Features

2008-11-25T22:13:32Z

Cgthomas:

{{Update}}{{About Moodle}}
Moodle is an active and evolving product. This page lists just some of the many features it contains:

== Overall design ==
Moodle's overall design:
* Promotes a social constructionist pedagogy (collaboration, activities, critical reflection, etc)
* Suitable for 100% online classes as well as supplementing face-to-face learning
* Simple, lightweight, efficient, compatible, low-tech browser interface
* Easy to install on almost any platform that supports PHP. Requires only one database (and can share it).
* Full database abstraction supports all major brands of database (except for initial table definition)
* Course listing shows descriptions for every course on the server, including accessibility to guests.
* Courses can be categorised and searched - one Moodle site can support thousands of courses
* Emphasis on strong security throughout. Forms are all checked, data validated, cookies encrypted etc
* Most text entry areas (resources, forum postings etc) can be edited using an embedded WYSIWYG HTML editor

== Site management ==

*Site is managed by an [[Administrator|administrator]] user
*Site is defined during setup. Defaults can be edited during setup or globally accepted
*Site can be modified by a robust [[Site administration block]].
* Plug-in [[Themes|"themes"]] allow the administrator to customize the site colors, fonts, layout etc to suit local needs
* Plug-in [[:Category:Contributed code|activity modules]] can be added to existing Moodle installations
* 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].
* The code is clearly-written PHP under a GPL license - easy to modify to suit your needs

== User management ==
===Overview===
* Goals are to reduce admin involvement to a minimum, while retaining high security
* Supports a range of authentication mechanisms through plug-in authentication modules, allowing easy integration with existing systems.
* Standard email method: students can create their own login accounts. Email addresses are verified by confirmation.
* LDAP method: account logins can be checked against an LDAP server. Admin can specify which fields to use.
* IMAP, POP3, NNTP: account logins are checked against a mail or news server. SSL, certificates and TLS are supported.
* Students are encouraged to build an online profile including photos, description. Email addresses can be protected from display if required.
* 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)
* Every user can choose the language used for the Moodle interface (English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese etc)

===[[Enrollment_plugins|Enrolment]]===
* Teachers can add an "[[enrolment_key|enrolment key]]" to their courses to keep out non-students. They can give out this key face-to-face or via personal email etc
* Teachers can [[Students#Manual_enrol|enrol students manually]] if desired
* Teachers can [[Students#Manual_unenrol|unenrol students manually]] if desired, otherwise they are automatically unenrolled after a certain period of inactivity (set by the admin)
* [[External_database|External database]]: any database containing at least two fields can be used as an external authentication source.
* Each person requires only one account for the whole server - each account can have different access
* [[Metacourses|Meta courses]] can group together related courses so participants can interact with each other

===Roles ===
* Roles for specific participants can be defined for each course
* An admin account controls the creation of courses and creates teachers by assigning users to courses
* Course creators can create courses, teach in them, and assign others to teacher roles.
* Teachers are a role in a specific course.
* Non-editing teacher roles are available for adjuncts, and part-time tutors.

== Course management ==
===Overview===
* A full teacher has full control over all settings for a course, including restricting other teachers
* Choice of course formats such as by week, by topic or a discussion-focussed social format
* Course Themes. A course can have its own theme of colors and layout.
* Flexible array of course activities - Forums, Quizzes, Glossaries, Resources, Choices, Surveys, Assignments, Chats, Workshops
* Groups - teacher(s) and students can be placed in one or more groups
* Recent changes to the course since the last login can be displayed on the course home page - helps give sense of community
* Most text entry areas (resources, forum postings etc) can be edited using an embedded WYSIWYG HTML editor
* All grades for Forums, Quizzes and Assignments can be viewed on one page (and downloaded as a spreadsheet file)
* Full user logging and tracking - 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.
* Mail integration - copies of forum posts, teacher feedback etc can be mailed in HTML or plain text.
* Custom scales - teachers can define their own scales to be used for grading forums and assignments
* Courses can be packaged as a single zip file using the Backup function. These can be restored on any Moodle server.

=== Assignment Module ===

* Assignments can be specified with a due date and a maximum grade.
* Students can upload their assignments (any file format) to the server - they are date-stamped.
* Late assignments are allowed, but the amount of lateness is shown clearly to the teacher
* For each particular assignment, the whole class can be assessed (grade and comment) on one page in one form.
* Teacher feedback is appended to the assignment page for each student, and notification is mailed out.
* The teacher can choose to allow resubmission of assignments after grading (for regrading)
* Allowing resubmissions can allow the teacher to progress monitor student projects/assignments as they evolve.
* Advanced assignments can allow multiple files to be uploaded. This could keep together preplanning maps, outlines, research papers and presentations. (Not for beginners)

