Preparing to Build an Exemplary Moodle Course

So, you would like to build a great Moodle course? Or maybe improve the one you have? You've come to the right place. We want to help you take full advantage of all that Moodle has to offer, while creating more engaging and user-friendly experiences for your learners. At the same time, we want to make sure that you're not working harder than you need to be. We'll help you avoid doing things the hard way and focus your efforts so you're spending time where it will have the most impact.

Before going any further, please keep in mind that the main goal of this book is to help you incorporate instructional design principles in your Moodle courses. This is not a Moodle cookbook, or one that includes exhaustive step-by-step instructions.

I'd like to take a moment to point out that this book is using the Boost theme, which is the default for Moodle 3.5. If you're using MoodleCloud, you'll probably using the Moodlecloud theme, which is very different. It's more related to the Clean theme of Moodle 3.x and beyond. So, a word of warning. The Moodlecloud theme is very different from Boost, and if you're seeking guidance with Clean, you may be frustrated. The capabilities are the same, but the appearance is very different.

Well-designed Moodle courses encompass much more than what happens in the course shell. The course design process begins with an optimally configured Moodle site and an understanding of the opportunities afforded by the Moodle platform.

In this chapter, we'll discuss the following:

• The advantages of Moodle from the perspective of a course designer
• Resources available to support you as you set up your Moodle site
• Site settings needed to implement the ideas presented later in the book