These FAQs are continually updated and extended, and include links to more comprehensive guidance where appropriate. 

Can’t find the answer here? The Moodle Support Hub provides comprehensive advice and has a set of basic FAQs or contact tel@bath.ac.uk for help.

 

Profile setup

Please watch our introductory screencast (no audio) on how to login, manage notifications (forum and assignment notifications) and setup your profile (e.g set profile picture, office hours).

Log into Moodle, then from any page, click your name (top right of the screen) and then select Profile > Edit Profile and complete the sections as appropriate.

  • The Description section can be useful for detailing any office hours.
  • The User Picture section is where you can upload an image file (which will be cropped an resized to a 100×100 pixel square).

Yes, you can remove assignment emails and restrict forum ones.

You can change the settings in your profile so that you only get one email per day from forum posts.

      • Click on your name in the top-right hand corner of the screen.
      • Select  Preferences then Forum Preferences and choose from the options listed.
      • To receive no emails then select No Digest from the first dropdown menu

 

To change the assignment notification you need to change the message settings

  • Under My profile choose Messages > Messaging and then choose how you want to be notified for Assignments (i.e.have them unticked).

You can change the email destination for Moodle notifications by editing your Preferences > Notification Preferences.

All course events displayed in Moodle (e.g. assignment submission dates) use the UK timezone by default. This can be confusing if you are studying or working in a different timezone, and errors can occur when converting these times to your local timezone. Instead, with a small change to your profile settings, it is possible for Moodle to automatically convert and display these to your local timezone:

  1. Click on your name in the top right hand corner of the screen and select Profile from the drop down menu.
  2. In the User Details section click on Edit profile.
  3. Scroll down to the Timezone option. If it needs to be changed click on it and select your nearest location from the list. For UK time it should be set to Server timezone (Europe/London).
  4. Save your changes by scrolling to the bottom of the screen and pressing Update profile.

Double check: Have you selected the correct timezone?   You may wish to double check, since an incorrect timezone may lead to incorrect deadlines being set. Your profile change will only alter the dates / times provided by the system, and only you will be able to see them in this format.  If you are working in a different timezone, you can double-check you have applied the correct UK timings by reverting to the ‘Server timezone (Europe/London)’ setting.

Communication

Moodle Feedback tool is a simple and easy way to create a short feedback survey. You can enable anonymity (but note that student identities are still recorded in the Moodle logs). Please see the Moodle video guide below or read more about tools for gathering feedback from students.

Yes.  The Moodle calendar is automatically populated with items that have a due date attached.  However, you may want to add your own items so that students have reminders built in, or for activities where the Calendar does not provide the appropriate functionality (for example with recurring Zoom meetings or when you setup an MS Teams meeting through Moodle).

  • Navigate to your Moodle course.
  • Click Calendar (from underneath the Dashboard link on the left menu).

Screenshot of menu in Moodle showing calendar.

  • Click New Event button on the top right of the calendar.
  • Complete the relevant details for your event and click Save.

Note that if you click the ‘Show more’ button you have the option to include ‘repeating’ events.  As ‘recurring’ Zoom meetings only appear as one event in the Moodle calendar you could add the remaining meetings to the calendar using this option (if they are repeated weekly).  Select ‘Repeat this event’ and enter the number of weekly repeats you would like, before saving. You can view all events across all Moodle courses by visiting Home > Dashboard > Calendar.

You can add the Moodle calendar to your list of calendars in your Outlook calendar through the use of a Moodle generated URL.  Note this will pull through events across all the Moodle courses you are enrolled in, it can’t be limited to just one course.

Generate a link to the Moodle Calendar
  • Login to your Moodle course and select the calendar.
  • Click Export Calendar from the button underneath the calendar.
  • Select what you want to see in the calendar from the options available and click ‘Get calendar URL’.
  • Copy the URL that appears underneath the button.
Import the calendar into Outlook
  • Open Outlook on the web (https://outlook.office365.com) and sign in.
  • Click Add calendar.
  • Select Subscribe from web.
  • Add the URL and click import.
  • Fill the details (name/colour/charm) and click Import.

