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Getting to know MoodleMoodle has been around for a number of years now and there is a lot of online support for those who are new to it. This area aims give those who are starting out some idea of what Moodle is, what it can do and how to get started with using it.
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What is Moodle?
In the words of moodle.org ...
"Moodle is a course management system ... to help educators create effective learning communities"
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It is also described as:
- a virtual learning environment (VLE)
- an open source on-line learning system
- free software eLearning platform (Wikipedia)
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Moodle has users all over the world. A team of developers, including Martin Dougiamas the creator of Moodle, are constantly contributing to its continued development.
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| 2 | How can Moodle be used?
Moodle is essentially a website that has a number of templates and resources that can used and adapted as required. At a simple level it makes it easy for those people with no experience of web development to create online resources to share.
With this in mind ... Moodle can be used in a number of different ways depending on the needs of the people who are going to be using it. Here are some ways in which it can be used:
- to share resources, online ... 24 hour a day availabilty
- to enable communication ... forums, chat, messages
- to add interactivity ... quizzes, communication tools, learning objects
- to enable collaboration ... wikkis, the glossary and database tools
- to allow for distance learning ... available on the web
- to support blended learning ... used in conjunction with traditional face to face teaching
- to reduce workload ... online assignment submission and marking, self marking quizzes
- ...
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Essentially Moodle was developed as a tool to enhance the teaching and learning experience and has been designed using sound pedagogical principles ... however, as with any 'product', it is going to be most effective if it is used to meet the specific needs of its target audience. |
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| 3 | Moodle resources
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Moodle contains a number of resources and activities that you can add and then customise to your Moodle area or course.
The following gives you a little bit more information about each of the resources (available through the Add a resource ... menu in each section of your course) along with some idea of how you can use each of them.
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Moodle activities
Moodle contains a number of resources and activities that you can add and then customise to your Moodle area or course.
The following gives you a little bit more information about each of the resources (available through the Add an activity... menu in each section of your course) along with some idea of how you can use each of them
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| 5 | Moodle Blocks
There are a number of different blocks that can be added to or removed from any 'course'. They all have different uses, with some allowing customization.
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This 'course' uses 4 types of block:
- HTML ... a flexible block that allows you to put whatever you want in it. 2 HTML blocks have been used here - one to allow you to navigate to different parts of the course, the other to provide quick access to useful links.
- RSS feeds ... a block you can add RSS feeds to and have the most recent news displayed from a specific website.
- Administration ... allows course creator to manage the course and student to view certain aspects, like their grades.
- Course categories ... displays the courses a learner is enrolled on.
... but there are many more that could be very useful depending on the purpose of the course you are creating.
Moodle docs give more information on blocks.
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Getting started
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There is lots and help and advice out there to get you started with using Moodle, including Moodles own built in help feature ... if you scroll to the bottom of any page you are working on you will see this:
Clicking on Moodle docs for this page takes you to the relevant page on the Moodle.org website.
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The following are also resources that you may find useful to get you started using Moodle.
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And for those of you who are ready for a little bit more ... getting started with embedding audio and video in Moodle
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The easiest way to make an audio or video file to someone in Moodle is simply to link to it from the main page of the course as shown below:
 Linking to an MP3 audio file sound file Linking to a wmv video file Linking to a Flash video file Linking to an mp4 video (7.2MB) fileBut there will be those of you who want to embed your audio or video in a Moodle web page, book or even a label so that it can be played from within Moodle. The 'book' below by no means provides all of the answers to this but hopefully it will give you some ideas.  Embedding audio and video in Moodle Book
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