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| {{Update}}{{About Moodle}}
| | #redirect [[:Category:New features]] |
| Moodle is an active and evolving product. This page lists only some of Moodle's many features. We encourage you to click on links to learn more.
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| == Overall design ==
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| Moodle's overall design:
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| * Promotes a social constructionist pedagogy (collaboration, activities, critical reflection, etc)
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| * Suitable for 100% online classes as well as supplementing face-to-face learning
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| * Simple, lightweight, efficient, compatible, low-tech browser interface
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| * Easy to install on almost any platform that supports PHP. Requires only one database (and can share it).
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| * Full database abstraction supports all major brands of database (except for initial table definition)
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| * Course listing shows descriptions for every course on the server, including accessibility to guests.
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| * Courses can be categorised and searched - one Moodle site can support thousands of courses
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| * Emphasis on strong security throughout. Forms are all checked, data validated, cookies encrypted etc
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| * Most text entry areas (resources, forum postings etc) can be edited using an embedded WYSIWYG HTML editor
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| == Site management ==
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| *Site is managed by an [[Administrator|administrator]] user
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| *Site is defined during setup. Defaults can be edited during setup or globally accepted
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| *Site can be modified by a robust [[Site administration block]].
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| * Plug-in [[Themes|"themes"]] allow the administrator to customize the site colors, fonts, layout etc to suit local needs
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| * Plug-in [[:Category:Contributed code|activity modules]] can be added to existing Moodle installations
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| * Plug-in language packs allow full localization to any language. These can be [[Language editing|edited]] using a built-in web-based editor. Currently there are language packs for over [http://download.moodle.org/lang/ 70 languages].
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| * The code is clearly-written PHP under a GPL license - easy to modify to suit your needs
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| == User management ==
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| ===Overview===
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| * Goals are to reduce admin involvement to a minimum, while retaining high security
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| * Supports a range of user [[Authentication|authentication]] mechanisms through plug-in authentication modules, allowing easy integration with existing systems.
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| ** [[Email-based self-registration|Standard email method]]: students can create their own login accounts. Email addresses are verified by confirmation.
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| ** [[LDAP authentication|LDAP]] method: account logins can be checked against an LDAP server. Admin can specify which fields to use.
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| ** For example, [[IMAP authentication|IMAP]], [[POP3 server|POP3]], [[NNTP authentication|NNTP]]: account logins are checked against a mail or news server. SSL/TLS certificates are supported.
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| * Students are encouraged to build an online [[Edit profile]] including photos, description. Email addresses can be protected from display if required.
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| **Every user can specify their own timezone, and every date in Moodle is translated to that timezone (e.g. posting dates, assignment due dates etc)
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| ** Every user can choose the language used for the Moodle interface (English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese etc)
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| ===Enrolment===
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| *After a user has been [[Authenticated user|authenticated]] by the site or allowed in as a guest, they can self [[Enrolment|enroll]] in courses.
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| *Courses can a limit enrollment in several ways. Student self enrollment can be turned off.
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| * An "[[enrolment_key|enrolment key]]" in a course, only allows certain students to enter. These keys can be give out face-to-face or via email and can be changed
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| * Teachers, with permissions, can manually [[Students#Manual_enrol|enrol students]] or [[Students#Manual_unenrol|unenrol students]] in their courses.
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| * [[Course completion]] is a course prerequsite feature of Moodle 2.0 that allows scaffolding of courses.
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| * Course and site settings have options for automatic removal of users
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| *There are many [[Enrolment_plugins]]
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| **Includes: LADP, IMS, Paypal, [[MNet|Moodle Network]] to name a few
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| **Any [[External_database|External database]] that has least two fields can be used as an external authentication source
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| **[[Flat file]] or [[CSV]] files can automatically authenticate and enroll students in specific courses
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| * Each person needs only one account for the Moodle site. Each account can have access to different courses, and the courses resources and activities.
