Is Moodle just for online learning?

It can be. However, in most cases Moodle is used to support and combine face-to-face interaction with e-learning, mobile learning and other forms of learning.

Are there any provisions in Moodle for people with disabilities?

Certainly. Moodle supports many assistive technologies such as screen-readers, screen-magnifiers, alternative mouse and key use, disabling of AJAX and Javascript, and more. For more information on accessibility services at UPEI, check out the accessibility services section of the UPEI website.

What is the best way to use Moodle?

There is no one best way to use Moodle. Use of Moodle depends a lot on one's own educational philosophy, the context where Moodle is used and willingness to experiment and create a little (or a lot!).  You will have to submit final grades to the Registrar's Office through Moodle.

Can Moodle be used in different subjects (say math, languages, art, media, science...)?

Yes. Moodle is used in a variety of faculties. Users in some subject areas may benefit further from additional modules and plugins.

How can I use Moodle to stimulate students to think harder and ask good questions?

By asking and encouraging good questions students can wrestle with and explore through and with the help of activities, resources in a course. For example, open a forum discussion with a provocative question, start a wiki where groups collaboratively build a solution or use Moodle to link to a Google Form to get feedback on a particular activity or mid-course check-in.

How can I communicate with students by using Moodle?

Many ways are available. For example, every course shell comes with a forced subscription Announcements forum which can serve as a class specific mailing list. Regular Forums are great for extended conversations over time. There are private channels for messages. Chat for synchronous conversations and comments for quick notices and remarks. You can also exchange online feedback with assignments and comments to student blog posts.

What can Moodle do to help me create activities for my students to complete?

An activity is a general name for a group of features in a Moodle course. Usually an activity is something that a student will do that interacts with other students and or the teacher.

In Moodle terminology, an Activity, such as Forums or Quizzes, properly means something students can contribute to directly, and is often contrasted to a Resource such as a File or Page, which is presented by the teacher to them. However, the term activity is sometimes for convenience also used to refer to both Activities and Resources as a group.

There are 15 different types of activities in the standard Moodle that can be found when the editing is turned on and the link 'Add an activity or resource' is clicked.

Assignments
The assignment activity module enables a teacher to communicate tasks, collect work and provide grades and feedback.

Chat
The chat activity module enables participants to have text-based, real-time synchronous discussions.  Uses include virtual office hours, exam review or exam prep.

Choice
The choice activity module enables a teacher to ask a single question and offer a selection of possible responses.

Database
The database activity module enables participants to create, maintain and search a collection of entries (i.e. records). The structure of the entries is defined by the teacher as a number of fields. Field types include checkbox, radio buttons, dropdown menu, text area, URL, picture and uploaded file. Consider the simpler Moodle Glossary activity if you only need to build a collection of terms and definitions.

External Tool
The external tool activity module enables students to interact with learning resources and activities on other web sites. For example, an external tool could provide access to a new activity type or learning materials from a publisher.

Feedback [NOT AVAILABLE FOR USE IN MOODLE 3.1 - IT IS BEING USED FOR THE STUDENT OPINION OF TEACHING SURVEYS]
The feedback activity module enables a teacher to create a custom survey for collecting feedback from participants using a variety of question types including multiple choice, yes/no or text input.

Forum
The forum activity module enables participants to have asynchronous discussions (i.e. discussions that take place over an extended period of time but do not require students to be online at the same times).

Glossary
The glossary activity module enables participants to create and maintain a list of definitions, like a dictionary, or to collect and organise resources or information.

Interactive Content (A.K.A. H5P)
The H5P activity module enables you to create interactive content such as Interactive Videos, Question Sets, Drag and Drop Questions, Multi-Choice Questions, Presentations and much more.

Lesson
The lesson activity module enables a teacher to deliver content and/or practice activities in interesting and flexible ways. A teacher can use the lesson to create a linear set of content pages or instructional activities that offer a variety of paths or options for the learner (i.e., branching). In either case, teachers can choose to increase engagement and ensure understanding by including a variety of questions, such as multiple choice, matching and short answer. Depending on the student's choice of answer and how the teacher develops the lesson, students may progress to the next page, be taken back to a previous page or redirected down a different path entirely.

Quiz
The quiz activity enables a teacher to create quizzes comprising questions of various types, including multiple choice, matching, short-answer and numerical.

