Moodle - Setup

Hightower · 05-01-2009, 10:18 AM

Happy new year all and welcome back to work (those unlucky enough to be at work!).

I have a nice shiny Moodle install on a testing server as I am in the process of trying to show the difference between this and Sharepoint. It's working very nicely with LDAP (and EduGeek theme of course), but now I'm stumped and not sure what to do.

It is literally sat at the default with no modifications and I'm just not sure where to start to get it looking like a schools VLE - it's all a bit daunting since I am myself used to Sharepoint.

Can anybody give any hints of the first things to do, how to do them, what extra features might be best for secondary education VLE etc etc.

secretlife · 05-01-2009, 06:56 PM

Go to site admin>front page>front page settings and tick add topic section. Then go back to the front page and turn on the editing and you could (just a suggestion) in the topic section you've just made, click on the hand/pen/paper icon and you'll get to an html editor where you could upload and display an image with maybe a description of the school. Other useful tool is to go to add block and select html block which lets you add text/code/images/hyperlinks of your choice. YOu can have a few either side of the main central block. There are other blocks too you could add- just, I wouldn't personally have the 'online users block' as it's similar to a visible stat counter on a website; not so much who's online but who ISN't online

Did you mean appearance or were you thinking courses?

gaz350 · 05-01-2009, 07:40 PM

nice example Moodle (Newbury College Student Intranet)
(btw you can get their themes from moodle themes database)

beeswax · 06-01-2009, 06:22 AM

if you want to display some examples of what can be done in Moodle, there's a demo site here Moodle Demonstration Site which is interactive and you can download the course and upload it to your own moodle site for staff to play with. Our school moodle is here, but I don't allow guest access. PM me if you, or staff want to look round.

Hightower · 06-01-2009, 10:56 AM

It's more the appearance of the site - I want something attractive that has an area for news and announcements.

Moodle (Newbury College Student Intranet)

This link is fantastic and would love my site to look similar.

beeswax · 06-01-2009, 11:31 AM

try this link then - Moodle.org: Themes There are a few themes in there which may take your fancy.

Hightower · 06-01-2009, 11:44 AM

It's not so much the theme of the site though - I'm more looking at what sections I need to insert where in order to get a similar layout, with news, links to course etc etc.

I can worry about the theme latere - it's just I'm not used to Moodle and not sure how to add a section that allows news, or how to add a section that can act as the school diary etc.

Hightower · 06-01-2009, 01:19 PM

As an example, I'm logged on as myself to my testing server (which is administrator) and am adding some site news, but as soon as I log on as a pupil it says "No site news added yet".

I know this will be a simple solution to all you Moodle users but I can't see why this is happening

beeswax · 06-01-2009, 01:27 PM

I suggest you go to the Moodle demonstration site (see above link) and download the course and upload it to your Moodle site. Then with Editing switched on you can see how things are put together. For more detailed instruction try these Human Moodle tutorials (2 Minute Moodles) walkthroughs.

Hightower · 06-01-2009, 02:24 PM

Another thing I need help with is disabling the 'hide block' function. Users have the option to minimise a block - I don't want them to have this option, is this possible?

Hightower · 06-01-2009, 02:26 PM

Scratch that - literally found the option the second I posted.

gaz350 · 06-01-2009, 03:18 PM

hey Hightower,

have you hidden the news forum on the front page? (you can edit the name of the news forum aslong as it stays as ID 0 and the name of the news section will also change from site news to say moodle news or what ever you changed it to)

we use 'Courses' to build up content on our VLE.
for example we have a course called 'Photo Gallaries'. this course holds, you guessed it lots of photo galleries powered by the lightroom gallery mod

Any public files you can store these in the site files and then link to these.

'Student Council' is another course and we have created a special 'student council role' which gives a couple of the very trusted members of the council ability to do what ever they want within the course.

Any areas/resources you want private, for example we have a staff area with policies etc is non enrollable but just incase also has a key. we also have a staff training course that is setup as a meta course of the staff area so that all enrollments are shared.

