Choosing the Best Moodle Format for Your Course
How to change the format
Select the Course Management button.
Select Edit Course Settings.
Select the Course format section.
Use the Format dropdown to select the format you wish to use.
Topics Format
Advantages
The default format in Moodle, allows students to see all content at once.
No extra clicks needed to open content.
Disadvantages
Potential ‘scroll of death’ if there’s a lot of content.
Can be difficult for students to locate information they need in later weeks.
Grid Format
Advantages
Students can easily jump from one topic to another.
Visually appealing.
Disadvantages
Might be confusing for students to move in and out of main menu and sections in this way.
Collapsed Topics format
Advantages
Students can easily jump from one topic to another.
Very neat and ordered.
Easy to open all topics to achieve a format similar to topics format or close all topics if you wish.
Disadvantages
Not as visually appealing as grid layout
Buttons Format
Advantages
Students can easily jump from one topic to another.
It’s not necessary to scroll down the screen much.
Disadvantages
Not possible to change button titles so not necessarily obvious which section is which.
Social Format
Advantages
There are no hidden sections as all activities appear in one chronological list.
Disadvantages
Content is not categorised in any week therefore potentially making it difficult for students to find content.
Weekly format
Advantages
Course appears as a week by week list
Easily navigated by students
Disadvantages
Not as visually appealing as grid layout
Other Formats
There are a few other Moodle formats available, but we think that these are the main ones that you might be interested to use.