SCORM
Enables SCORM packages to be included as course content.  SCORM is a set of technical standards for e-learning software products. SCORM governs how online learning content and Learning Management Systems (LMSs) communicate with each other.   SCORM-compliant content can be created with an authoring tool like Adobe Captivate or Articulate Storyline 2.  However, it also can be created through PowerPoint by adding on a free authoring tool like iSpring Free.

Survey
The survey activity module provides a number of verified survey instruments that have been found useful in assessing and stimulating learning in online environments. A teacher can use these to gather data from their students that will help them learn about their class and reflect on their own teaching.

Wiki
The wiki activity module enables participants to add and edit a collection of web pages. A wiki can be collaborative, with everyone being able to edit it, or individual, where everyone has their own wiki which only they can edit.

Workshop
The workshop activity module enables the collection, review and peer assessment of students' work.

What resources does Moodle have to help me support student learning?

A resource is an item that a teacher can use to support learning, such as a file or link. Moodle supports a range of resource types which teachers can add to their courses. In edit mode, a teacher can add resources via the 'Add an activity or resource' link. Resources appear as a single link with an icon in front of it that represents the type of resource.

Book 
The book module enables a teacher to create a multi-page resource in a book-like format, with chapters and subchapters. Books can contain media files as well as text and are useful for displaying lengthy passages of information which can be broken down into sections.

File
The file module enables a teacher to provide a file as a course resource. Where possible, the file will be displayed within the course interface; otherwise students will be prompted to download it. The file may include supporting files, for example an HTML page may have embedded images or Flash objects.

Folder
The folder module enables a teacher to display a number of related files inside a single folder, reducing scrolling on the course page. A zipped folder may be uploaded and unzipped for display, or an empty folder created and files uploaded into it.

IMS content package
An IMS content package is a collection of files which are packaged according to an agreed standard so they can be reused in different systems. The IMS content package module enables such content packages to be uploaded as a zip file and added to a course as a resource.

Label
The label module enables text and multimedia to be inserted into the course page in between links to other resources and activities. Labels are very versatile and can help to improve the appearance of a course if used thoughtfully.

Page
The page module enables a teacher to create a web page resource using the text editor. A page can display text, images, sound, video, web links and embedded code, such as Google maps.

URL
The URL module enables a teacher to provide a web link as a course resource. Anything that is freely available online, such as documents or images, can be linked to; the URL doesn’t have to be the home page of a website. The URL of a particular web page may be copied and pasted or a teacher can use the file picker and choose a link from a repository such as Flickr, YouTube or Wikimedia (depending upon which repositories are enabled for the site).

How can we share resources with Moodle?

Moodle offers a number of ways to share content. For example, you can make files and folders available to course participants. Or you can collect resources of any kind with a database. You can also attach files to forum posts, import and link resources to and from external repositories/portfolios, like Google Drive which UPEI uses.

How can Moodle help people collaborate?

Use different activities like Wikis to create content together. Forums and comments can be used to exchange ideas. Set up a database to collectively gather resources. Have a glossary to create shared understanding of concepts.  And you can group students in any of these activities to promote collaboration.

How do I grade in Moodle?

You will have to submit final grades to the Registrar's Office through Moodle and this can be done by inputting them manually or by importing them via Excel or Google Sheets. If you want to use Moodle for more than just final grade entry, grades can be created for each activity in a course that is then added to the Gradebook. For example, grades in assignments (all types), quizzes and workshop activities are automatically added to Gradebook. In some activities you will have to turn grading on, such as ratings 'on' in forum, glossary and database to send them to the Gradebook. You can also use the Gradebook to adjust, assign or automatically scale an activity grade in your course. For some activities that don't automatically link to the Gradebook, such as chat or feedback, you have to create a new grade item manually. There are many ways you can give feedback to students on their progress in activities without giving them a grade. In assignments for example, you can give written feedback. You can learn more about final grade entry in this section of our Getting Started with Moodle Course.

Can students do self and peer assessment type tasks with Moodle?

Yes. Probably the best activity to do that is the workshop module. Informally, students can evaluate (and even rate) each other’s forum posts, glossary entries, and database entries.

Is a 'social constructionist' approach necessary when using Moodle?

Moodle has continuously been built with a particular, social constructionist philosophy in mind. This of course does not prevent people from using Moodle in line with their own preferred view of learning and the purpose they use it for.