The newly named calendar becomes an option in your list of calendars which you can toggle on/off. Please note that Microsoft report that it can take 24 hours for Outlook to update subscribed calendars. It is also possible to  use the generated calendar link to add a calendar to a Gmail calendar.

You can create a Choice Activity which can allows students to pick from a given set of sessions.

Digital Activities

Use different activities like Wikis to create content together, Forums to exchange ideas, Boards to collaborate and share ideas, Database to collectively gather resources, Glossary to create shared understanding of concepts … and more! You can group students in any of these activities to promote collaboration.

H5P is an activity authoring tool that lets you create small interactive online tasks, and add them directly into your Moodle page. For instructions and further information see our H5P in Moodle page.

Moodle Boards enables a post-it board activity for students. This is a collaborative activity where the teachers sets out a number of columns with optional names and then participants can add contributions to the columns. Students posts are anonymous (however, it is recommended to inform students that Teachers will be able to access creation details, such as names).

For further information see our Moodle Board Overview and FAQs page.

 

Watch the 6-minute video below for instructions on how to enable a Board on your Moodle page. It will also show you how participants can add posts.

Managing users & student data

Go to Participants (now in a block to the left) > Enrol users > (Enter user name to search); Assign role to user.

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How to set Default Enrolment Duration: You can set a Default enrolment duration for participants that are Manual enrolments and/or Self enrolment (Student). The Default enrolment duration does not affect SAMIS enrolled students. The Default enrolment duration will remove participants once they have reached the allocated enrolment time on the unit. Setting the default enrolment duration may limit the number of manual and self-enrolled participants you will need to manually remove from your unit. To set the Default enrolment durations:

  1. Click on Participant.

Screenshot of Course Toolkit with the participant button

2. Then click on the cog for the dropdown menu.
Screenshot of Participant screen with the cog highlighted
3. From the dropdown menu choose Enrolment methods.
Screenshot of dropdown menu in participant screen with Enrolment methods highlighted
4. Click on the cog in the row you wish to alter the enrolment duration. Screenshot of Enrolment methods with cogs highlighted
5. Choose the Default role you would like to set the enrolment duration for. Then enable the Default enrolment duration and choose the enrolment duration. You can also choose to notify participants when their enrolment time expires. When you are happy with your changes click Save changes.
Screenshot of Manual enrolment options    Screenshot of self enrolment options
6. Once a student is unenrolled (in this way or any other) you will no longer see any of their assignment submissions. If you want to access those submissions, you can re-enrol the student and as long as the group feature is not in use for the unit, the assignment will reappear.

To manually unenrol an individual or group of users please watch the guidance video below. It is recommended to check your course enrolment before the start of each semester and remove any manually enrolled users no longer needed.

If the Short code for the Moodle page is a SAMIS unit or programme code, then the corresponding cohort of students will be automatically enrolled (assuming they are correctly registered in SAMIS). This is called the “default mapping”. 

You may additionally add a bespoke mapping, enabling additional (non-default) cohorts to be added to the course. These can be removed at any point if required.

Course Toolkit on the left hand side of a moodle page. Course Toolkit -> SAMIS Integration -> Manage Mappings.

At this point, a new window will open up.  This window will display a list of all of the courses that you have Teacher access to.  Identify the course to which you wish to add additional cohorts, and expand the reference to it by pressing the expand  icon.

  • Press the Add cohort button (the following options will display)
  • SAMIS Add Cohort display with entry for  SAMIS Code, Academic Year, Period Code, Year of Study and Unenrol Method
  • Enter the relevant cohort details (e.g. LT00021, 2021/2, S1) including your preferred un-enrolment method, as described below. Ensure the Period code is correct or no students may be found.
  • Sync

     If a cohort is registered on SAMIS for a unit for Semester 1 or Semester 2 then they have access to the Moodle course for a defined duration. To see the Unenrol Date, you can select “View Enrolled Users” after adding the cohort.

    Specified Date  You can select any future date when the cohort will be automatically unenrolled from the Moodle course.
  • Press the Create Mapping button. 
  • This mapping will save automatically, though you may wish to press the Save Changes button for peace of mind.
  • Repeat the process to add more than one user defined mapping.