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| * [[Metacourses|Meta courses]] get their enrollment information from 1 or more other courses.
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| ===Roles ===
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| * [[Roles]] combine specific permissions for specific types of participants. A user can be [[Assign roles|assigned]] a different role for each [[Context|contexts]], such as a specific course.
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| * The [[Administrator|administrator (admin)]] user account controls the creation of courses and creates teachers by assigning users to courses and giving them a role in that context
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| * New roles can be [[Manage roles|created, copied from existing roles and edited]]. Some standard roles include:
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| ** [[Course creator]] can create courses, teach in them, and assign others to teacher roles.
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| ** [[Teachers]] are a role in a specific course.
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| ** Non-editing teacher roles are available for adjuncts, and part-time tutors.
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| ** [[Students]] can participate and view activities but not create them
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| ** [[Guest]]s are view only users.
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| == Course management ==
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| ===Overview===
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| * Typically, a teacher has full control over all [[Course settings|settings]] for a course.
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| **This can include assigning other teachers [[Roles|roles]] with less privileges
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| * Choice of [[Course formats]] settings such as by week, by topic or a discussion-focused social format
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| * An individual [[Course_settings#Force_theme|course theme]] and layout can be created for any course.
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| * Flexible array of course [[Activities|activities]] - Forums, Quizzes, Glossaries, Resources, Choices, Surveys, Assignments, Chats, Workshops
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| * [[Groups]] - teacher(s) and students can be placed in one or more groups
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| * Recent changes to the course since the last login can be displayed on the course home page - helps give sense of community
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| * Most text entry areas (resources, forum postings etc) can be edited using an embedded WYSIWYG [[HTML editor]]
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| * Mail integration - copies of forum posts, teacher feedback etc can be mailed in HTML or plain text. Users can set a preference for daily emails in their profile.
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| * Custom [[Scales|scales]] - teachers can define their own scales to be used for grading forums and assignments
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| * Courses can be packaged as a single zip file using the [[Backup]] function. These can be restored on any Moodle server.
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| * Specific course activities and resources can be [[Import course data|imported]] from another existing course
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| ===Course reports===
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| * All [[Grades|grades]] for many kinds of activities can be viewed on [[Gradebook|one page]] (and downloaded in several formats).
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| * Graded activities can be futher calculated or manually entered in the Gradebook which is seperated from the initial activity caluclation. Additionally categories of graded activities and display functions allow for custom reports.
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| * Full user logging and tracking - [[Reports|activity reports]] for each student are available with graphs and details about each module (last access, number of times read) as well as a detailed "story" of each students involvement including postings etc on one page.
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| === Assignment Module ===
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| * [[Assignment module|Assignments]] can be specified with a due date and a maximum grade.
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| * Students can upload their assignments (any file format) to the server - they are date-stamped.
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| * Late assignments are allowed, but the amount of lateness is shown clearly to the teacher
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| * For each particular assignment, the whole class can be assessed (grade and comment) on one page in one form.
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| * Teacher feedback is appended to the assignment page for each student, and notification is mailed out.
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| * The teacher can choose to allow resubmission of assignments after grading (for regrading)
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| * Allowing resubmissions can allow the teacher to progress monitor student projects/assignments as they evolve.
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| * Advanced assignments can allow multiple files to be uploaded. This could keep together preplanning maps, outlines, research papers and presentations. (Not for beginners)
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| === Chat module ===
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| * The [[Chat module]] allows smooth, synchronous text interaction
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| **They can be limited to group members or roles, or be for anyone in the course
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| * Includes profile pictures in the chat window
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| * Supports URLs, smilies, embedded HTML, images etc
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| * All sessions are logged for later viewing, and these can also be made available to students
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| === Choice module ===
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| * The [[Choice module]] is like a single question poll. Can either be used to vote on something, or to get feedback from every student
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| * Teacher sees intuitive table view of who chose what
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| * Students can optionally be allowed to see an up-to-date graph of results
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| === Forum Module ===
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| * Different types of [[Forum module|forums]] are available, such as teacher-only, course news, open-to-all, and one-thread-per-user.
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| * There are several options for emailing forum posts to members of the course.
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| * All postings have the authors photo attached.
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| * Discussions can be viewed nested, flat or threaded, oldest or newest first.
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| * Robust subscription methods for each forum
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| **Individual forums can be subscribed to by each person
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| **Teacher can force subscription for all members of the course, either initially or permanently.
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| * Groups features allow options for more entry and viewing limitations for students.
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| * The teacher can choose not to allow replies to their posts (announcements.
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| * Discussion threads can be moved between forums or split by the teacher.
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| * Attachments can be made to posts and shown as part of message.
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| * Forum ratings can be used, these can be restricted to a range of dates.
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| ===Glossary Module===
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| *The [[Glossary module]] is one of the modules that best illustrates the way that Moodle can fundamentally improve upon the experience of a traditional classroom
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| *When students contribute to a course in a public place like the glossary, their ideas are given weight and attention and often result in a greater pride or ownership of the assignment
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| *Allows participants to create and maintain a list of definitions, like a dictionary
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| *Student entries can be previewed by instructors before publishing
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| *Entries can be searched or browsed using alphabet, category, date, and author
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| *A glossary of terms can be easily referenced by students
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| *Almost any module of Moodle can be set to hyperlink - automatically - to any word or phrase that is stored in or added to the glossary
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| *Glossary items can be grouped in categories
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| *Participants can comment on glossary entries
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| *Entries can be rated using teacher-defined scales
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| *Glossaries can be easily exported and imported via xml
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| *Glossaries can be fully searched
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| *Glossaries can be viewed with different display formats
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| === Lesson Module ===
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| *A [[Lesson module|lesson]] is a single activity where a series of pages are presented to the student.
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| *Pages can allow students to make choices by their answers to questions or by selecting a button with a description. A student choice is also a link to another lesson page.
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| **This allows for a simple slide show type of presentation, with questions.
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| **It allows for a branching, adaptive presentation based upon a student's specific choice.
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| **Navigation through the lesson can be straight forward or complex, logical or random.
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| *[[Jumps]] are associated with each choice that link to other lesson pages.
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| **Jumps can be to a specific page or to a random page or a page not seen by the student.
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| *Choices that are answers to questions and can be scored and given individual feed back.
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| **Question pages include Multiple choice, Multi-answer, T/F, numeric, short answer and essay.
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| *[[Adding/editing a lesson|Lesson settings]] offer the teacher many options such as:
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| **Different scoring and grading potentials
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| **Lessons can build upon each other through conditional dependencies upon one another
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| **Student attempts, time limits, minimum score and retakes can be set
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| **Students may see progress bars, running score, reinforcement to student questions
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| **Password, start and end times, and other restrictions can be placed on students.
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| *Pages can be created one at a time or [[Import questions|imported]].
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| === Quiz Module ===
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| * There are many types of standard questions formats that can be used in the [[Quiz module]]. Quiz offers many scoring methods and ways to present itself to students.
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| * Quizzes are automatically graded when a student finishes. An entire quiz or specific questions be regraded at any time, should the teacher change an answer's score.
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| * There are many [[Adding/editing a quiz|quiz settings options]], such as:
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| ** Quizzes can have a limited time window outside of which they are not available
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| ** At the teacher's option, quizzes can be attempted multiple times, and can show feedback and/or correct answers
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| ** Quiz questions and quiz answers can each be shuffled (randomised) to reduce cheating
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| ** Quizzes can be attempted multiple times, if desired
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| ** Attempts can be cumulative, if desired, and finished over several sessions
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| * Questions are stored in [[Question categories|categories]] that are part of a robust [[Question bank|database] for easy access.
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| ** Categories of questions can be arranged in the database so they can only be used in a specific quiz, or in a specific course or in any quiz on the site.
