Admin quick guide

This page is an introduction to Moodle administration. You have a new, empty Moodle site installed. What to do next?

Setting up the front (home) page

• In the Administration block, click 'Edit settings'
• Change the fullname and shortname if needed. (The shortname shows in the navigation bar.)
• Decide how you want courses and news to be displayed for logged in and non-logged in users. This can always be changed later. You can choose to display none of this information.
• Note that any information added to the Front page summary will only show in a side block.
• To add images and content to the central area, click 'Turn editing on' in the Administration block and then click the configuration icon near the top of the screen. Use the Text editor to add content.
• For more information, see the documentation Front page settings.
• Note: If you don't want to use your front page for displaying courses or information about your organisation, then you can display the log in page only by checking "force login" in Site administration>Security>Site policies.

Customising the site

• Moodle comes with two standard themes. Both work well on mobile devices as well as desktops and the 'More' theme is designed to be easily customisable from Site appearance>Themes>More.
• Drop down menus may be added from Site administration> Appearance>Themes>Theme settings>Custom menu items, and you can also personalise the user menu from here.
• You can add custom headers, footers or Google Analytics from Site administration>Appearance>Additional HTML.
• If your installation and organisation allow it, you may upload a custom theme. See the section on Installing plugins for information on how to install a custom theme.

Adding courses

• Courses are Moodle's learning areas, where teachers and students work together. See the documentation Courses for full information on setting up courses.
• You may add a new course by clicking the 'Add a new course' button on the front page, or (if you don't see it) by going to Site administration>Courses>Manage courses and categories.
• If you plan to have many courses, you can upload courses with a CSV file.

Adding teachers and students

This is a two-step process, although it can be streamlined.

Step 1: Authentication

• Everyone using your site must have an account. You can allow people to create their own accounts; you can add new users individually, or you can bulk create accounts with a CSV file (and more).
• See the documentation on Authentication for ways to create new accounts on your site.

*Note: You do not yet decide who will be a teacher, student or other type of participant. If you're wondering why, read the documentation on Assigning roles.

Step 2: Enrolment

• Once they have accounts, your users must be enrolled in courses. (Now is the time to give them their student, teacher or other role.) You can allow them to self enrol; you can enrol them manually yourself; you can make them enrol via Paypal and more.
• See the documentation on Enrolment for ways to enrol participants into your courses. You may create the accounts and enrol them into their courses at the same time if you wish by following the instructions on the Upload users documentation or you can explore Cohorts, site or category wide groups.