 

Further information

  • SAMIS mappings synchronise with SAMIS every morning during the working week. 
  • To synchronise all cohort mappings for the Moodle course with SAMIS immediately, you should press the Sync Course button.
  • To view all enrolled users including their unenrolment conditions, press the View Enrolled Users button.

 

Note:  Programme mappings can also be created (enabling Teachers to enrol a specific year group/all year groups as required)Adding a SAMIS Programme Code

On occasion you may want to immediately synchronise enrolments in your Moodle course with the information held in SAMIS, rather than waiting for a scheduled automatic sync. To do so follow the instructions in the screencast below: 

Please note: You can only unenrol from a Moodle unit that you were manually or self-enrolled in. You cannot unenrol from SAMIS enrolled courses. How you unenrol from a Moodle course depends on the role you were assigned in the unit. If you are unsure of your role, on the Moodle page you can go to Participant and look at the role assigned to your name. Below are instructions on how to unenrol from a unit depending on your role: Teacher

  1. Navigate to the Moodle page you wish to unenrol from.
  2. On the Moodle page go to Participant.
  3. Look for the row with your name.
  4. At the end of  the row click on the trash can icon.
  5. Click Unenrol to confirm.

Student

  1. Navigate to the Moodle page you wish to unenrol from.
  2. On the Moodle page go to the pink cog at the top right hand corner.
  3. Click on Unenrol me from “unit name”.
  4. Click Continue to confirm.

Non-editing Teacher As a Non-editing Teacher you are unable to unenrol yourself from the Moodle course. You will need someone with Teacher access to remove you from the unit.

You can switch roles to “Student View” (instructions) which will simulate you being a student enrolled on your existing courses.. Note that this student will be in the default group.

Check course visibility, check Participants/Users to see if the user is present (especially if teaching multiple cohorts together in single course) and check the SAMIS User mapping (note this relies on correct and up to date enrollments on SAMIS).  Students are enrolled by SAMIS into their respective Moodle course three weeks before the start of Semester 1 and 2.

Yes, externals can access Moodle. First uou will need to put in a Request for Temporary Account (WAA account) from DD&T.

When staff and students work in Moodle the technology logs their interactions.  This information is then made available in various report functions:

  • for staff so that they can understand student behaviour and analyse how students are working with the online content
  • for students so that they can keep track of their progress

Find out more about Using Reporting Tools to Explore Online Activity

Pedagogical Support

As outlined in the Bath Blend, consistency and scaffolding are key ingredients to allowing students to effectively engage with content. To achieve this you could consider using the Bath Blend Baseline Moodle template to structure your course and also follow these simple tips to improve an existing course (name sections appropriately, use descriptions and labels, change course format setting).

  • Set expectations early.
  • Communicate frequently and clearly.
    • Use the announcement forum to broadcast information
    • Other forums support students asking questions to you and to peers
  • Consider using Moodle’s Video feature to introduce new topics etc (max 2 mins in length)

1. Online Moodle Grading – see overview video and our Moodle course instructions
  • Works in the browser to allow annotation/inline commenting on scripts.
  • To support maths, other symbols, calculation, diagrams etc, it is easiest to mark up the script (e.g. insert C1 comment for calculation comment 1, S1 for style/grammatical comments etc) and then attach a supporting file with all the comments summarised (you can also use annotation tools but works best on touch screens and can be tricky).
2. Moodle Offline Grading- see video and our Moodle course instructions
  • Download all scripts to your local machine (if you select Download in folders, each student’s work will be downloaded into a folder for each student).
  • In terms of feedback, you can edit/markup their submission (using a more powerful pdf editor than Moodle’s annotation tools).
  • Supplementary files placed in the students folder will also be uploaded as feedback to them (this can also support scripted assessment of programming projects).
3. Rubrics and Marking Guides see video and Moodle course instructions
  • Rubrics allow you to assess against a set of performance indicators (and award a fixed mark for each one, i.e. comment 4 must map to 4 and not a range of marks) – selecting the performance indicator can feedback to students on generic positive points and areas to improve (there is also space for free comments too).
  • Marking guides, have a number of criteria (similar to rubrics), but allow a free comment for each (and any marks up to maximum for that criteria to be awarded).
  • Both approaches support standardisation of marking and also give a clear structure for the feedback.

