E-reserves

Electronic course reserves requested through the Reed Library are linked to your Moodle course page and provide an easy way for students to access course readings. The Library takes care of all scanning and copyright clearance for requested reserves. When requesting a Moodle page, please be sure to let us know if you plan to use e-reserves, and reach out to the reserves team in the library with your requests. E-reserves can be edited throughout the semester if your reading lists change.

Media library

If you are creating videos for your course that you would like accessible through Moodle, let us know when you request your Moodle course page. We will provision a media library for your course on our media server, Panopto. For the best student experience, please do not store large media files in Moodle.

Structure

Moodle course pages can be organized by week or by topic. For either type, you can rename the sections. In a weekly format, Moodle will highlight the current week. Add another week by scrolling down to the last section and selecting “add weeks.” If you are using topics, we suggest organizing you page with more topics with fewer resources under each to help students navigate the page. You may add another topic anywhere on the page using the "add topic" link at the bottom of each topic.

Collapsing and expanding all weeks or topics

Both faculty and students can choose to collapse all weeks or topics in a course page to make navigating the page more manageable. They can also choose to expand all weeks or topics to allow them to see all the materials for the course. Faculty see only the expanded view when they have editing turned on. 

Hiding materials

You can hide individual resources/activities or entire sections from students. This can be useful if you are still editing content, or if you want content to be visible to students later.

Descriptions

Every resource or activity has an optional description. You can choose to have this description appear on the course page to provide further information about resources and activities.

Text and media areas

Use Text and media areas to add stand-alone text or media to your course page. Text and media areas can be as simple as a horizontal line to break up a section, or you can use them to embed images or short videos students will see as soon as they open your course page.

Pages

If you have a lot of text or links to organize, you can create a separate page to store the information.

Blocks

Blocks are special content areas. You can add a variety of blocks, such as a list of recent announcements or upcoming events, to your course. You also have the option of adding an HTML block with useful links or text. Because blocks appear at the bottom of small screens, we recommend including only supplementary, non-essential information in blocks.

Course Visibility

In general, your course is made available the Friday before classes start, or you can arrange a time with us to make it visible before or after this date. You are also welcome to make the course visible when it's ready for your students. To do so:

1. On the main page of your course, go to the left navigation menu. Under "Course administration," click on the “Edit settings” option.
2. On the Course Settings page that opens up, change the “Course visibility” option from “Hide” to “Show.”
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click the “Save and display” button.

Announcements

By default, every Moodle course page has an Announcements forum, which provides an easy way to communicate with students. Messages added in the Announcements forum are automatically sent to enrolled students via email, and past announcements are always accessible to students in the forum. Note that announcements require a Moodle course to be visible to students; announcements should only be sent after a course has been made visible. 

Assignments

Use the assignments activity to collect files from students. The Moodle Assignment documentation can help you to get started; contact us with any questions.

Collaborative annotation

We have enabled Hypothesis, a tool for collaboratively annotating PDFs, in Moodle. Reed faculty who have used Hypothesis report that collaborative annotation supports close reading, helps with comprehension, and allows for rich asynchronous discussions of texts.

Files

To share files with students, drag and drop files from your computer into any section on your Moodle page. You can also organize files into folders for easier download. We encourage you to use Reed e-reserves for any course readings. You can link to materials in the e-reserves area elsewhere on your Moodle page. Be sure you copy the link by hovering over it in the e-reserves area, right clicking, and selecting "copy link" (wording will vary based on browser). Copying the url of a reserve open in your browser will not work.

Forums

Use forums to facilitate asynchronous discussions among students. For more on forums, visit the Moodle forum documentation to get started; contact us with any questions.

Quizzes

Moodle quizzes allow a variety of question types and automatic grading. Check out the Moodle quiz documentation to get started, and contact us with any questions.

URL

You can add links using the Moodle text editor; if you want to highlight a particular external resource, such as a Google Drive folder, use the URL resource.

H5P Content 

With the H5P plugin added to your Moodle page you are able to add a variety of interactive content to your Moodle pages beyond what is offered on a basic Moodle page. Read more information on how to create H5P content.

Large media files can be stored in our media server, Panopto, and linked or embedded in your Moodle course page. We can help you create and embed a playlist of videos or set up a  video assignment (dropbox) for students to submit media assignments. You can record short audio and video and embed it directly into any text area in Moodle using the TinyMCE text editor.

Questions about using Panopto? Contact us at its@reed.edu.