Visual guide to icons in Moodle
Users with editing rights (Manager, Course Leader, Editing Tutor) can add, edit and delete activities and resources in a Moodle space. This guide details the different activities, resources and editing features that are available in Moodle.
Activities
Assignment - An activity used to submit files for marking. Can be integrated with Turnitin for plagiarism detection.
The assignment activity module enables a teacher to communicate tasks, collect work and provide grades and feedback.
Students can submit any digital content (files), such as word-processed documents, spreadsheets, images, or audio and video clips. Alternatively, or in addition, the assignment may require students to type text directly into the text editor. An assignment can also be used to remind students of 'real-world' assignments they need to complete offline, such as art work, and thus not require any digital content. Students can submit work individually or as a member of a group.
Below is an example of how the Assignment activity can be used in conjunction with the 3E element of the TEL Quality Framework.
Enhance - Create assignment ‘dropboxes’ to enable students to submit their work electronically. Ensure that there are clear instructions and information for students in the description.
Extend - Have students peer review each other’s assignments. See Workshop.
Empower - Have students contribute to the assessment criteria for assignments and then peer review. See Workshop.
Chat - An asynchronous chat tool activity that can be used for group work.
The chat activity module enables participants to have text-based, real-time synchronous discussions. The chat may be a one-time activity or it may be repeated at the same time each day or each week. Chat sessions are saved and can be made available for everyone to view or restricted to users with the capability to view chat session logs.
Below is an example of how the Chat activity can be used in conjunction with the 3E element of the TEL Quality Framework.
Enhance - Create a one-off chat, based around a specific theme, e.g. final assessment. Make transcript available for students.
Extend - Arrange regular ‘out of the office hours’ chats around specific themes e.g. final assessments or how to reflect. Students participate in a facilitated chat. Transcripts are made available.
Empower - Ask students to suggest themes for ‘out of office hours’ chats. Allow students to organise and facilitate chat sessions. Have transcripts made available.
Choice - The choice activity module enables a teacher to ask a single question and offer a selection of possible responses. Choice results may be published after students have answered, after a certain date, or not at all. Results may be published with student names or anonymously. A choice activity may be used:
As a quick poll to stimulate thinking about a topic
To quickly test students' understanding
To facilitate student decision-making, for example allowing students to vote on a direction for the course
Below is an example of how the Choice activity can be used in conjunction with the 3E element of the TEL Quality Framework.
Enhance - Setup a choice activity to quickly test students' understanding of a topic.
Extend - Use the choice activity to facilitate student decision-making, for example allowing students to vote on a direction for the course, on assignment questions/titles or on topics for online debates.
Empower - Have students propose choice questions to ask other cohort members. Use the data generated to come to conclusions or inform learning.
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.
A teacher can allow comments on entries. Entries can also be rated by teachers or students (peer evaluation). Ratings can be aggregated to form a final grade which is recorded in the gradebook.
Below is an example of how the Database activity can be used in conjunction with the 3E element of the TEL Quality Framework.
Enhance - Create entries in a database related to key concepts within the chosen academic discipline. Ensure that each entry contains: concept, name of the main academic theorist, link to a journal article, link to a key text, link to a key website, link to any relevant media.
Extend - Ask students to conduct their own research and add entries to the database. Allow students to rate, review or comment on each other’s entries.
Empower - Have students create entries around their specific research interests or questions. They can then use this data to identify any areas of common interest amongst peers.
External tools - 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.
To create an external tool activity, a tool provider which supports LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) is required. A teacher can create an external tool activity or make use of a tool configured by the site administrator.
External tool activities differ from URL resources in a few ways:
External tools are context aware i.e. they have access to information about the user who launched the tool, such as institution, course and name
External tools support reading, updating, and deleting grades associated with the activity instance
External tool configurations create a trust relationship between your site and the tool provider, allowing secure communication between them.
Feedback - 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.
Feedback responses may be anonymous if desired, and results may be shown to all participants or restricted to teachers only. Any feedback activities on the site front page may also be completed by non-logged-in users.
Feedback activities may be used:
For course evaluations, helping improve the content for later participants
To enable participants to sign up for course modules, events etc.
For guest surveys of course choices, school policies etc.
For anti-bullying surveys in which students can report incidents anonymously
Forum - The forum activity module enables participants to have asynchronous discussions i.e. discussions that take place over an extended period of time.
There are several forum types to choose from, such as a standard forum where anyone can start a new discussion at any time; a forum where each student can post exactly one discussion; or a question and answer forum where students must first post before being able to view other students' posts.
Below is an example of how the Forum activity can be used in conjunction with the 3E element of the TEL Quality Framework.
Enhance - Create a general help forum for students to ask questions about the course.