=== [[Chats|Chat Module]] ===

* Allows smooth, synchronous text interaction
* Includes profile pictures in the chat window
* Supports URLs, smilies, embedded HTML, images etc
* All sessions are logged for later viewing, and these can also be made available to students

=== Choice Module ===

* Like a poll. Can either be used to vote on something, or to get feedback from every student (eg research consent)
* Teacher sees intuitive table view of who chose what
* Students can optionally be allowed to see an up-to-date graph of results

=== Forum Module ===

* Different types of forums are available, such as teacher-only, course news, open-to-all, and one-thread-per-user.
* All postings have the authors photo attached.
* Discussions can be viewed nested, flat or threaded, oldest or newest first.
* Individual forums can be subscribed to by each person so that copies are forwarded via email, or the teacher can force subscription for all
* The teacher can choose not to allow replies (eg for an announcements-only forum)
* Discussion threads can be easily moved between forums by the teacher
* Attached images are shown inline
* If forum ratings are being used, these can be restricted to a range of dates
===Glossary Module===
*This is one of the modules that best illustrates the way that Moodle can fundamentally improve upon the experience of a traditional classroom
*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
*Allows participants to create and maintain a list of definitions, like a dictionary
*Student entries can be previewed by instructors before publishing
*Entries can be searched or browsed using alphabet, category, date, and author
*A glossary of terms can be easily referenced by students
*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
*Glossary items can be grouped in categories
*Participants can comment on glossary entries
*Entries can be rated using teacher-defined scales
*Glossaries can be easily exported and imported via xml
*Glossaries can be fully searched
*Glossaries can be viewed with different display formats

=== Lesson Module ===
*A lesson is a series of pages which can be presented in a linear fashion, like a slide show, or in a non-linear, branching manner, or in a combination of the two.
*Navigation through the lesson can be straight forward or complex, logical or random
*Pages can allow students choices through answers to teacher directed questions or descriptions
*Each choice can be associated with jumps that link to other tables
*Offers different scoring and grading potentials
*Interfaces with Grade and Glossary modules
*Lessons can build upon each other through conditional dependencies upon one another
*Question pages include Multiple choice, Multi-answer, T/F, numeric, short answer and essay.
*Pages can be imported either as questions in a variety of formats or from PowerPoints
*Student attempts, time limits, minimum score and retakes can be set.
*Page content is HTML compatible, with a full set of edit tools for the teacher
*Students may see progress bars, running score, reinforcement to student questions
*Password, start and end times, and other restrictions can be placed on students.

=== Quiz Module ===
* Teachers can define a database of questions for re-use in different quizzes
* Questions can be stored in categories for easy access, and these categories can be "published" to make them accessible from any course on the site.
* Quizzes are automatically graded, and can be re-graded if questions are modified
* Quizzes can have a limited time window outside of which they are not available
* At the teacher's option, quizzes can be attempted multiple times, and can show feedback and/or correct answers
* Quiz questions and quiz answers can be shuffled (randomised) to reduce cheating
* Questions allow HTML and images
* Questions can be imported from external text files
* Quizzes can be attempted multiple times, if desired
* Attempts can be cumulative, if desired, and finished over several sessions
* Multiple-choice questions supporting single or multiple answers
* Short Answer questions (words or phrases)
* True-False questions
* Matching questions
* Random questions
* Numerical questions (with allowable ranges)
* Embedded-answer questions (cloze style) with answers within passages of text
* Embedded descriptive text and graphics

=== Resource Module ===

* Supports display of any electronic content, Word, Powerpoint, Flash, Video, Sounds etc. that are stored locally, or remotely
* Files can be uploaded and managed (zipped, unzipped, renamed, moved, etc..) on the server
* Folders can be created and managed on the server and linked to
* Internal web pages (html formatted) can be created with WYSIWYG editor and linked to
* Internal text pages (no formatting) can be created and linked to
* External content on the web can be linked to or seamlessly included within the course interface.
* External web applications can be linked to with data passed to them
* Linked MP3 audio files will display with elegant flash player

=== Survey Module ===

* Built-in surveys (COLLES, ATTLS) have been proven as instruments for analysing online classes
* Online survey reports always available, including many graphs. Data is downloadable as an Excel spreadsheet or CSV text file.
* Survey interface prevents partly-finished surveys.
* Feedback is provided to the student of their results compared to the class averages

=== Wiki Module===
*Wiki is a web page that anyone can add to or edit
*It enables documents to be authored collectively and supports collaborative learning
*Old versions are not deleted and may be restored if required

=== Workshop Module ===

* Allows peer assessement of documents, and the teacher can manage and grade the assessment.
* Supports a wide range of possible grading scales
* Teacher can provide sample documents for students to practice grading
* Very flexible with many options.

[[es:Características]]
[[fr:Fonctionnalités]]
[[pt:Características do Moodle]]
[[de:Funktionalität]]

MoodleDocs - User contributions [en]

Features