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| ** Edited questions can replace the orignial or become new questions in the database
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| * Questions use HTML formatting, images and has a [[HTML editor|friendly tool bar]] in both the question and answer areas.
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| * Questions can be [[Import questions|imported]] or [[Export questions|exported]] in many file formats.
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| * There are more than 10 question types, each with different scoring methods, such as:
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| ** [[Multiple Choice question type|Multiple-choice questions]] supporting single or multiple answers
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| ** [[Short-Answer question type|Short Answer questions]] (words or phrases)
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| ** [[True/False question type|True-False questions]]** Matching questions
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| ** [[Random Short-Answer Matching question type|Random Short answer questions]]
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| ** [[Numerical question type|Numerical questions]] (with allowable ranges)
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| ** [[Embedded Answers (Cloze) question type|Embedded-answer questions (cloze style)]] with answers within passages of text
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| ** [[Questions linking to files|Embedded descriptive text and graphics]] is possible in questions
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| * Quiz questions can come from specific question in a specific category or as a random questions drawn from a category. These can be mixed and matched to suit the teacher.
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| === Resource Module ===
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| * [[Resources]] can display of many types of media content files by a single link on the course page, such as:
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| ** Word, Powerpoint, Flash, Video formats, Audio formats
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| ** Internal web pages (HTML formatted) can be created with [[HTML editor]] tool
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| ** Internal text pages (no formatting)
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| **Files can be stored locally or the link point to remote locations
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| * [[Files]] can be uploaded and managed (zipped, unzipped, renamed, moved) in the course
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| ** Folders can be created and managed in the course and students given a link to the folder.
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| * External content on the web can be linked to or seamlessly included within the course interface.
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| ** External web applications can be linked to with data passed to them
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| === Survey Module ===
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| * Built-in [[Survey module|surveys]] (COLLES, ATTLS) have been proven as instruments for analysing online classes
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| * Online survey reports always available, including many graphs. Data is downloadable as an Excel spreadsheet or CSV text file.
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| * Survey interface prevents partly-finished surveys.
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| * Feedback is provided to the student of their results compared to the class averages
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| === Wiki Module===
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| *[[Wiki module]] is a series of web pages that anyone can add to or edit
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| *It enables document pages to be authored collectively
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| *Supports groups
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| *There are many [[Wiki administration|teacher based editing tools]].
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| === Workshop Module ===
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| * [[Workshop module]] allows peer assessement of documents, and the teacher can manage and grade the assessment.
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| * Supports a wide range of possible grading scales
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| * Teacher can provide sample documents for students to practice grading
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| * Being redone for Moodle 2.0
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| ==Support==
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| Moodle has better actual user support than most higher priced course management software programs. [http://moodle.org/support Support] comes in a variety of robust forms to meet the varied needs of a larger user base. Some examples:
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| *Moodle documentation. You are reading one of many pages
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| **Starting links for [[Teacher_documentation|Teachers]], [[Administrator documentation|Administrator]] and [[Development:Developer documentation|Developers]]
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| **[[Moodle Docs|Pages]] that can connect to your Moodle site for help
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| *Many active [http://moodle.org/course/ forums and courses] to provide help, tips and friendly encouragement
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| **Over 70 [http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=5 user forums] in English
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| **Even more in other languages
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| **A [http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=55 social forum] for not necessarily Moodle related threads
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| *Special user group Moodle courses, with forums, demonstrations and FAQs
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| *[[Tracker]] for bugs, issues and new features requests
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| *Demonstration courses - in many languages showing different looks and presentation methods with a standard Moodle.
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| *Books - we have our [[Using Moodle book|favorites]] and there are [[Moodle manuals|many books]] on and about Moodle
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| *[[Moodle Partners]] can also provide you with focused help for your site or project
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| [[es:Características]]
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| [[fr:Fonctionnalités]]
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| [[pt:Características do Moodle]]
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| [[de:Funktionalität]]
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| [[ru:Возможности]]
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