- Moodle 2.0 Course Conversion（Second Edition）
- Ian Wild
- 909字
- 2025-02-24 17:15:34
Time for action – configuring the Backyard Ballistics course
Let's start by creating my Backyard Ballistics course. I'm not too worried about fine tuning it now. I just want to get it started, we will fine tune the course later, once we've got the basics up and running:
- Type the course title next to Course full name,
Backyard Ballistics. - Enter the short name. This has to be completely unique (if there's another course with the same short name, Moodle will complain). I'm going to specify
MCC-BC. - Enter a summary using the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor. See how we can use formatting for the description, as you would with a word processor:
- Look for the Format setting (almost immediately under the Course summary editor). Click on the drop-down menu and select Topics format.
- Because we're just setting up the course, we don't want students enrolling yet so scroll down to the availability options. Click on the Availability drop-down list and select This course is not available to students.
- That's all we need to set up a basic course. So scroll to the bottom and click Save Changes.
If you've created this course from new you're now taken to the Enrolled users screen. We're not going to look at roles just yet, so for now go to your course's home page by clicking the button at the bottom of the screen containing your course's short name (now MCC-BC). If you were configuring an existing course, you'll be taken straight back to your course page anyway.
What just happened?
We created a new course and gave it a full name, short name, and summary. We also configured the course so that it is broken up into topics (the default on a new Moodle installation is weekly). We left everything else as the default so we can edit it later. You now have a course divided into 10 "topics" ready for you to add content.
However, not every course will neatly divide into 10 topics. So the next task is to make sure our course is structured correctly. We will do that in the next section.
But first, there are a few more things you should know about creating courses:
Let's look at these now.
Choosing an effective description for the course summary
The summary is displayed whenever your course is listed with other courses, so if you want your course to stand out, try to describe it in as brief and direct a way as possible. The summary is usually the first bit of your course that students come across before they enroll, so you want to use the summary to make your course as inviting as possible. Also, remember your target audience: if you are going to be using your Moodle course simply to support your classroom teaching then the summary is much less important than if you are wanting to attract the attention of prospective students or their parents.
Using the editor
It's important that we get used to using the editor because we are going to use it a lot. Most of the buttons are the same as you would find on any word processor, and as I'm assuming that you are fairly competent with a word processor, I'm not going to go through all of the "standard" formatting buttons (including inserting symbols and spell checking). Four of the "non-standard" buttons you will find useful are:
Another useful control (rather than button) is the resize editor control, found at the bottom-right corner of the editor:
Click on the corner of the editor with the mouse cursor and drag it to make the editor bigger or smaller.
Remember: you can only cut and paste text from other software programs into the editor. Don't try to cut and paste images. Images need to be copied to the computer that your Moodle is running on. We will be looking at uploading images in Chapter 4, Sound and Vision—Including Multimedia Content.
We will be looking at the rest of the "non-standard" buttons as and when we need them.
Getting help on Moodle settings
I deliberately skipped over a lot of options in the Course settings page, and will continue to do so as we work on setting up our courses. However, Moodle does a good job of helping you understand each individual setting. You can get help on any Moodle feature by clicking the question-mark icon nearby.
For example, here's what you would have seen if you'd clicked the ? next to Course short name:
Getting back to the Course settings screen
Remember nothing in Moodle is carved in stone. If you want to change settings for a course that's already created, you can return to it at any time. In the Course settings block on the left-hand side of the screen, while looking at the course, click on Edit settings. You'll then get back to the Course settings screen where you can change the title, description, and other settings.