4. Mix and Match + other strategies

  • These approaches aren’t exclusive to one another. For example the coded marking  (e.g. C1-type comments etc) could be used for online/offline/marking guides (one could also distribute a general version of the coded marking feedback sheet to all students separately on Moodle).
  • There are also lots of other genetic feedback strategies one can use inside Moodle. For example: feedforward/student engagement with feedback  – e.g. instead of detailed feedback on whole piece, ask for student to redraft/correct/identify small number of highlighted issues: Moodle allows for resubmission and you provide detail comments on the selected improved parts.
  • The suitability of these strategies will be dependent on the context of the assessment (formative/summative), the assessment aims and also the nature of the submission.

Accessibility and Inclusivity

Please see our quick Blackboard Ally quick start video below or use the Blackboard Ally help page.

No, the Ally score for individual activities is only visible to teachers enrolled on the Moodle course. The only way students interact with Blackboard Ally directly is via being able to download Alternative Formats.

It is possible to turn off the alternative format download for individual content items (see the Blackboard Ally instructions). For students, the Alternative Format button will still be visible next to the activity, but will say “Alternative Formats for this file have been disabled”.

Technical Questions

Unfortunately, at this time we are focusing on existing solutions that we can support. Plug-ins require a code review from our external hosts so they don’t impact the stability of Moodle for everyone. Please contact tel@bath.ac.uk to discuss alternative options.

Read the Accessible maths with Moodle Guidance for using the text editor of LaTeX markup.

The way in which the Re:View (Panopto) block works changed in Sept 2018 and scheduled recordings are stored and viewed from the Re:View portal. If you haven’t scheduled lecture recordings or they haven’t taken place yet, then you will need to use the Moodle block. Please see guidance on our Panopto FAQs on What is the Moodle Block? and Adding the Moodle Block.

Orientation, Structure and Navigation

The Essential Unit Information Area is a new tabbed area, which appears at the top of the Moodle page, before the main content.

The tabs provide staff with a consistent layout to help them present key unit information to students. Please read the Moodle Essential Unit Information Area – Quick Guide for more details.

Please read our Essential Unit Information setup, which details what content to place under the different headings and how to edit it.

Bath Blend Baseline Templates for Moodle (which consist of sections and some key course activities and resources) can only be applied to blank Moodle courses and you can request this by contacting tel@bath.ac.uk.

You can import content from your previous course to this fresh Moodle course. 

Watch the video below for instructions on how to add a course image to your Moodle unit.

Moodle Forum

Watch the video below for instructions on how to setup a Forum and what the different settings do or read Our Best Practice Tips for Forums.

There are a number of options:

  • In the (default) Standard forum for general use provides students with the option to post and reply. For example, you might ask students to post questions they have about a particular topic or lecture. Both you and the other students in the cohort can respond or start new threads.
  • In a Single, simple discussion the tutor posts a question and students are able only to reply. They cannot start a new topic of discussion. This is useful if you wish to keep a discussion focused. Note: This forum type does not work with separate groups. For example, you may ask students to comment on options for a field trip.
  • The Each person posts one discussion forum allows a person to post exactly one new discussion topic although everyone can reply to them. For example, this can be useful when you want each student to start a discussion about, say, their reflections on the week’s topic, and everyone else responds to these.
  • In a Question and Answer forum the tutor posts a question and students respond with possible answers. By default a Q and A forum requires students to post once before viewing other students’ postings. Students cannot see other posts until they post. This can be useful in avoiding ‘I agree’ answers from students. For example, you might ask students to explain the challenges in a given scenario, and because the students can’t rely on seeing other people’s responses first, you will be able to see how far they have understood the situation.
  • The Standard forum displayed in a blog-like format works like the standard forum for general use, but the first post of each discussion is displayed (as in a blog) so that participants can read it and then choose to respond by clicking the “Discuss this topic” button bottom right of the post.

Yes, there is now the option to do this, so that only that individual students will see your reply. 

However, any Teacher or Non-editing teacher enrolled in the course, will also be able to see the ‘private’ posts, and receive email notifications.

When replying to a post click the Reply privately check box.

Screenshot from Moodle forum.

Yes, you can now grade forum contributions.  

