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Moodle Baseline
- Sonja Grussendorf
- Athina Chatzigavriil (Unlicensed)
- Kris Roger
- Eoin Meade
The LSE Moodle Baseline sets out the expectations of what an effective and useful LSE Moodle Course should look like and suggests essential elements that all Moodle course designers should consider to use or add. This page is updated and/or added to regularly, e.g. when new accessibility tools are rolled out. |
Key to information panels:
Sections are topped by Guiding Questions in (blue) information panels with an (i) icon on the left hand side. |
Expanded (Sub) Sections are tailed by Accessibility pointers and/or key takeaways in (green) information panels with a tick icon on the left hand side. Together they form an executive summary. |
Keywords for each section are highlighted in (pink) information panels with a purple note icon on the left hand side. |
1. Arrangement
1.2 Be economical with your sections, name them clearly
Limit the number of sections to those absolutely necessary. Less is more.
Consider arranging you course thematically rather than chronologically. This can reduce the number of sections you need.
Group similar elements together, eg a section including activities (eg quizzes, hot questions, Q&A Forum), another for resources (reading list, lecture recording, links), another for communication and collaboration (seminar discussion Forums, Zooms)
Test-view your course arrangement on a smartphone or tablet, in different browsers and the app.
Do not overload the top (“General”) section (“Section 0”) with text or resources or activities or images. Keep it short.
It creates long scrolling = navigational bad practice
When using the Grid format, make sure that you select “Show one section per page” (see above) AND choose YES to Section 0 on its own page.
Screenshot of Grid Format Setting about Section 0consider using a book for general information
Put longer texts into pages
Keep section headers concise but informative.
Think carefully about the order of your sections. Your Moodle course would ideally reflect your teaching
many Moodle courses place assessment information and activities at the top, which marks assessment out as the most important aspect. Is this true of your teaching? Could information about assessment be more usefully collected in a book, which students can easily access without having to scroll past it?
Consider using your learning outcomes as a guide to structuring your course (see below).
2. Expectations
Give clear instructions on how learners are expected to use and engage with you and each other in Moodle.
3. Communication
Ensure effective and consistent online communication with and between students.
4. Inclusive Learning Design
5. Content for Engagement
6. Assessment through Moodle
7. Digital Capabilities, digital literacy & general web and tech savviness
The term Digital Literacy has been defined in the past as “the ability to find, evaluate, utilize, share, and create content using information technologies and the Internet.” (Jisc, 2013), but has since then be widened to emphasise the skills and attributes that a digitally literate person brings to a world in which the digital is everywhere. It is about understanding the digital world as much as it is about utilising it.
You have to do what is right in a virtual learning environment as much as you would in a physical learning environment.
These pages are created by the LSE Digital Education Team and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License CC BY-SA 4.0