A Moodle course is automatically created for every class offered through the Registrar’s Office. These course shells are created with default settings based on feedback from DePauw faculty members. This document will explain the more common settings available to customize your course.

To Manage Course Settings

1. Click Edit settings in the Course Administration block.
2. For General
   1. Full name, Short name, Course category, Visible, Course start date, Course ID number – Information regarding your course received from the Registrar’s database.
   2. The default for Visible is Hide. Be sure that Show is selected next to Visible for students to see the course when you are ready.
3. For Description
   1. Course summary – You can add a summary or brief description of the course.
   2. Course summary files – You can add files to the summary.
4. For Course Format
   1. Format – Topics format is the default setting.
      1. Topics format – gives you a course with content areas that allow you to organize your materials without the constraint of a time table.
      2. Weekly format – allows you to organize your materials into predefined weekly sections with Week 1 automatically being set to the first day of classes.
      3. Single activity format – enables you to display a single resource on the course page.
         
      4. Social format – displays a forum on the course page.
         
   2. Hidden Sections – You have two (2) options
      1. Hidden sections are shown in collapsed form.
      2. Hidden sections are completely invisible.
   3. Course layout – Show all sections on one page is the default setting.
      1. Show all sections on one page – Makes all topic sections appear on one scrollable page. Topic names in the Navigation block are not active links.
      2. Show one section per page – Makes each topic section appear on a separate page with forward/backward navigation. Topic names in the Navigation block are active links to their respective topic pages.
   4. Appearance
      1. Force theme – Enables you to change the look or theme of your course. The DePauw theme is the default. The number of themes for Moodle 2.7 is greatly reduced so that it can easily be used on mobile devices.
      2. Force Language – When you force a language for your course, the Moodle interface will be displayed in that particular language. This setting will override the preferred language of each participant. (Note: Some Modern Language faculty members allow their students to view their course in English for the first two weeks of class so they can get comfortable using Moodle before they force their students to view the course in another language.)
      3. New items to show – Select the number of new items to display in the Latest news block. If Zero items is selected then the Latest news block will not be displayed.
      4. Show gradebook to students – Allows you to determine if students have access to the Moodle gradebook.
      5. Show activity reports – Allows you to see the activity and contributions to the course made by each individual participant.
   5. Files and Uploads
      1. Default display options for files – Allows you to select the default display for new files added to the course.
         
      2. Maximum upload size – Allows you to select the maximum size of a file that can be uploaded to the course.
   6. Groups
      
      1. Group mode – Select the default grouping for each activity in the course. There are 3 options
         1. No groups – There are no sub groups, everyone is part of one big community.
         2. Separate groups – Each group member can only see their own group, others are invisible.
         3. Visible groups – Each group member works in their own group, but can also see other groups.
      2. Force group mode – If group mode is forced, then the course group mode is applied to every activity in the course.
      3. Default grouping – Is set to none.
      4. Click Save changes.
         

Updated: 11/15/2022