To enable grading, in the forum settings go to the section ‘Whole forum grading‘, and set the grade type to Point (or Scale).

You can then choose a grading method; and for now we recommend the simple direct grading (marking guide or rubric are possible but are currently hindered by a user interface problem that has yet to be fixed). After saving the forum settings, you’ll find a ‘Grade users’ button on the forum page. 

Grading option in Moodle forum.

In the forum grading screen you will be able to scroll through the participants and see their posts/discussions.  You can add a grade and save it and choose whether to notify the student.

Yes, you can now export forum contributions.  Select the forum activity and from the settings cog select the ‘Export‘ option.

You can then choose which format you’d like to export. Click the ‘human-readable dates‘ option and Export. You can also export posts from individuals using the summary report (see the following FAQ).

Yes, you can now see a ‘summary report’ of forum contributions.  Select the forum activity and from the settings cog select the ‘Forum summary report‘ option.

You can then see the overview, export posts from selected individuals or export the table in a format you’d like to use. Click the ‘human-readable dates’ option and Export.

Managing resources

Yes. Deleted Activities are moved to the recycle bin for 30 days, after which time they are permanently deleted. Go to the Course Settings Cog > Recycle bin and select the item(s) you wish to restore.

Animated screencast of how to restore a deleted activity from the Moodle recycle bin. Click the settings cog, then recycle bin, then next click the restore icon next to the activity you wish to restore. A confirmation dialogue confirms the item has been restored to its previous place in the course.
Please note, the recycle bin is only available if there if you have deleted contents in the last 30 days. It may take up to 30 minutes for the activity to appear in the recycle bin.

There are two ways to move an activity from one Moodle course to another:

  • Import – quick and useful for few items where you do not need to also move student data.
  • Backup and Restore – this two step process lets you customise and have greater control over what you move: activities, student enrolments, data and groups, etc.

Moodle has a 50MB upload limit to keep the platform working smoothly for everyone. If you are trying to upload video content (or a Powerpoint with a voice over), then you should instead upload the content to Panopto (guidance).

It is also possible for staff to share content with students via their University of Bath OneDrive Account. Please contact tel@bath.ac.uk if these solutions don’t work for you.

To show or hide a whole Moodle course, edit Course Settings and under General > Course Visibility: Show/Hide. Note: hiding a course will stop students being able to access the course completely. Staff role (teacher, non-editing teacher, director of studies will still have full course access).

Please read the Moodle course management guide, which will detail dates for when students are automatically (SAMIS) enrolled and removed from a course, and also guidance around resetting a course to remove student previous student assignments and quiz attempts.

Yes, you can create interactive learning activities for Moodle. One way to do this is with H5P, which can be accessed directly in Moodle. Click here for information and guidance on H5P in Moodle. Alternatively, you can use Xerte to author your online learning activity. Click here for information and guidance on Xerte.

Managing groups

This is a quick guide to using groups in Moodle. We encourage you to view it before reading the more detailed guidance below.


Open the quick guide in your browser

At the top of your Moodle course, go to the settings cog and select “More”. Select the “Users” tab and then “Groups”.

Screencast showing how to access the groups menu. Mouse cursor moves to top of moodle page and settings cog, users tab and then groups

To do delete unwanted Groups from your course, follow the steps in the short video below.

You can create empty groups either manually or automatically following some structure/naming convention (e.g. Workshop Group {1,2,3…}): please see the video below:

You first need to create empty groups and then allocate students to those groups. You can do this manually as shown in the video below or by getting students to self-enrol via the Group Choice activity.

It is now possible to create and populate Moodle Groups using a CSV file which can be made with Excel. For details, please see the video below: 

If you have been struggling or spending hours adding students manually into empty groups, the new Course Group Upload block will save you time.

First, log into Moodle, navigate to the relevant course page and ‘Turn Editing On’. Later go to the left menu and scroll down to the bottom of the page until you find the option ‘add a block’ and click on it as shown below.

 

Screenshoot Moodle page

Then a pop-up box will appear, find the option ‘Course group upload‘ and click on it. The block will be added to the left menu below the ‘Course Toolkit’.

