Moodle Course Editing (staff/faculty)

Items covered in this article:

• Editing content
• Text editor
• Upload file using drag & drop, file picker
• Organizing the sections

Editing content

The Editing function within Moodle allows you to edit content and organize the units and activities within your course. To change or update your course you need to be in editing mode, which means you have to turn editing on.

Enter editing mode by either clicking the   button located in the upper right part of the screen, or click on Turn editing on under course administration in the Administration block on the left.

Edit Options

Once you have turned editing on, existing resources and activities display a dropdown menu with the following options:

Edit title

Clicking on the icon next to an activity or resource title allows you to edit the title without opening edit settings.

Question marks

 As you navigate around Moodle you will find question marks next to settings and other tools. Click on the question mark to find out more information.

Add an activity or resource

Clicking add an activity or resource opens this menu.  To see a description of an activity or resource, click on the radio button next to the activity or resource. Click Add at the bottom of the menu when you are ready to add the selected activity or resource to your course.

Note: Whenever you add a resource or activity to a section, it will appear at the bottom of the section block. To move it, grab the move icon  next to the item and move it to a new location in the course.

Text editor

The text editor has many icons to assist the user in entering content. Many of these icons and functions will be similar to using a word processor. The text editor is used to edit content in resources and activities.

Collapsing and expanding the editor

The editor first appears with just one row of buttons. Clicking the icon top left will expand it to three rows.

Collapsed view:

Expanded view:

Toolbar buttons

For those who are not familiar with the tool bar, here are the buttons as grouped in their rows.

Row 1

Row 2

Row 3

Insert table

When you click on the insert table button in the text editor, there will be a number of options to configure when creating a new table. There are at least four basic settings that you will want to consider when creating a table:

• Columns: The number of columns in the table
• Rows: The number of rows in the the table
• Cell padding: The space between the content in each table cell and the table cell border (try 4 if unsure).
• Border: The thickness of the border (try 1 is unsure). Borders are important in most tables.

General tab:

Upload file using drag & drop, file picker

Quick guide to uploading files

When you want to upload a file to a folder or upload a feedback file to an assignment or add an attachment to a forum post you have the option to use drag and drop or the File picker. On mobile devices, the only option is Choose. Usually the file is copied into Moodle from wherever you have chosen it (e.g., a repository or your computer).

For example, here is is what it looks like when you want to add a file to a folder.

If the file is accessible from your desktop, you can simply drag and drop it into the rectangular box. Then click save and display or save and return to course.

If you do not want to drag and drop a file you can open the File picker by clicking on the Add icon.

After clicking the Add button the File picker screen appears. There are a number of links listed down the side. These are links to Repositories that hold files you may want to use. The most common repositories in use are Server files and Private files, but there could be additional repositories depending on where in the course you are accessing the File picker. There is also an Upload a file link, which you would click on to upload a file located on your computer.

Server files: This takes you to other areas of Moodle where files have been uploaded and to which you have access. You will only see files and folders for the courses you have permission to access. To view a file, drill down through the file directory. When you are in your course and add a file, that file is added to the Server files repository.

Private files: This is a private file storage area for each user. You can upload files to your private files area from a link in your profile. You can then access those files from the Private files link in the File picker to use in your course. So you can add frequently used files to your Private files and then use them in more than one course in Moodle. 
Click on Manage my private files if you want to add, download, rename, move or delete a file.

After clicking Manage my private files you can hover the pointer over the file and choose an action from the menu.

Upload a file: This is where you click to upload files and folders from your computer. Browse to choose a file from your computer, then click Upload this file.

Once you have uploaded the file you still have to save it...so make sure you click on Save changes at the bottom of the window. If you have deleted a file, you must click Save changes to make the deletion permanent.

The File picker has two views for locating uploaded files: icons or list.

View as icon....This shows the files with their names as text:	View as list....This shows the files as icons with the name below:

 Editing or updating uploaded files: Clicking the name of an uploaded file opens a pop window that allows file details to be altered.

Creating an alias/shortcut: When an uploaded file (or a file from the Private files or other installed repository) is re-used elsewhere on Moodle, you have the option to make a copy (a new, unconnected version) or to create a shortcut or alias. If an alias is created, then when the original file is updated, it will change in all instances of the alias. So you might add a file called "course notes" to your private files, for example, and then add the file into a number of courses. When you make a change in the "course notes" file in your private files, this change will be reflected in all instances of the course notes.

An alias can be recognised by its thumbnail. See the difference in the screenshot below between the original file (left) and the alias (right):

NOTE: Before you add images or other media files to Moodle contact your instructional designer for advice. In some cases files should be uploaded to RRU's media server instead of Moodle. File size limits: 20MB per file.

Organizing the sections

In Edit mode, you can re-arrange the sequence of your course, resources and activities by using the move icon next to each item.

To begin, you need to be in Edit mode. Click Turn editing on.

Move an Activity or Resource within a section or to a new course section

Use the move tool to shift the activity or resource up or down within this section or to a different section in the course.

Move your mouse pointer over the move icon next to the item you want to move, the pointer changes into the move icon which you can use to drag the item to a new location.

Working with sections

Activities and resources are located in sections in your course. Course sections can be moved within the course...and when you move a section all of the content within it moves to the new location. Each course section has a default title, Unit 1, Unit 2, etc.; these titles can be renamed using the edit summary icon below the section name. The name of the section appears in the Course menu in the Navigation block.  When you move a section, the name changes to match the new destination. For example, if you move Unit 4 above Unit 2, Unit 4 will now be called Unit 2, Unit 2 becomes Unit 3, and Unit 3 becomes Unit 4, etc. Note: if you have renamed a section, the title will not change if it is moved to a new location in the course.

Sections can be hidden from view or highlighted using the icons to the far right of the section title.