these lesser-known features that will transform your approach to online education.
Read on!
Table of Contents:
Top 7 Lesser-Known Features to Check Out
Below are the top seven lesser-known features of Moodle that can transform your approach to online education:
1. Stealth Activities
In the field of course management, Moodle introduces the concept of Stealth Activities, a feature designed to streamline course presentations without sacrificing content accessibility.
This tool allows educators to curtail clutter on the course page, yielding a more refined and structured educational environment. Stealth Activities are essentially invisible on the course page to the user yet remain accessible through strategic navigation.
Stealth activities are activities or resources that are not shown on the course page but can still be accessed by students through direct links or conditional access settings.
To make an activity or resource stealth, you need to edit its settings and set the “Visible” option to “Hide”. Next, you need to click on the eye icon next to the activity or resource name on the course page and confirm that you want to make it available but not shown on the course page. You can then create links to the stealth activity or resource in other places, such as labels, pages, or books.
2. Completion Tracking
If you want to track student progress in your course, this can be one of the best Moodle features for you.
Completion tracking allows you to set criteria for each activity or resource to mark it as complete in the Moodle Calendar. For example, you can set an activity to be completed when a student views it, submits it, receives a grade, or meets a certain condition.
You can also set course completion criteria based on the completion of certain activities or resources, grades, or manual self-completion.
To enable completion tracking, you need to go to your course settings and set the “Completion tracking” option to “Yes”. Then, you need to edit the settings of each activity or resource and set the “Completion tracking” option to either “Manual,” “Automatic,” or “Automatic, based on conditions.”
You and your students can then view the progress and completion status of each activity or resource and the whole course in various places, such as the course page, the dashboard, the grades report, or the completion report.
Learn How Higher Education Institutions Can Leverage a Moodle LMS.
3. Badges
Badges are a feature that can be used to motivate and recognize your students’ achievements and participation in your course. These are digital awards that you can create and award to your students based on certain criteria.
For example, you can award badges for completing a course, passing a quiz, submitting an assignment, posting in a forum, or achieving a certain grade. You can also create badges with custom images, names, descriptions, criteria, and expiry dates.
To create and manage badges, you need to go to Course Administration> Badges. There, you can add new badges, edit existing badges, enable or disable badges, award badges manually or automatically, view issued badges, and manage badge settings.
Your students can view their earned badges in their profile or on their dashboard. They can also display their badges on their profile or export them to external backpack services.
Also Read: 10 Benefits of Moodle based Learning Management System (LMS)
4. Groups and Groupings
If you want to divide your students into different groups for different purposes, Moodle has a feature for that: groups and groupings.
Groups are collections of students that can be used to assign different activities or resources to different groups of students or to facilitate collaborative work among students.
On the other hand, groupings are collections of groups that can be used to restrict access to certain activities or resources based on the groups that belong to the grouping.
For example, you can create groups based on topics, levels, interests, roles, or preferences. You can also create groupings based on different scenarios, such as project work, peer review, differentiated learning, or blended learning.
To create and manage groups and groupings, you need to go to Course Administration> Users > Groups. Here, you can add new groups, edit existing groups, add or remove users from groups, import or export groups, and manage group settings.
You can also add new groupings, use editing tools for existing groupings, add or remove groups from groupings, and manage grouping settings.
5. Feedback
This Moodle feature helps create and conduct surveys, quizzes, or evaluations in your course. Feedback activity allows you to create and add custom questions and options for your students to answer.
You can use feedback for various purposes, such as gathering feedback from your students, conducting self-assessments, testing prior knowledge, collecting data for research, or evaluating learning outcomes.
To create and manage feedback, you need to add a new feedback activity to your course and edit its settings. Here, you can set the name, description, availability, access, completion, and other options for your feedback.
You can also add questions to your feedback from various types, such as multiple choice, short answer, numeric, scale, or text area. Also, view and analyze the feedback results in various formats, such as summary, analysis, responses, charts, or Excel export.
Also read: 10 Ways a Moodle LMS Can Transform Corporate Training
6. Workshop
Moodle has a feature for setting up peer assessment tasks in your course: workshop. Workshop activity allows you to define the assessment criteria and grading scale and allocate submissions for peer review.
You can use workshops for various purposes, such as developing critical thinking skills, encouraging collaborative learning, providing formative feedback, or assessing learning outcomes.
To create and manage a workshop, you need to add a new workshop activity to your course and edit its settings. Here, you can set the name, description, availability, access, completion, and other options for your workshop.
You can also set the submission and assessment phases for your workshop, either by using a manual switching mode or by using a scheduled allocation mode.
7. H5P
If you want to create and add interactive content to your course, H5P is the right Moodle feature for you. It is an activity that allows you to create and embed interactive content such as live engagement videos, presentations, games, quizzes, and more. H5P content is responsive and accessible and can enhance your students’ engagement and learning outcomes.
To create and manage H5P, you need to add a new H5P activity to your course and edit its settings. Here, you can set the name, description, availability, access, completion, and other options for your H5P.
You can also choose from a variety of H5P content types, such as interactive video, course presentation, drag and drop, fill in the blanks, memory game, or timeline.
If you want, you can customize the appearance and behavior of your H5P content, such as adding media files, texts, buttons, feedback, scores, or transitions. View and track the H5P results in various places, such as the grade book, the activity report, or the H5P report.
Read More: Google Classroom or Moodle – Which is the Better Option for You?
Conclusion
Moodle LMS is powerful and versatile and offers many features for online teaching and learning. However, some of these features may be hidden or overlooked by many users.
If you want to enhance your online courses using Moodle, our team at Hurix Digital is here to assist you. We specialize in LTI content integration, customization, hosting, and maintenance of your Moodle platform. Whether you need to incorporate interactive content, video lectures, or assessments, we can streamline the LTI integration process.
Contact us today to discover how we can meet your LTI needs effectively!
Gokulnath B is the Associate Vice President – Editorial Services. He is PMP, CSM, and CPACC certified and has 20+ years of experience in Project Management, Delivery Management, and managing the Offshore Development Centre (ODC).