Selection of the block and indication of where the new block is added in the left menu

 

To prepare your source file, you must create a CSV UTF-8 document in Excel. In the spreadsheet, add the following headers in the first row: email, group and grouping. Then, populate all the information within each corresponding column. If you are not using the grouping function in your course, leave this column blank as seen in the example below.

Example of a CSV file

 

When the CSV is ready, go to the block and click on ‘Import file page’. A new page will appear, you can either ‘drag and drop‘ your CSV file into the box (option B), or you can click on ‘Choose a file‘ and select a document from your computer or your OneDrive (option A). After uploading your CSV file, click on ‘update’. 

Then the page will display a table with the emails and groups imported from the CSV file. Click on ‘submit’ to complete the data upload.

Finally, it will display a message to confirm that the data was successfully imported. You can check if the groups have been added correctly by clicking on ‘Go to group/grouping view page’.

Yes, though you will first need to create empty groups as shown above. Once you’ve done this setup a Group Choice Activity to allow students to allocate themselves to the Groups:

One way to populate large number students to groups, is to get them to allocate themselves to groups using the Group Choice Activity. The Teacher can specify the group membership via a separate document, and ask the students to enrol themselves into these groups (you may wish to review/amend the Group Choices to make sure it is correct).

Note: there is now a group import block that allows you to upload a .csv file to allocate students to groups.

This answer assumes you have students correctly setup in Groups (e.g. tutor groups) from Moodle course 1 and want to copy those groups to a different Moodle course 2. If you need help on enrolling students from SAMIS to a Moodle course, read these instructions instead. To do this we will use the Backup and Restore feature in Moodle (note: Moodle’s import feature does not work with Group Members). This will copy ALL enrolments, groups and groups members from Moodle Course 1 to Moodle Course 2.

WARNINGS
  • Prior to beginning this procedure and to avoid conflicts and confusion, Moodle course 1 should have the groups correctly setup and Moodle course 2 should NOT have any Groups or members.
  • This procedure will copy ALL enrolments from Moodle Course 1 to Moodle Course 2, including any manual enrolments. It is the responsibility of the user to clear up any additional enrolments in Moodle course 2 following Import.
Backup Instructions
  1. In Moodle course 1, in the Administration block > select Backup
  2. Under “Initial Settings”, only check:
    • Include enrolled users
    • Include user role assignments
    • Include groups and groupings
    • All must should be unchecked
  3. Click Next to progress to “Schema Settings” and select None. Scroll down to ensure all Sections and Activities are unchecked, then click Next.
  4. Under the “Confirmation and Review” all items should have a red cross next to them, except the following which should have green ticks:
    • Include enrolled users
    • Include user role assignments
    • Include groups and groupings
  5. Click “Perform Backup” and wait for Backup to be finished (this may take some time). You will then be taken to the Restore section in Moodle course 1 where you should download the file to your local computer.
Restore Instructions
  1. In Moodle course 2, in the Administration block > select Restore
  2. Under Import a backup file, Choose a file to backup and select the file you have just generated/downloaded to your computer from Moodle course 1. Click Restore (you will be prompted to review changes before the Restore is complete).
  3.  In the Confirm dialogue, ensure that the only checked items are as listed below then click Continue:
    • Include enrolled users
    • Include user role assignments
    • Include groups and groupings
    • all other items have a cross
  4. Under Destination, you need to select Merge the backup course into this course and then Continue.
  5. In settings, again confirm only the following are checked before continuing:
    • Include enrolled users
    • Include user role assignments
    • Include groups and groupings
  6. In Schema dialogue, you should ensure Overwrite course configuration is set to No
  7. In the Review dialogue, finally check all settings and activities are not checked apart from and then click Perform Restore
    • Include enrolled users
    • Include user role assignments
    • Include groups and groupings
  8. You should be taken to a review that shows your Restore has been a success (if not contact tel@bath.ac.uk)

Remember: this procedure will copy ALL enrolments from Moodle Course 1 to Moodle Course 2, including any manual enrolments. It is the responsibility of the user to clear up any additional enrolments in Moodle course 2 following Import.

Moodle Quiz

Please see our dedicated page on Moodle Quiz Settings Setup and FAQ.

Moodle Assignment

Please see our dedicated pages on:

Still Got Questions?

Book a 1:1 with a member of the Team