91²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ

Teaching with Technology

Information Technology

Moodle course format

Moodle course pages can be organized either by week or by custom section. Choose your preferred format when filling out the Moodle course request form. You can also change your course format later by selecting your course settings in Moodle and editing the Course format section

Weekly format

Most faculty at 91²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ use the weekly format for their Moodle course pages. Students may find the weekly format easier to navigate.

  • When using a weekly format, Moodle automatically highlights the current week. It is therefore necessary to retain break weeks in Moodle so that the highlighting is correct.
  • You can rename each weekly section without affecting highlighting.
  • Add another week by scrolling down to the last section and selecting Add week.
Location of add week option

  • If you would like to use a weekly format but want additional sections of your page for other materials, let us know by emailing moodle@reed.edu. We can help set up your page in a way that works for you.

Custom sections format

The custom sections format can be a good choice for classes with a modular structure or if faculty want to organize their page by course topic.

  • We suggest organizing your page with more sections with fewer resources under each to help students navigate the page.
  • When requesting a Moodle course page with a custom sections format, let us know how many sections you would like. You may add another section anywhere on the page clicking the plus icon that appears after existing sections.
Location of add section option.

  • When using the custom sections format, you can manually highlight the current section. In edit mode, click on the triple dot icon to the right of the section name and choose "highlight" from the list of options.
Location of the highlight option in the edit menu

Subsections

You can add subsections to weeks or custom sections in your Moodle course page. Subsections are an additional level of organization for your page and are useful for adding information about individual class days, for example.

To add a subsection, with editing on, click on the plus that appears on the dashed line in the section where you want to add your subsection. Choose Subsection from the menu that appears.

Moodle add content menu showing subsection option.

Click on the pencil icon to give your subsection a name.

Icon to edit section name.

You can add descriptions, activities, or resources to subsections just as you would to a week or section in Moodle.

Example of subsections with descriptions and activities added.

Students can choose to collapse or expand subsections to see content. Subsections also appear in the Moodle course index.