Getting started with Moodle

To make the most of this book, you'll need to have access in the role of a teacher (at a minimum). In this role, you'll have the ability to add and edit activities and resources so you can experiment with the ideas presented. Having site administrator permissions is helpful, but not required.

If you don't currently have access to a Moodle site, or lack course editing privileges, then you have several options. We can't describe every option in detail, but we can guide you towards the resources to assist you in filling in the gaps.

The first option is to outsource the setup and hosting of your Moodle site. If you don't have experience setting up and managing web servers but need your Moodle site to be available on the web, then this choice is probably the best for you. The Moodle Docs website offers a comprehensive discussion related to selecting hosting services at http://docs.moodle.org/en/Finding_and_Selecting_A_Web_Host. The best choice for you, as this page outlines, will depend on your level of experience in managing servers and with Moodle or other learning management systems. It's also necessary to weigh factors such as cost and the level of Moodle support you prefer. We recommend seeking out a Moodle Partner, as they are certified service providers with a high level of expertise and experience. In addition, each Moodle Partner contributes a percentage of their revenue to Moodle HQ that, in turn, is used to compensate the developers who bring Moodle to life.

The second option is to choose a cloud-based option, MoodleCloud, which is a very easy-to-use hosting option that was built by the people who developed Moodle. MoodleCloud is great if you're just getting started because you can have up to 50 participants (teachers and students), and you can set up as many individual courses as you'd like. It's a great "sandbox" where you can explore Moodle's wide array of resources and activities, and you can experiment with different patterns. You have up to 200 MB of storage, 50 users, and can have up to 10 webinar participants using BigBlueButton. The following screenshot shows you the menu you'll see as you sign up at the MoodleCloud website at https://moodlecloud.com:

The third option is to install your own Moodle site on either your own server or on a hosted platform. For complete instructions, Moodle Docs again has a great resource that can be found on the Installing Moodle page at http://docs.moodle.org/en/Installing_Moodle.

There are advantages and disadvantages to setting up and managing a site on your own, but doing so is a good fit for some. For example, the out-of-pocket cost will generally be less if you set up and manage your own site, but you may spend more time seeking out solutions on your own. You'll also likely have more freedom and flexibility when it comes to installing plugins or making code modifications, but even though it is a nice feature, you run the risk of doing it incorrectly. Another disadvantage of setting up and managing a site on your own is that you may be constrained by size. If your organization has a large number of courses, with a large number of users, it may be too time consuming to try to do everything on your own. Moodle updates and upgrades quite often, and plugins are also changed regularly. It is time-consuming enough to manage your courses and users without having to worry about Moodle updates and plugin upgrades.

If you're just looking to experiment with Moodle and don't need to make your site available to others, you might like the local install option. With the local installation, you basically set up a Moodle server on your personal computer. The advantage of this option is that you have a fully functioning Moodle site that you have complete control over. Furthermore, it's easy to set up and there's little risk of butchering your entire organization's courses and losing data if you wish to experiment. Further, if at some point you like what you've created, you can transfer individual courses or the site as a whole to a site hosted on the web.

The biggest downside to this arrangement is that since the site will not be publicly available, it'll be more difficult to share what you've done or involve others with testing.

For the local install, you can choose from Mac or Windows packages. The Windows package is available at http://download.moodle.org/windows/, and the Mac version can be found at http://download.moodle.org/macosx/. Regardless of which platform you use, you'll want to install the most recent stable version (that is, MOODLE_35_STABLE). The development version can be fun, but you're more likely to encounter bugs. The Linux version can be found at https://docs.moodle.org/35/en/Installing_Moodle

Finally, in addition to MoodleCloud, there are a number of free Moodle hosting options available. These often restrict you to a single course or limit administrator permissions, but can be a fine choice for someone who is getting started. Though in most cases you'll have less control than afforded by a local installation, these options do offer the advantage of allowing you to make your course available to others.

You can find the complete list of free Moodle hosting providers at http://docs.moodle.org/en/Free_Moodle.

Preparing your Moodle workspace

If you have just established your first Moodle site, then there are a few things you'll need to prepare for the activities in the coming chapters. If you are working with an existing Moodle site, you may want to review the information presented here just to make sure you have everything you need to follow along. If you are a teacher and unable to create additional accounts, never fear, as Moodle offers the Switch role to... feature that allows you to view course activities from the student's perspective.

You will have to complete the following tasks:

1. Create at least two user accounts, one to be assigned the role of teacher and the other to be assigned the role of student
2. Create a new course shell for development and testing
3. Assign roles within the new course shell to the accounts created in the first step

Now, rather than repeating the detailed administrator documentation that abounds on the web and in print, we will just direct you to the appropriate option in the ADMINISTRATION block for each activity listed here. We will also provide links to related documentation. For a more in-depth discussion of these administrative tasks and others, we encourage you to invest in training designed for Moodle administrators.

Creating user accounts

To create your two user accounts, go to the Site administration menu, which is on the left-hand side of the screen by default, and click on Add a new user after navigating to Users | Accounts. Then, enter the required information for the new user account and click on Create user. The following screenshot shows the navigation bar in the middle of the screen. Again, I'm using the Boost theme, but you may notice that instead of a bright orange font, it's a deep purple.

I customized the color of the font for readability in this book:

You can find documentation for this at https://docs.moodle.org/en/Add_a_new_user, or if in doubt, accepting the default setting is acceptable too.

Creating a new course shell

Now, let's create a course shell so that our new users can participate in a course by performing the following steps:

1. Go to the Site Administration
2. Click on Courses
3. Click on Manage courses and categories
4. Click on the Create new course button
5. Enter the required information for your new course
6. Click on Save changes

After you create a new course, your course will appear in the list of courses in the menu, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

We'll revisit many of the course settings as we begin to work on the design of your course, but if you'd like more information in the meantime, you can find it at http://docs.moodle.org/26/en/Course_settings. The following screenshot shows you how to add a new course:

Assigning course roles

When you've finished creating your course shell, you'll be prompted to enroll users in the course. Go to your course block, then go to Participants, and then click on Enrol users. To assign course roles, perform the following steps:

1. To add or enroll your teacher account, click on the Enrol users button
2. Choose Teacher from the list of roles at the top of the screen
3. Click on the Enrol button to the right of your teacher account to complete the process

4. Click on Finish enrolling users to close the window. Repeat the process for your student account with the role set to Student: