Blocks

Default block positions for a new course page

A Moodle block is a plugin that load in the right-hand and left-hand side of the page, where they can display different types of information.

A teacher can utilize many kinds of blocks in a course page. Typically a course home page contains blocks in the left and right columns.

Block types

There are many different types of blocks in a course that can be used by a teacher. The teacher can add blocks from a pull down menu. Other blocks provide information or settings that a teacher may use. Some activities allow blocks to be inserted by the teacher.

Pull down

Each course has an add block pull down menu.

Blogs - Tags and Menu (from 1.6 onwards) Calendar - display calendar Global Search block HTML - Use HTML editor in content area Loan Calculator (from 1.6 onwards) Mentees block (from 1.8 onwards) Messages Online Users - only online Participants People - link to Participants Quiz Results Random Glossary Entry Remote RSS Feeds Section Links

Other blocks

• Sticky blocks A block that is forced to appear on every page as part of a site setting
• Activities A block used by teachers to add activities
• Course administration block contains course settings.
• Courses Lists student's courses
• Course/Site Description Teacher's description of course
• Latest News
• Recent Activity
• Search Forums
• Upcoming Events

There are also many contributed blocks available for download from the modules and plugins database including:

• Youtube
• Flickr
• Side bar block
• Progress Bar block
• Unanswered Discussions block
• Simple Clock block

Course page block arrangement

The People block with editing turned on

Teachers, and other users with the capability to manage course activities, can change the arrangement of blocks on the course page (apart from Sticky blocks) when editing is turned on.

New blocks can be added using the Add blocks dropdown menu. Existing blocks (apart from Sticky blocks) can be hidden, deleted or moved using the icons in the block header.

Adding blocks to activities

Certain activity modules, such as the Lesson module and the Quiz module, support blocks on their pages. The site administrator must turn this function on so that the teachers will be able to add side blocks on those pages, otherwise the interface does not show this feature to the teacher.

By default, this feature is disabled in the Site administration block. An administrator can enable it by checking the showblocksonmodpages box in Administration > Appearance > Themes > Theme settings. When enabled, users who can manage course activities will be able to add blocks to pages.

See also

• Blocks FAQ
• Block permissions
• Blocks administration - site block settings that an administrator can use
• Site administration block
• Development:Blocks - a developer guide to creating blocks
• Category:Block - an index of all block-related pages
• Category:Contributed code including a number of contributed blocks
• Using Moodle Blocks forum