????: EduGeek.net Forums http://www.edugeek.net/forums/virtual-learning-platforms/28479-moodle-setup.html
If your going down the route of the look and feel of the newbury theme, then its just a case of making sure your content is linked to in your theme (all the sub menus etc)

Gatt · 06-01-2009, 04:21 PM

Just starting to look at this now - literaly only just installed it and linked it to AD and not got a clue what to do next...

secretlife · 06-01-2009, 05:16 PM

As an example, I'm logged on as myself to my testing server (which is administrator) and am adding some site news, but as soon as I log on as a pupil it says "No site news added yet".
To get this to work you have to set the default front page role to student (site admin>front page>settings

danIT · 06-01-2009, 06:25 PM

May i suggest that if you have recently setup Moodle, which reading your posts it looks like you have, your default role for 'all logged on users' will be Authenticated Users. This is the default setting and works quite well as it allows you to have a specific user of the front page who has different permissions that the 'Student' role on the front page.

I like to keep the Student and Teacher roles as Course specific and use the Authenticated User role for Front Page, Blogs, etc....

Personal preference i supposse.....

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05-01-2009, 10:18 AM	#1
Hightower Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Cloud 9 Posts: 1,356 Thanks: 123 Thanked 57 Times in 46 Posts Rep Power: 20	Moodle - Setup Happy new year all and welcome back to work (those unlucky enough to be at work!). I have a nice shiny Moodle install on a testing server as I am in the process of trying to show the difference between this and Sharepoint. It's working very nicely with LDAP (and EduGeek theme of course), but now I'm stumped and not sure what to do. It is literally sat at the default with no modifications and I'm just not sure where to start to get it looking like a schools VLE - it's all a bit daunting since I am myself used to Sharepoint. Can anybody give any hints of the first things to do, how to do them, what extra features might be best for secondary education VLE etc etc.

05-01-2009, 06:56 PM	#2
secretlife Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Preston Posts: 124 Thanks: 4 Thanked 23 Times in 20 Posts Rep Power: 7	hi there Go to site admin>front page>front page settings and tick add topic section. Then go back to the front page and turn on the editing and you could (just a suggestion) in the topic section you've just made, click on the hand/pen/paper icon and you'll get to an html editor where you could upload and display an image with maybe a description of the school. Other useful tool is to go to add block and select html block which lets you add text/code/images/hyperlinks of your choice. YOu can have a few either side of the main central block. There are other blocks too you could add- just, I wouldn't personally have the 'online users block' as it's similar to a visible stat counter on a website; not so much who's online but who ISN't online Did you mean appearance or were you thinking courses?

06-01-2009, 06:22 AM	#4
beeswax Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Lancs Posts: 1,669 Thanks: 82 Thanked 84 Times in 60 Posts Rep Power: 30	Instant content if you want to display some examples of what can be done in Moodle, there's a demo site here Moodle Demonstration Site which is interactive and you can download the course and upload it to your own moodle site for staff to play with. Our school moodle is here, but I don't allow guest access. PM me if you, or staff want to look round.

06-01-2009, 11:31 AM	#6
beeswax Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Lancs Posts: 1,669 Thanks: 82 Thanked 84 Times in 60 Posts Rep Power: 30	Moodle Themes try this link then - Moodle.org: Themes There are a few themes in there which may take your fancy.

		EduGeek.net Forums > Technical > Virtual Learning Platforms
Moodle - Setup

05-01-2009, 07:40 PM	#3
gaz350 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Rutland, east.leicestershire :P Posts: 380 Thanks: 24 Thanked 20 Times in 17 Posts Rep Power: 8	nice example Moodle (Newbury College Student Intranet) (btw you can get their themes from moodle themes database)

06-01-2009, 10:56 AM	#5
Hightower Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Cloud 9 Posts: 1,356 Thanks: 123 Thanked 57 Times in 46 Posts Rep Power: 20	It's more the appearance of the site - I want something attractive that has an area for news and announcements. Moodle (Newbury College Student Intranet) This link is fantastic and would love my site to look similar.

