Moodle site - basic structure

How does Moodle work?

The Front page

• The Front page of a Moodle site - the page you reach from your browser - usually includes information about the establishment itself and can be highly customised.
• It is also possible to lock the front page down so that all a user sees when they click on the Moodle URL is a log in screen.
• How users join a Moodle site depends on the establishment: they might be given logins; they might be allowed to make accounts themselves, or they might be signed in automatically from another system.

Inside Moodle

• Moodle's basic structure is organised around courses. These are basically pages or areas within Moodle where teachers can present their learning resources and activities to students.
• Courses can have different layouts according to teacher preference or establishment policy, but they usually have a number of central sections where materials are displayed and side blocks offering extra features or information.
• Courses can contain content for a year's studies, a single session or any other variants depending on the teacher or establishment. They can be used by one teacher or shared by a group of teachers. Students can self -enrol, be enrolled manually by their teacher or automatically by the admin.
• Courses are organised into categories. Physics, Chemistry and Biology courses might come under the Science category for instance.

Teachers, students and other Moodle users

• You don't enter Moodle with the "teacher" or "student" role.
• Everyone who logs into Moodle has no special privileges until they are allocated roles by the administrator according to their needs in individual courses or contexts.

Finding your way around

• A logged in user can access areas of Moodle such as their courses or profile from the Navigation block and Settings block. What a user sees in these blocks depends on their role and any privileges granted them by the administrator.
• Each user has their own customisable page, accessed from the Myhome link.

See also

• Structural overview slide show by Mark Drechsler