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Moodle Blocks overview

Published on: 11/10/2023 · Last updated on: 29/07/2025

Managing Moodle Blocks

Moodle Blocks appear on the right side of the content area and can be customised in a range of ways (depending on what each block is designed to do). They can be added and rearranged when in Edit mode. Blocks allow staff and students to locate key information more easily.

The blocks on the Home page are customisable only by Moodle Administrators; whilst the blocks that appear within individual Moodle spaces are customisable by anyone with Teacher permissions in that course.

Accessing blocks

To view the blocks on your Moodle space click on the arrow on the top right of your screen to open the Block Drawer.

Adding a new block

To add a new block:

  1. Toggle Edit mode on.
  2. Open block drawer (if not yet opened).
  3. Click on “+ Add a block”.
  4. 4. Select the new block you want to add. That block will now appear on your block drawer.
Image showing Add a block option

Configuring / editing a block

To configure or edit a block:

  1. Toggle Edit mode on.
  2. Open block drawer (if not yet opened).
  3. Click on the cog icon for the block you want to configure.
  4. Select the appropriate function.
    Block editing options

Moving blocks

Where there are existing blocks in the Moodle space, they can be moved and rearranged in the Block Drawer.

To move a block:

  1. Toggle Edit mode on.
  2. Open block drawer (if not yet opened).
  3. Click and hold down on the 4-arrow cross of the block you want to move. You can now move this block in the block drawer.

Useful Blocks

By default, there are five blocks present on Moodle spaces: 

The Accessibility+ Toolkit is a tool to help staff to find, fix and future-proof accessibility issues in their Moodle based content. To find out more visit the Accessibility+ Toolkit page.

The Activities block lists the different activities and resources available in your course (Forums, Quizzes, Assignments etc) and provides links to the index page for each activity or resource. The activities list will grow as you add activities to your course. 

The Calendar block displays events from the Moodle calendar, these include assignment and other activity dates and deadlines, as well as manually added calendar items. Further information can be found on the Moodle Docs page for the Calendar block. 

The Panopto block acts as a link between your Moodle space and Panopto. By enabling the Panopto block in Moodle, a corresponding folder under the same name will appear in Panopto to store recordings – this is referred to as the Moodle-linked folder. To find out more visit the Moodle and Panopto overview page.

This is a tool that gives staff the ability to manage SAMIS cohorts within their Moodle spaces. This can be done for any space, allowing you to add additional mappings to other SAMIS codes. You can also use the Grade transfer functionality to pass grades from Moodle back to SAMIS. 

To find out more, there are pages on Managing Moodle enrolments in the SAMIS Integration block, and Grade Transfer between Moodle and SAMIS. 

Course group upload block 

This block allows you to upload a file with a list of group members to your Moodle space to automatically create groups or assign students to groups accordingly. See How to Import group members from a .csv file for detailed instructions.

Course group upload block

Additional Blocks

In addition, there are many other blocks, further documentation can be found on the Moodle Docs website. 

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