Extend - Create a discussion forum to encourage debate around a specific theme, topic or reading. Have students rate and comment on their peers’ forum posts – students should justify the rating by responding to the post with an added comment.
Empower - Nominate student groups to moderate weekly forum debates. Student moderators should be responsible for encouraging participation, keeping the discussion on track and summarising the key outcomes.
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.
A teacher can allow files to be attached to glossary entries. Attached images are displayed in the entry. Entries can be searched or browsed alphabetically or by category, date or author. Entries can be approved by default or require approval by a teacher before they are viewable by everyone.
Below is an example of how the Glossary activity can be used in conjunction with the 3E element of the TEL Quality Framework.
Enhance - Create a primary glossary of key terms related to a specific academic discipline. Have the entries auto–linked throughout the module course.
Extend - Create a second glossary for each theme or topic which students have to populate by doing their own research.
Empower - Have students rate and comment on each other’s glossary entries- students should justify the rating by responding to the entry with a comment. The most highly rated terms get promoted to the primary class glossary.
Group Choice - The Group Choice module allows students to enrol themselves in a group within a course. The teacher can select which groups students can choose from and the maximum number of students allowed in each group.
Interactive Content - 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.
In addition to being an authoring tool for rich content, H5P enables you to import and export H5P files for effective reuse and sharing of content.
User interactions and scores are tracked using xAPI and are available through the Moodle Gradebook. Note that it is currently possible for people with programming skills to cheat in H5P interactions and obtain the full score without knowing the correct answers. H5Ps must not be used for exams or similar.
You add interactive H5P content by creating content using the built-in authoring tool or uploading H5P files found on other H5P enabled sites.
Learning Science Bioscience Library
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. 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.
A lesson may be graded, with the grade recorded in the gradebook.
Lessons may be used:
For self-directed learning of a new topic
For scenarios or simulations/decision-making exercises
For differentiated revision, with different sets of revision questions depending upon answers given to initial questions
MEDIAL - The MEDIAL module provides a customised LTI based Moodle for the integration of MEDIAL server into Moodle.
Open Forum - The Open Forum activity module enables participants to have asynchronous discussions, i.e., discussions that take place over an extended period of time.
There are several forum types to choose from, such as a standard forum where anyone can start a new discussion at any time; a forum where each student can post exactly one discussion; or a question and answer forum where students must first post before being able to view other students' posts. A teacher can allow files to be attached to forum posts. Attached images are displayed in the forum post.
Participants can subscribe to a forum to receive notifications of new forum posts. A teacher can set the subscription mode to optional, forced or auto, or prevent subscription completely. If required, students can be blocked from posting more than a given number of posts in a given time period; this can prevent individuals from dominating discussions.
Forum posts can be rated by teachers or students (peer evaluation). Ratings can be aggregated to form a final grade which is recorded in the gradebook.
Forums have many uses, such as:
A social space for students to get to know each other
For course announcements (using a news forum with forced subscription)
For discussing course content or reading materials
For continuing online an issue raised previously in a face-to-face session
For teacher-only discussions (using a hidden forum)
A help centre where tutors and students can give advice
A one-on-one support area for private student-teacher communications (using a forum with separate groups and with one student per group)
For extension activities, for example ‘brain teasers’ for students to ponder and suggest solutions
Quiz - The quiz activity enables a teacher to create quizzes comprising questions of various types, including multiple choice, matching, short-answer and numerical.
The teacher can allow the quiz to be attempted multiple times, with the questions shuffled or randomly selected from the question bank. A time limit may be set.
Each attempt is marked automatically, with the exception of essay questions, and the grade is recorded in the gradebook.
Below is an example of how the Quiz activity can be used in conjunction with the 3E element of the TEL Quality Framework.
Enhance - Create a short quiz for students to formatively test their understanding of the subject area.
Extend - Create several themed formative quizzes drawing random questions from a question bank. Provide students with detailed feedback and scores.
Empower - Allow students to generate their own quiz questions for a practice question bank (require the use of the Quiz creator role). Create a formative quiz drawing random questions from the student question bank.
Scheduler - The scheduler activity helps you in scheduling appointments with your students.
Teachers specify time slots for meetings, students then choose one of them on Moodle. Teachers in turn can record the outcome of the meeting - and optionally a grade - within the scheduler.
Group scheduling is supported; that is, each time slot can accommodate several students, and optionally it is possible to schedule appointments for entire groups at the same time.
SCORM - A SCORM package is a collection of files which are packaged according to an agreed standard for learning objects. The SCORM activity module enables SCORM or AICC packages to be uploaded as a zip file and added to a course.