06-01-2009, 11:44 AM	#7
Hightower Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Cloud 9 Posts: 1,356 Thanks: 123 Thanked 57 Times in 46 Posts Rep Power: 20	It's not so much the theme of the site though - I'm more looking at what sections I need to insert where in order to get a similar layout, with news, links to course etc etc. I can worry about the theme latere - it's just I'm not used to Moodle and not sure how to add a section that allows news, or how to add a section that can act as the school diary etc.

06-01-2009, 01:19 PM	#8
Hightower Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Cloud 9 Posts: 1,356 Thanks: 123 Thanked 57 Times in 46 Posts Rep Power: 20	As an example, I'm logged on as myself to my testing server (which is administrator) and am adding some site news, but as soon as I log on as a pupil it says "No site news added yet". I know this will be a simple solution to all you Moodle users but I can't see why this is happening

06-01-2009, 01:27 PM	#9
beeswax Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Lancs Posts: 1,669 Thanks: 82 Thanked 84 Times in 60 Posts Rep Power: 30	I suggest you go to the Moodle demonstration site (see above link) and download the course and upload it to your Moodle site. Then with Editing switched on you can see how things are put together. For more detailed instruction try these Human Moodle tutorials (2 Minute Moodles) walkthroughs.

06-01-2009, 02:24 PM	#10
Hightower Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Cloud 9 Posts: 1,356 Thanks: 123 Thanked 57 Times in 46 Posts Rep Power: 20	Another thing I need help with is disabling the 'hide block' function. Users have the option to minimise a block - I don't want them to have this option, is this possible?

06-01-2009, 02:26 PM	#11
Hightower Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Cloud 9 Posts: 1,356 Thanks: 123 Thanked 57 Times in 46 Posts Rep Power: 20	Scratch that - literally found the option the second I posted.

06-01-2009, 03:18 PM	#12
gaz350 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Rutland, east.leicestershire :P Posts: 380 Thanks: 24 Thanked 20 Times in 17 Posts Rep Power: 8	hey Hightower, have you hidden the news forum on the front page? (you can edit the name of the news forum aslong as it stays as ID 0 and the name of the news section will also change from site news to say moodle news or what ever you changed it to) we use 'Courses' to build up content on our VLE. for example we have a course called 'Photo Gallaries'. this course holds, you guessed it lots of photo galleries powered by the lightroom gallery mod Any public files you can store these in the site files and then link to these. 'Student Council' is another course and we have created a special 'student council role' which gives a couple of the very trusted members of the council ability to do what ever they want within the course. Any areas/resources you want private, for example we have a staff area with policies etc is non enrollable but just incase also has a key. we also have a staff training course that is setup as a meta course of the staff area so that all enrollments are shared. ????: EduGeek.net Forums http://www.edugeek.net/forums/virtual-learning-platforms/28479-moodle-setup.html If your going down the route of the look and feel of the newbury theme, then its just a case of making sure your content is linked to in your theme (all the sub menus etc) Last edited by gaz350; 06-01-2009 at 03:30 PM..

06-01-2009, 04:21 PM	#13
Gatt Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,977 Thanks: 176 Thanked 93 Times in 71 Posts Rep Power: 42	Just starting to look at this now - literaly only just installed it and linked it to AD and not got a clue what to do next...

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06-01-2009, 05:16 PM	#14
secretlife Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Preston Posts: 124 Thanks: 4 Thanked 23 Times in 20 Posts Rep Power: 7	As an example, I'm logged on as myself to my testing server (which is administrator) and am adding some site news, but as soon as I log on as a pupil it says "No site news added yet". To get this to work you have to set the default front page role to student (site admin>front page>settings

06-01-2009, 06:25 PM	#15
danIT Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: UK Posts: 762 Thanks: 27 Thanked 49 Times in 36 Posts Rep Power: 16	May i suggest that if you have recently setup Moodle, which reading your posts it looks like you have, your default role for 'all logged on users' will be Authenticated Users. This is the default setting and works quite well as it allows you to have a specific user of the front page who has different permissions that the 'Student' role on the front page. I like to keep the Student and Teacher roles as Course specific and use the Authenticated User role for Front Page, Blogs, etc.... Personal preference i supposse.....