Content is usually displayed over several pages, with navigation between the pages. There are various options for displaying content in a pop-up window, with a table of contents, with navigation buttons etc. SCORM activities generally include questions, with grades being recorded in the gradebook.
SCORM activities may be used:
For presenting multimedia content and animations
As an assessment too.
Turnitin Assignment - Creates a Turnitin Moodle Direct assignment which links an activity in Moodle to an assignment / assignments on Turnitin. Once linked, the activity allows instructors to assess and provide feedback for student's written work using the assessment tools available within Turnitin's Document Viewer.
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.
A history of previous versions of each page in the wiki is kept, listing the edits made by each participant.
Below is an example of how the Wiki activity can be used in conjunction with the 3E element of the TEL Quality Framework.
Enhance - Create a module/assignment knowledgebase for students.
Extend - Create a lecture notes wiki. Ask student groups to take responsibility each week for populating the wiki with a summary of the lecture/seminar.
Empower - Have students work in groups to create and manage a wiki to demonstrate evidence of planning and preparation for a group work project.
Workshop - The workshop activity module enables the collection, review and peer assessment of students' work.
Students obtain two grades in a workshop activity - a grade for their submission and a grade for their assessment of their peers' submissions. Both grades are recorded in the gradebook.
Below is an example of how the Workshop activity can be used in conjunction with the 3E element of the TEL Quality Framework.
Enhance - Adopting technology in simple and effective ways to actively support students and increase their activity and self-responsibility.
Extend - Further use of technology that facilitates key aspects of students’ individual and collaborative learning and assessment through increasing their choice and control.
Empower - Developed use of technology that requires higher order individual and collaborative learning that reflect how knowledge is created and used in professional environment.
Resources
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.
A book may be used:
To display reading material for individual modules of study
As a staff departmental handbook
As a showcase portfolio of student work
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.
Note that students need to have the appropriate software on their computers in order to open the file.
A file may be used:
To share presentations given in class
To include a mini website as a course resource
To provide draft files of software programs so students can edit and submit them for assessment.
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.
A folder may be used:
For a series of files on one topic, for example a set of past examination papers in pdf format or a collection of image files for use in student projects
To provide a shared uploading space for teachers on the course page (keeping the folder hidden so that only teachers can see 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.
Content is usually displayed over several pages, with navigation between the pages. There are various options for displaying content in a pop-up window, with a navigation menu or buttons etc.
An IMS content package may be used for presenting multimedia content and animations.
Text and Media area - The Text and media (previously label) module enables text and multimedia to be inserted into the course page in between links to other resources and activities. Text and Media areas are very versatile and can help to improve the appearance of a course if used thoughtfully.
The Text and Media area may be used:
To split up a long list of activities with a subheading or an image
To display an embedded sound file or video directly on the course page
To add a short description to a course section
Lightbox Gallery - The Lightbox Gallery resource module enables participants to view a gallery of images.
This resource allows you to create 'Lightbox' enabled image galleries within your Moodle course.
As a course teacher, you are able to create, edit and delete galleries. Small thumbnails will then be generated, which are used for the thumbnail view of the gallery. Clicking on any of the thumbnails brings that image into focus, and allows you to scroll through the gallery at your leisure. Using the Lightbox scripts creates nice transition effects when loading and scrolling through the images.
If enabled, users are able to leave comments on your gallery.
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.
Advantages of using the page module rather than the file module include the resource being more accessible (for example to users of mobile devices) and easier to update.
For large amounts of content, it's recommended that a book is used rather than a page.
A page may be used:
To present the terms and conditions of a course or a summary of the course syllabus
To embed several videos or sound files together with some explanatory text
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).
There are a number of display options for the URL, such as embedded or opening in a new window and advanced options for passing information, such as a student's name, to the URL if required.
Note that URLs can also be added to any other resource or activity type through the text editor.
Talis Reading List
Editing and Navigation
The availability of these icons is depending on your user role in Moodle. Not all of these icons might be available to you. If you think you should have access to more editing features, please contact tel@yorksj.ac.uk
Use the pencil icon to turn on editing for titles and descriptions.
Use the four-headed arrow icon to drag and drop topics, activities, resources, and blocks.
Use the gear icon (cog icon) to open the action menu to update or edit content and settings of entire Moodle spaces or elements within them.
Use the eye visibility icons to show or hide, i.e. toggle, the visibility of activities, resources or topics.
Use the arrow icon(s) to move an activity or resource to the right or left i.e. indent or outdent.
Use the copy icon to copy and paste, i.e. duplicate, an activity or resource.
Use the user icon to assign roles to an activity to allow non-editors to make changes to a specific item.
Use the bin icon to delete an activity, resource or topic.
Hover over the question mark icon for more information, i.e. for contextual help.